Overview

An ancient woodland known as Needwood forest, once part of the lands owned by the Berkeley family of Gloucestershire, had wild boar and fallow deer that roamed freely, where in the 13th century, a Thomas de Berkeley liked to hunt in the forest, and he had a hunting lodge built. He had married the daughter of the Earl of Derby in 1267. The lodge was a large 3 storey rather attractive house in its own way, and he named it as Byrkley Lodge. However, the family line, through the De Ferrers side, had to forfeit the estate to the crown, and the forest passed on to King Henry 4th. During the mid 1400’s King Edward 4th redeveloped the lodge, but still used it for hunting. In 1803 an act of parliament was passed that meant that Needwood Forest could now be deforested, and by 1851 it had become one of the highly cultivated areas around Burton on Trent, before it enclosed some 20 farms. The lodge was then passed in 1850 to the Bass family, where again the house was redeveloped in the 1870’s. Following the death of Sir William Bass in 1952 the estate was sold on, and so Byrkley lodge was demolished, and today, just 490 acres of woodland remain, some parts still open to the public. 330 acres of this land was now taken over by the FA (football association) who wanted a purpose built complex to be built solely for football, so in 2001 the land was bought from the forte Hotel group for some £2 million pounds. Following a number of years of indecisions, in 2006 the FA decided to wait until a decision was made on how to proceed. By now the football pitches had been laid although construction of outbuildings and dressing rooms had not even started. Finally, under the leadership of the world famous footballer, Trevor Brooking, the project was approved the go ahead. The centre has 12 training pitches , grass and artificial surfaces, one being a full sized indoor pitch, and it has fantastic facilities, which was finally completed in 2012, and opened by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on 9th October 2012. It acts as the main training for the FA,s coaching and players development for all 28 of Englands national teams, both men and women, including the disabled teams. OUR REVIEW After coming off the A38, it was quite a long drive through countryside which caused a little concern for we began to feel we had entered the wrong SAT NAV directions, which were DE13 9PD, (and having passed a sign at an island for St George’s Park, which we ignored and continued to follow the SAT NAV for quite some more miles) guessing that sign had been for coaches ect, as country lanes were narrow at some points, a much nicer drive for cars, so suggest you follow SAT NAV as well. Eventually we arrived at the gate for St George’s Park (photo 1) and then drove along a parkland driveway (photo 2) before passing an unusual breed of cattle (photo 3) These are White Park cattle, and you will see they are mainly white animals, with black points on their muzzle, ears, eye trims and feet, with large long wide-spreading horns. They had a number of young calf’s on our visit in May, and quite interesting to watch this rare breed, which apparently were bred especially for park lands with enclosed pastures. Then we passed by the first area of training pitches (photo 4) which as expected were well maintained and in excellent condition (photo 5) before finally rounding a bend that led towards a car park (photo 6) but this is the overflow car park, so ignore this parking and continue ahead to reach the hotels main car park (photo 7) and quite a lot of disabled bays (photo 8) which will allow your carer to push you along the level paths to reach front entrance (photo 9) with an automatic push button to let you enter the hotel (it does work, but press the button to one side of the button) Once inside hotel, you will see it has a large wide open reception foyer with reception desk ahead of you (photo 10). On this review, we concentrate on the training facilities for the hotel, so over to the left you will find the Health club and Spa double door entrance (photo 11) which straight away encourages a fitness test, as it was rather a heavy fire door type, and my husband found it difficult to open, so had to get out of chair and struggle to get in ) which led towards the reception desk, with plenty of chocolate offerings tempting you before you even start any training (photo 12) The gym however had plenty on offer, all very modern and well maintained (photos 13th and 14) before another door led out (15) and along a corridor (16) to the large well used indoor swimming pool (photo 17).

Transport & Parking

After coming off the A38, we drove for miles through countryside, getting worried we may have perhaps put in the wrong SAT NAV directions, before finally arriving at the main gates entrance fo St George’s Park (photo 1) and followed a very long but pleasant driveway (photo 2)

Access

The main hotel entrance has a few disabled bays, quite close to the main door, although your carer will have to push you along to get to the doors, which has an automatic door to one side of the revolving main door. It is level to get to it, and thereafter, throughout the main hotel, it is all on the level for you, with lifts provided.

Toilets

(See part two review for toilets.)

Staff

We found reception desk staff and all others we met where very friendly and helpful

Photos