The History of Mayfield Park

Phil Macefield's involvement with Drayton Grange Football Club started back in 1980 when he ran an under nine's team in which his sons Paul and Jamie played.

Phil remained actively involved with the team right through to their final season as under 18s, forming a successful partnership in this time with current secretary Paul White in thier running.

Phil's endeavours at Drayton Grange included the chairmanship of the six-a-side committee that saw the competition successfully grow and culminated in him serving as club chairman during the period 2001-2002.

Now secretary of the Mayfield Park Sports Club, Phil took time to explain the events and the road taken in the club obtaining thier current home at Mayfield Park.

He said: "My first involvement with Mayfield Park probably goes back to the days of British Timken, so to understand it, it is important to look at the history of the clubs involvement."

"Around 1992, we asked the then British Timken United Counties League side if we could mark out a junior pitch along side the senior pitch. They agreed as long as we looked after and maintained the pitch/ We also had to supply our own goals so one of our parents, who was a fitter in the Timken factoy, made up a set of goals from old water pipe from the factory - these goals are still in use at the college."

"Over the next few years we established ourselves at the Timken set up and when the factory and clubhouse closed, we were allowed to continue playing there. The Timken UCL side amalgamated with Fords Sport and this gave us a 'foot in the door' when Daventry District Councilwere looking for someone to go into partnership with Daventry Tigers Bowls Club - formally British Timken Bowls - in running the proposed new clubhouse that was to be built next to the existing bowling green."

"The council believed that the facility would be more viable if Drayton Grange,as an established local football club, became involved. Drayon Grange's delegation in those early days was Ken Barten, Marge Landridge, Paul White and myself [Phil Macefield]. For the next year I, along with bowls club representatives, was actively involved in the whole project. From the design of the clubhouse itself, to the layout of the whole facility, including football pitches."

"Over this period there were numerous design changes to the building. Some were forced on use due to financial constraints at Daventry District Council, who had originally agreed to provide funds over and above the £250,000 provided by Wilcon for the project. We finally agreed to go along wit the design that fitted into the finances that were available at the time, and so we ended up with the present clubhouse."

"The contract with DDC is such that the club is run by a management committee consisting of equal representatives from DGFC and Daventry Tigers. The constitution also states that the chairman's postion would be alternated between the two sections wach year. We would also only pay a 'peppercorn rent' because all profits would be fed back into the facility. All members of the committee are appointed by their respective clubs and are not elected."

"The constitution of the club is also written in such a way that no outside organisation is able to 'take-over' or influence policy decisions. When the clubhouse was handed over to us, it included probably the best football changing facilities in the town. However, the football pitch was far from satisfactory and it would take a campaign involving radio and newspapers over the next two years to force the people involved to provide a pitch suitable for playing football."

"It has been a long hard road towards achieving these facilities. We have seen the gradual development of residential estate. From being the only building in the vicinity, we have seen the houses slowly creep up on us, and we are now an established part of the estate who membership includes social members, who partly make up the clubs pool and skittles teams, as well as the large footbal and bowls membership."