About Parkfield
one house, one community, united in bringing opportunity
Building Community, Nurturing Potential
People’s Parkfield is entrusted with the stewardship of Parkfield House and Gardens—a historic gem overlooking Paignton’s seafront.
People’s Parkfield is a Community Interest Company. This is a form of Social or, enabling people wishing to establish businesses which trade with a social purpose and/or to develop activities for the benefit of the community. Our aspiration is to do both.
Torbay Council granted People’s Parkfield a 40 year lease in August 2023 for the estate (excluding the My Place building), based on a competitive external tender process in 2022. We often describe ourselves as Caretakers of the Estate, with the ambition to enable community partners and organisations to deliver projects on the site for community benefit.
A Hub for Opportunity
We want Parkfield to live up to its potential as a community asset, supporting, delivering and providing our community with a wealth of opportunity, in particular young people, although our aspirations are intergenerational.
The main villa, stables and growing space of the Estate is currently home to a variety of Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations, who rent permanent office or work space in the building. For further detail on our delivery partners visit the residents page of our website.
The Ground Floor offers a number of multi use spaces that can be hired by our community partners, including space for meetings, training, activities and youth spaces. For further details of room rates please visit our Bookings page.
The Ground floor is also home to Torbay’s first Social Economy Hub. If you are interested in working in a collaborative and vibrant co-working space, please follow the link to our Social Enterprise page.
As we grow and develop, we will keep you updated with information on our What’s On page.
Behind Parkfield
For further information about the History of Parkfield House and Grounds our Friends of Group have lots of information to share, on their History of Parkfield Page.
If you’d like to see the people behind the CIC, please visit our Meet the Team section.
Meet our Centre Manager
Mark Turner
I am the fortunate person who gets to open up beautiful Parkfield House every morning and welcome the many organisations who use the Estate on a weekly basis.
My pathway to Parkfield has taken many twists and turns from teaching at various establishments, training sports coaches, to managing an Outdoor Education Centre. I’ve even had the pleasure of pushing a married couple off a cliff!
Before I got my first proper job, I played football which is where my habit of wearing shorts all year round was developed. I’m easy to identify during the winter months!
I look forward to welcoming more of our local community to Parkfield and doing what I can to make your experience here the best it can be.
Meet The Team
The Steering Group behind Peoples Parkfield
Laurence Walbrugh
I am a resident of Torbay, working as a project manager in the energy sector, and support People’s Parkfield CIC on the steering group, with a focus on writing funding bids. I enjoy running, and used to run past the Parkfield site weekly, without any idea of what was there… After curiosity got the better of me, I discovered People’s Parkfield and was impressed with their vision and potential. I took the opportunity to volunteer for the CIC and look forward to using my professional skills to contribute to their work to bring the site to life and support our local community.
Guy Henderson
Paignton born and bred, Guy is a news reporter and presenter at Radio Exe, covering councils and local government business across a large part of the county. He says: “Parkfield is a treasured part of my home town and I want to spread its remarkable story far and wide.”
Allen Johnson
Hi, I am Allen Johnson, a Director of People’s Parkfield CIC. As the current Chair of Preston Community Partnership, I helped form the group who successfully won the bid to run the Parkfield House and Grounds for the next 40 years. I am passionate about the Parkfield site, and my vision is to make it a local community space where everyone can come to enjoy and gain something special, especially children and young people.
Liz Muir
I am one of our Directors at People’s Parkfield, having supported the project since its inception in 2022. Liz grew up in Paignton and has many childhood memories surrounding the mysteries of what lay behind the walls of the Parkfield Estate. Liz is delighted to be supporting People’s Parkfield, as we develop the site to make it a thriving community asset in Torbay. Liz’s day job is with Torbay Communities as their Programme Development Manager.
Maria Goodwin
I am passionate about providing opportunities for the children and young people of Torbay that will raise their aspirations and improve their options in life. As the CEO of YMCA South Devon she knows that, as a community, we could so much more for our young people and believes that one of her main responsibilities on People’s Parkfield Steering Group is to ensure that children and young people are involved and at the forefront of all decision making.
Chris Gunson
I have been setting up and successfully running social enterprise businesses for over 20 years. As a Director and Co-founder of Local Spark: Torbay Community Supported Enterprise CIC, I have been helping social enterprises across Torbay, and collaborating to develop the ecosystem which supports them, for 6 years. My role on the Steering Group is to help it thrive and grow, thus enabling all the great activities which it hosts and supports. I am also focused on developing the Social Economy Hub and Co-working Centre at Parkfield House.
Emma Ellis
I have been supporting Peoples Parkfield CIC since August 2023. My interests have been around Policies and Procedures as well as general facilities management. My previous experience is in Charity management. Since 2015 I’ve had the pleasure of looking after a community centre in Torquay.
Andrew Shadrake
I have many years of experience advising community groups on legal forms for social enterprises, directors’ duties, and how to secure and manage money. I am a community shares licensed practitioner and former solicitor. As a Local Spark associate I provide pro bono support to Peoples Parkfield on legal issues and preparing management accounts. I also have extensive energy efficiency experience, leading on all things that will help to reduce Parkfield House’ carbon emissions and energy bills, while ensuring it is a comfortable place to work.
Join People’s Parkfield Community
Contact us today to learn more and take the first step towards joining our community.
