Rothersthorpe Community Space - The Dickens Field Trust

Rothersthorpe is a small Northamptonshire village with no playground or community space.

There has never been a dedicated area and for some years children had to use the school playing field and and equipment however, due to health & safety constraints along with the tightening of education safeguarding rules the school had to erect a security fence in turn calling an end to a community open space.

5 years later we now have a field, thanks to the lovely Mrs JG & Mr PJ Dickens who gifted a piece of their land to the village for use as a community space.

To ensure its lasting legacy the Dickens Field Trust was formed as a charity (CIO) and independent custodian of the land to ensure correct management and future development for the benefit of the Rothersthorpe Community.

To have a space in the village for children to play and the community to enjoy would be amazing.

Please help us make a huge difference to a little village!

All support is welcome

Latest Updates

October 2022

We are open!!!

On Sunday 9th of October Mrs Dickens cut the ribbon and the first children were allowed into the play area. As there is minimal grass inside the playground at the moment (we were advised to spray it off to help with fitting the equipment) this may become a mud problem if we get a lot of rain. It is likely we will have to close the site at the end of Oct/early Nov for the winter. This will allow us to put the final surface on the path and re-seed the play area.

Rules for the site are displayed on the entrance. As per the majority vote on the community survey, dogs are not permitted into the site.

August 2022

Hi everyone, we hope you have been enjoying the weather. Sorry for the lack of project updates on this page in the last few weeks but there hasn't been too much to say.
As we know even the best made plans do not always turn out as we would like and although we had hoped that the play equipment would be in place during the school holidays this has unfortunately not happened.
The dry weather has meant that the ground is very hard and the installation team have been held up with other projects.
We are pleased to say that they will be on site from WK beginning 5th September and installation will take approximately 3 weeks.
In the meantime Julia Harris and Vanquish Design & Print have kindly helped us to prepare the signage for the site which is being printed ready for the grand opening.
We will also be finishing the internal path in the next week or so! Nearly there!!!

Indicative layout for childrens play area designed by Kompan. This design, based upon feedback from the village and Primary School has now been submitted to WNC for approval. We hope, we are reaching the end of our long journey to provide this facility for the village and further hope that it will be installed this summer!

Jodie's created a 'Goal Tracker' for our last big push to raise £15,000. Still working out where to put it in the village, but it'll be up in next day or 2.Anyone had any ideas on how they might raise a few £'s? Don't think anything's too small, every little bit helps to be able to get our play area built.Come on Rothersthorpe, we can do this!! https://www.justgiving.com/crowd.../playground4rothersthorpe

PATH PLAY AREAThings are happening in the Dickens Field!Big thankyou to Steven Dellar and Jeff Morphy who worked hard at the weekend creating the path that runs from the entrance on Banbury Lane to the new play area.It's really happening!

The Dickens Field Trust (CIO) Objectives:

The Dickens Field Trust (CIO) will establish and run a community facility incorporating a communal open space and a children's play area for the benefit of the inhabitants of the Parish of Rothersthorpe, Northamptonshire, without distinction of sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, nationality, race, political, or religious belief. The provision of facilities for recreation or other leisure time occupation of individuals who have need of such facilities by reason of their youth, age, infirmity, or disablement, financial hardship or social and economic circumstances or for the public at large in the interests of social welfare and with the objective of improving the conditions of life of the said inhabitants.