Brill’s new playgrounds

the playground committee ….

The Brill Playground Committee was formed in June 2020 at the request of Brill Parish Council. The Committee, made up of parents and a grandparent living in Brill, was charged with managing a project to replace Brill’s two playgrounds, both adjacent to the village playing fields. After getting feedback from local children, the Committee engaged with several playground design companies and, after much consideration, chose the designs from a company called Discovery Timber Play. Initially, a sum of £137,000 (exc VAT) was required - but this target increased as costs rose and we decided to replace the broken boundary fence. In the end, the Committee had to raise just over £146,000.

Infant Windmill Towers with slide and den. Note the rubbery safety surface surrounding this and other play equipment.

… and their incredible achievement!

The Committee worked incredibly hard to raise money, applying for local and national grants as well as fundraising in the local community. The target was reached, and after some time-consuming searching for a Deed of Ownership of the King George 5th Playing Field (required to secure the National Lottery grant), the build finally started. A few items of equipment were installed in March 2022 but most of the work was completed between September and November 2022.

Grants received

We gratefully acknowledge the generosity of the following organisations:

£81,000 from the National Lottery Fund
£23,360 from Boutell Bequest
£15,000 from Brill Parish Council
£10,000 from Haddenham and Waddesdon Community Fund

community involvement

In addition to the grants listed above, over £17,000 was raised through community fund-raising, and generous donations from local people and companies. Our fund-raising events will be remembered for a long time!

The Great Brill Village Yard Sale brought villagers out in droves in May 2021; all the more special because we were just emerging from the third Covid lockdown. The Sale raised over £2500.
The Grand Raffle of Summer 2021 with dozens of exciting prizes donated by Brill businesses and individuals raised £3000.
The fun-packed Race Night and Silent Auction of March 2022 that raised around £2800!

Graeme Hope, Playground Committee chair and browsers at the Great Brill Yard Sale

There were other initiatives, too; a stall at Brill Community Market, the Bernwode Bake-Off Competitions, a Treasure Hunt, Teddy Tombola, helping with the collection of Christmas trees (thanks to Brill Sports & Social Club), and the proceeds of opening Brill Windmill in August 2021 (thanks to The Brill Society). All helped boost our funds.

Donations from local businesses

Brill Stores, M&Y Media Ltd and Boarstall Meats each agreed to buy a picnic bench
Howe Farm Flowers gave us the proceeds of the ticket sales for a recent flower event
Victoria Timms of Brill Photography made donations from the sale of her 2021 and 2022 calendars

the verdict

The refurbished playgrounds have been met with great enthusiasm from children, parents and carers. Even though the work was completed in the depth of Winter 2022/23, children ask to visit the playgrounds after school and at weekends, and stay there significantly longer than previously. This was one of our aims: to get the children of Brill moving in a fun and safe environment!

Perhaps the biggest advantage has been felt by the older children with their brand-new Windmill Towers complete with slides, climbing wall, monkey bars and a fireman’s pole - and the wonderful 30 metre zip wire. We are also proud to have introduced accessible equipment in both areas, including a wheelchair-accessible roundabout and swing seat, a trampoline and sensory musical instruments.

Read more about the old (but retained because it’s so good) and brand new playground equipment and please do email the Playground Committee if you’d like to know more about this community project.

Playgrounds for Brill children

The search for the Deed of Ownership mentioned above involved reading back through nearly 100 years of parish council minutes. We were fascinated by the frequent references to the children’s play areas as successive generations worked hard to improve the facilities. We now know just how much time and effort has been put into the provision of fantastic play equipment for Brill children down the years. Many of these items have stood the test of time, if not physically then in people’s memories and affection. The present Playground Committee feel privileged to write the latest chapter in this story, bringing fun and excitement to a new generation of Brill children.

Thank you to everyone who played a part in bringing this most recent Brill Playground project to fruition - and special thanks to each and every member of the Playground Committee who worked their socks off to raise the money needed to bring about the amazing new playgrounds we see today.

Jo Hope, February 2023