Wall’s Club, home of Barnwood United and City of Gloucestershire WFC, yesterday announced it’s closure which will take place on Sunday 31st March. This will leave the two clubs without a home for the remainder of the season.
The venue released a statement Wednesday morning on their social media and website which read:
It is with deep sadness that we announce today that the Walls Club will close its doors for the final time on Sunday 31st March 2024 after providing a huge range of social events and sporting facilities for the employees of Walls Factory and the people of Gloucester for over 60 years.
“During this time, the Walls Club has become a Gloucester institution, known, and used by so many who enjoyed the family friendly atmosphere, fantastic customer service and value for money facilities it has provided. Our aim as a business has always been to provide an affordable and accessible community facility aiming to provide great products and services that delivers value for money while assisting local people, businesses and charities.”
This morning @InfoWalls has announced it’s closure from 31 March, news that will impact @BarnwoodUtd and @CityofGlosWFC
— Severn Sport (@SevernSport) February 28, 2024
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City of Gloucester Women play in the Gloucestershire County Women Football League, they’ll be needing to relocate to fulfil their remaining home fixtures past the 31st March.
Barnwood first team play in the Gloucestershire Northern Senior League Division Two and the Reserve side are in Division Three of the Stroud and District League, they will also need to find a new ground to fulfil the number of remaining home games left this season.
Barnwood United’s Chris Coward gave his thoughts on the disappointing news:
“We have a good relationship with the guys at Walls and we knew they were struggling financially, but we didn’t quite realise that it’d got to the extent that it had.”
“We’ve been playing at Walls club for four years now, we’ve got second generation players there, it’s a proper family feel. Their staff are great to us, they cannot do enough, so our first thoughts were with them because that’s their livelihood AUDIO!!!!!
“It’s still raw, the reality hasn’t completely hit yet, Even when we do get a new home, we won’t have that relationship, it’s sad.”
“The two main things for us as a football club is, strategically, our ambitions are up in the air a little bit, we know that these need to be reassessed. Our immediate priority is filling this season, there’s been a lot of contacting other clubs who’ve shown lots of support, we’ve got options, there’s been no closed doors towards us.”
“On the youth side we use the local school, so we’re not impacted there as we still have access.”
An ambition of Coward and Barnwood for next season was to set up a third team as they were expecting to keep a presence at Walls, “Over the last couple of years we’ve just had more and more players joining, we’ve got two teams of 16 and we quite often have to sit people out.” Due to the closure this isn’t something Barnwood can even consider.
Barnwood United currently sit 4th in the Gloucestershire Northern Senior League, when asked if the closure would put an end to the hopes of promotion, Coward explained that, “If anything it’s increased the appetite, and we’re absolutely, definitely still looking for promotion.”
