Local Schools officially open Hordle Walhampton's All-Weather Surface

Sport is a major part of Hordle Walhampton’s activities, and the new Astro pitch complements beautifully our already extensive sport facilities.

The new pitch has a size of 90m by 55m, which covers 16 tennis courts! The building started in October 2005 when Sway based firm Farwells Ltd, who did the ground work were rapidly interrupted by three weeks of torrential rains. They then passed it on to Nettons from Ringwood, who took care of the tarmac, before sport facilities specialist Blakedown added the all-weather surface in May last year. Nine months after the beginning of the building work, our ‘Astro-Turf’ was finally complete and started hosting many of our games including netball, hockey, football, tennis, athletics, cricket and rounders.

Nearly an year later, as an official opening, children from Year Three and Four from local schools William Gilpin and South Baddesley joined the Hordle Walhampton Junior School for a Mini-Olympics Tournament. The three schools constituted 10 country teams and competed in 10 events, including hockey, rugby, netball, and target shooting; the winning team was Germany but more importantly, everybody had a great time, and even the weather was generous as the Hordle Walhampton minibuses took the children back to their respective schools just on time before the clouds broke and flooded the pitch. Perfect timing!

June 2007