During October 2003 plans for a proposed new £3 million stadium for Forest Green Rovers Football Club went on public view in Nailsworth Town Hall.

Tuesday 10th August 2004 saw planning permission granted which was subject to the section 106 agreements being signed.

On Monday 21st March 2005, all partners involved in the huge project had ironed out their differences along with all the legal matters, and the section 106 agreement was publicly signed allowing the building of the stadium to start.

Tuesday 3rd May 2005 saw work start on the site as a site entrance was prepared ready for the large machinery to get on site.

The new stadium was scheduled to be ready for the start of the 2006-7 season.

Fourteen months later the Stadium was built on time and the first ever match at the New Lawn on 12th July, 2006 was played against Swindon Town in a pre-season friendly.

The Official opening match for the New Lawn was played on 5th September 2006 against the England National Game XI, a match which saw Rovers win 1-0 thanks to a goal by Paul Stonehouse.

The impressive new stadium is housed on what was surplus playing field land at Nailsworth Primary School up the hill 200 yards above the former ground.

The new stadium.

Holding up to 5,147 fans, it has parking facilities to accomodate 260 cars as well as bays for 3 coaches. Also included in the stadium are facilities for a leisure club, with gym, spa and sauna, a large function room, Puplic house and fitness suite. It comprises of new main stand built together with the existing two stands taken from The Lawn and extended. A new open terrace runs along the fourth side. Visiting fans have allocated parking spaces near to the Nympsfield Road side of the ground with home fans parking on the opposite side - furthest from the road.

The site before the new stadium was built.

The New Lawn hosts Rovers v Sunderland.

The new stadium was the biggest investment in the clubs history.

Front elevation of the main stand.

Amongst those who launched the new plans were Rovers Marketing and Operations Manager Colin Peake, who commented at the time: "The club felt it would never get a new stadium unless all the community was behind it. Everybody has got together and regular meetings have taken place over the last 12 months. We have now all agreed we are at the point where the football club has to be the catalyst that drives this now to the end".

Stroud MP David Drew commented: "After a lot of hard work we have proposals which I hope are taken forward. Nailsworth is a community on the way up but we know that more resources need to be provided in Forest Green, We need to look at other things that can come on the back of the new stadium."

The scheme also includes facilities for replacement community playing space which is provided at The King George V playing field in Nailsworth. A new level surface which is suitable for another sports pitch will be provided next to the current football pitch which is located on the King George V field.

These new stadium proposals were generated by the Forest Green Regeneration Group, which consisted of:- Forest Green Rovers Football Club, Nailsworth Town Council, Stroud District Council, Gloucestershire County Council, Local Education Authority and Nailsworth Primary School which aims to regenerate several areas of the Nailsworth region.

More detailed plans for the new football stadium for Forest Green Rovers are available online. They are in .jpg format and should be downloadable by everyone. Please note due to the detail on these drawings, a high resolution is needed so the files sizes are quite high and will take a while to download, unless you are using broadband.

Please note that for the .pdf file you will need an Acrobat reader, which can be downloaded from Adobe by clicking on the yellow 'get acrobar reader' button.

Download: OVERALL STAND.JPG (492 KB)

Download: FRONT ELEVATION.JPG (671 KB)

Download: EAST STAND FLOOR PLANS.JPG ( 1.09 MB )

Download: MAIN SITE PLAN.JPG (584 KB )

Download: SITE PLAN.PDF (893 KB ) Nov. 2003   

Latest photographs of site: Site Photos