Lilleshall National Sports Centre
Project
Lilleshall National Sports Centre
Client
Sport England
Value
£2.6m
The Lilleshall estate in Shropshire was built as an abbey and was used as a private house from 1543 until just before the First World War when it was left to ruin. In 1951 Lilleshall was turned into a sports centre. In twenty-one years as a National Recreation Centre, the governing bodies of Cricket, Rugby League and Rugby Union, Lawn Tennis, Badminton, Hockey, Lacrosse, Netball, the Professional Golfing Association and Association Football all were based at the centre.
Now run by Leisure Connection on behalf of Sport England, Lilleshall is one of four National Sports Centres. Lilleshall houses the administrative headquarters for many leading British sporting associations including the Football Association’s Medical Education Centre, the Grand National Archery GB and British Gymnastics Association. The Centre is a British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences accredited laboratory and is staffed by fully qualified sports scientists who are specialists in exercise physiology and biomechanics. Lilleshall also offers residential accommodation, seminar and banqueting facilities.
As part of the Turner and Townsend project team John Packer Associates were responsible for preparation of mechanical and electrical services design brief for two projects for Sport England at Lilleshall; completed during 2009. The first project was the refurbishment of an existing indoor multipurpose training facility that will principally be used by Archery GB and included a new outdoor archery range (70m) with a covered technical area, and a refurbished indoor range (70m) with viewing area where state of the art high speed cameras will be used for expert analysis.
The second project was the construction of two new outdoor floodlit all weather multi purpose training pitches and pavilion facility. The first pitch for hockey is a ‘Polygrass Europa’ surface and is the only one of its kind outside of Asia, the same surface which was used at the Beijing Olympics. The second pitch is a ‘Tiger Turf’ surface for football and hockey and again is of a ‘World Class’ standard. Both pitches will be available to the local community, school/college and elite users.
Now run by Leisure Connection on behalf of Sport England, Lilleshall is one of four National Sports Centres. Lilleshall houses the administrative headquarters for many leading British sporting associations including the Football Association’s Medical Education Centre, the Grand National Archery GB and British Gymnastics Association. The Centre is a British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences accredited laboratory and is staffed by fully qualified sports scientists who are specialists in exercise physiology and biomechanics. Lilleshall also offers residential accommodation, seminar and banqueting facilities.
As part of the Turner and Townsend project team John Packer Associates were responsible for preparation of mechanical and electrical services design brief for two projects for Sport England at Lilleshall; completed during 2009. The first project was the refurbishment of an existing indoor multipurpose training facility that will principally be used by Archery GB and included a new outdoor archery range (70m) with a covered technical area, and a refurbished indoor range (70m) with viewing area where state of the art high speed cameras will be used for expert analysis.
The second project was the construction of two new outdoor floodlit all weather multi purpose training pitches and pavilion facility. The first pitch for hockey is a ‘Polygrass Europa’ surface and is the only one of its kind outside of Asia, the same surface which was used at the Beijing Olympics. The second pitch is a ‘Tiger Turf’ surface for football and hockey and again is of a ‘World Class’ standard. Both pitches will be available to the local community, school/college and elite users.