Butt Field has been used for many, many years as the town’s playing fields and home to Bingham Cricket Club & Bingham Town FC. Originally comprising of a wide open space with a cricket square it has seen its fair share of change over the decades. During the 1980’s a wood constructed Pavillion building was erected to serve as changing and lounge/kitchen facilities for the clubs at the time. This building was originally meant to be a temporary structure whilst funding was sought for a more permanent structure. During the same period tennis courts were built and for a number of years were used by Bingham Tennis Club until they moved away to better facilities in the mid 90’s.
Since 1999 it has been the aim of the sporting clubs and Town Council of Bingham to improve the facilities at Butt Field and following a number of false starts progress really started to be made in 2005. The building of hundreds of new homes in Bingham began in the 90’s and with that came a considerable increase in residents who wanted to take part in sporting activities. The builders of the new homes contributed to a community fund to help establish new community orientated facilities and this fund allowed the Town Council to begin reviewing plans from various community organisations. Steve McRobie and other members of Bingham Town Youth FC began a long lobbying process to demonstrate to the Town Council the much needed improvements to Butt Field. Following successful negotiations between Bingham Town Youth FC, Bingham Town Sports Club, Bingham Cricket Club, Bingham Town FC, WREN, Bingham Town Council and the Football Foundation, grant funding totaling £860,000 was awarded in June 2007. The bulk of the funding came from The Football Foundation and Bingham Town Council via their community fund.
Building work was heavily delayed due to significant contamination being discovered on the site, a left over of the Bingham Gas & Coke Works – this resulted in a number of careful tests and analysis being carried out before final plans were made to allow work to commence. Building work finally began in September 2008.
The new facilities comprise of three new full size football pitches, a dedicated training area and clubhouse comprising of six changing rooms, two officials rooms, social area, kitchen, treatment room, storage etc. The new facility opened during mid May 2009 and has been in constant use since. Our grand opening event was held on the 27th and 28th of June 2009, attracting over a thousand visitors keen to see the new facility and spectate on a fantastic Nottingham Forest Legends vs Bingham All Stars charity game. The opening ceremony was performed by Nigel Clough and the Rt. Hon. Kenneth Clarke MP with assistance from Bingham Town Mayor Maureen Stockwood and representatives of the sports clubs.