William helps village football club after Observer story on terrible state of access road
When Simon Taylor opened his emails on a Monday in October, he thought he might have been targeted by spammers. The project lead for Mousehole AFC, a small league team in Cornwall, had a message in his inbox purporting to be from the private secretary to the Prince of Wales.
A few days earlier, Taylor's colleagues had spoken to The Observer about their beloved football club, the most westerly team in the English leagues, and its battle against potholes, which plagued the road to its ground. It was so damaged that it was hindering the club’s ability to welcome fans, bring in away teams and make money. Coaches and cars were getting stuck, the village was clogged up by match day traffic and, crucially, the campsite that provides the club with its main source of funding couldn’t accept bookings from lucrative campervans. They badly needed financial help to fix it.
That help came in the form of Prince William, who had seen the article and whose team got in touch the next day. “I was absolutely certain it was a hoax at first,” says Taylor. “I was really reluctant to even open the email. But I called the number and a few days later I was on a teams call and then lots more meetings and site visits, and here we are. Prince William has stuck by his word to get a group of people together to make this happen and now we have diggers on site. It’s just incredible.
Breaking ground on the new road.
“We have an incredible group of people down here at the club, and we are so grateful The Observer told our story.”
The club had already been given land that bypasses the neighbouring village of Paul next to the ground, Trungle Parc, and connects it directly to the main road. It had also secured planning permission for a new road but it didn’t have the money to build it.
Prince William and the Duchy of Cornwall have now coordinated a team of local businesses that have agreed to donate their time, resources and materials to make it happen at no cost to the club. Construction work began this week, with diggers and dumper trucks already on site preparing the ground.
“We are absolutely bubbling here. It means so much to us, it’s just wonderful,” says Brian Richardson, 78, vice-president of Mousehole and a lifelong supporter. “This is going to make such a difference, not just to the football club, but the whole community.”
It is a privilege to be able to help the local community access Mousehole AFC
Prince William
The work will create new car parking, which means the club can offer more sporting, social, and cultural events for the community, as well as allowing them to welcome those much-needed campervans. It will also help the team as they continue their unlikely rise through the leagues.
The village is only home to about 500 people, but the team is now playing in the Southern League Division One (seven divisions below the Premier League) against towns with populations 50 times their own. But every move up the leagues brings considerable additional costs.
Prince William during a visit to Dartmoor National Park last month.
“This project is transformative – not just for Mousehole AFC but for the entire area. The cricket club next door will also benefit from the new road. Most importantly, it will take match day and holiday traffic out of the village,” says Taylor.
William said: “I have seen time and time again that community hubs are essential in providing the spaces for people to come together, to build stronger communities and to allow people to thrive.
“It is a privilege to be able to help the local community access Mousehole AFC. I’d like to personally add my thanks for all the hard work that’s gone into making it happen. I look forward to seeing the new road for myself as soon as I can.”
Richardson said the club’s volunteers were already hard at work sprucing up the clubhouse for a potential royal visit.
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Photographs by Benjamin Gilbert, Chris Jackson/Getty, Oli Grove/GRS
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