Where We Play
Our pitches and facilities
The Club has a clubhouse at The Barons Park, Friedberg Avenue but does not have a single “home” ground. We play at eleven locations in and around Bishop’s Stortford, providing training facilities & football pitches for U7 & U8 (5v5), U9 & U10 (7v7), U11 & U12 (9v9), U13 & U14 (junior 11v11) and senior pitches with full sized goals from U15 upwards.
The venues used by the Club during the 2019-20 season are as follows:
- Birchwood High School, Parsonage Lane, CM23 5BD: Our primary training venue, which may be divided into quarters or thirds.
- The Barons Park, Friedberg Avenue, CM23 4RF: Clubhouse & cafe
- Grange Paddocks Leisure Centre, Rye Street, CM23 2HH
- Pearse House, Parsonage Lane, CM23 5BD (c/o Birchwood High School)
- Jobbers Wood, B1004 Great Hadham Road, SG10 6FB (c/o The Bishop’s Stortford High School): for EJA fixtures only.
- Barrels Down Road Park, Cricketfield Lane, CM23 2TD (c/o Bishop’s Stortford Cricket Club)
- Manuden Village Community Centre, David Collins Drive, Manuden, CM23 1EH
- Birchanger Sports & Social Club, 229 Birchanger Lane, CM23 5QJ
- Paringdon Sports & Social Club, Paringdon Road, Harlow, CM19 4QT
- ProKit UK Stadium, Woodside Park, CM23 5RG
- Hockerill Anglo-European College, CM23 5HX: additional training venue
The playing facilities available at each venue are as follows:
| Venue | Surface | Training | U7-U8 | U9-U10 | U11-U12 | U13-U14 | U15+ | |
| 5×5 | 7v7 | 9v9 | 11v11 | 11v11 | ||||
| Junior | Senior | |||||||
| Birchwood High School | 3G | In season | 4 | 1 | ||||
| Hockerill Anglo European College | Astro | In season | ||||||
| Barons Park, Friedberg Avenue | Grass | Pre-season | 2 | 2 | 1 | |||
| Grange Paddocks | Grass | Pre-season | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||
| Pearse House (Birchwood) | Grass | No | 2 | |||||
| Jobbers Wood (TBSHS) | Grass | No | 1 | |||||
| Cricketfield Lane (BSCC) | Grass | No | 1 | |||||
| Manuden Community Centre | Grass | No | 2 Astro | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Birchanger S&SC | Grass | No | 1 | |||||
| Paringdon S&SC | Grass | No | 1 | 1 | ||||
| ProKit UK Stadium | Grass | No | 1 | |||||
| Total | 11 | 10 | 6 | 7 | 11 | |||
Please contact the Club Fixtures Secretary in the first instance if you wish to use any of our venues outside of your regular training or matchday allocation. Do not simply turn up and use any of our venues without prior authorisation.
Working with local schools & clubs
We work closely with the local schools to provide football pitches. Our Schools Liaison Officer is Tim Moylette. The Club may take on some of the costs and responsibility for pitch maintenance and provision of goal posts and nets, which is of additional benefit to sport in the local schools. A set of goal posts and nets costs upwards of £1,500!
Pitch allocation
On a weekly basis our Fixtures Secretary, Alan Hazell, performs a miraculous juggling act allocating pitches for our home teams. The Fixtures Secretary has the ultimate say on who plays where & when. Pitches will usually be allocated at least 7 days in advance so that opposition & leagues may be informed of venues & kick-off times in good time. If a venue becomes unavailable for any reason managers will be notified no later than 9am on the day of the match. Managers may exercise their right to cancel a match if they feel that the venue is unsuitable to play.
Pitch location maps
For each of our playing locations there is a PDF which can be shared with parents and which should be sent to opposition managers and referees as an attachment to the fixture confirmation email.
The location maps for each of our venues is provided for download below.
Looking after our pitches
The large size of the Club means that we have almost 80 teams… and not enough pitches. Some of the pitches get heavy use throughout the winter and we need to look after them.
The rules:
- Club teams or opposition teams must NEVER warm up on the pitches.
- Post-match kickabouts must NEVER take place on the pitches or in the goals.
- Use areas around the pitches and behind the goals for warm-ups and inform opposition of these rules.
- Matches must NEVER take place on a pitch which is not fit for play. One game on a waterlogged pitch can ruin that pitch for several months ahead.
- All our venues are shared spaces. Please respect other users by vacating the pitch promptly, clearing up after your team and by leaving the area as you found it.
Please make sure that all parents obey the rules on:
- Parking only in marked bays
- No smoking or vaping
- No dogs at any of the schools
- Cleaning mud off boots before entering the clubhouse
3G Pitch at Birchwood High School
The Club worked closely with Birchwood High School to co-fund a full-size floodlit 3G training facility at the school, the only facility of its type in the town.
After years of work & planning the Club and the School raised a combined sum of around £650,000 through grants and fundraising which resulted in the facility you see today. It was formally opened by Bob Wilson in 2007 and the surface was replaced in time for the start of the 2018-19 season. It is used daily by the school, including the BSCFC Academy, and in the evening and at weekends by the Club and wider community.
Birchwood High School and the Club consider this collaboration to be a huge success.