Finch Farm: Everton’s Training Ground & Fallout 4 Settlement

Finch Farm means two very different things depending on who you ask. Everton Football Club’s training complex in Halewood has been home to Premier League squads since 2007, while in the Commonwealth of Fallout 4, it appears as a scrappy family farm under a ruined highway. This article traces both stories—starting with a 56-acre site that spent decades as strawberry fields before becoming the “School of Science” that blues fans know today.

Year built: 2007 · Relocated to: 2007 · Size: 55 acres · Current tenant: Everton F.C. first team & academy · Fallout 4 settlement status: Potential settlement · Notable feature: Under elevated highway

The table below summarizes the key differences between the real-world training facility and its post-apocalyptic counterpart.

What’s special about Finch Farm?

Finch Farm holds a rare distinction: it exists in two completely different worlds. On one side, it’s a Premier League training ground where professional footballers sharpen their skills. On the other, it appears as a humble farmstead in a post-apocalyptic video game.

Dual identity: real-world training ground and Fallout 4 location

In Halewood, Merseyside, Finch Farm serves as Everton Football Club’s purpose-built training complex. The site sprawls across approximately 55 acres and houses both the men’s and women’s first teams alongside the youth academy (Wikipedia – Finch Farm). Everton signed a 50-year tenancy agreement for Finch Farm with ROM Capital, including an option for the club to purchase the site every five years.

Finch Farm as a sporting facility

The complex includes ten full-size grass pitches arranged on multiple plateaus, plus a synthetic all-weather surface. Inside the main building, players find a fitness centre, hydrotherapy pools, spa, sauna, physiotherapy rooms, a media centre, and video analysis suites (Wikipedia – Everton F.C.). The facility was designed by AFL Architects and built by John Turner Construction Group.

The implication: this shared-infrastructure approach influenced how subsequent Premier League training complexes were designed across the league.

When did Everton move to Finch Farm?

Everton’s first-team squad officially moved to Finch Farm on 9 October 2007, marking the formal transition from Bellefield to the new complex (Wikipedia – Everton F.C.). The club had trained at Bellefield in West Derby, Liverpool, from the mid-1960s until that date—approximately 41 years.

Move date and reasons

Planning work began around 2002, with Everton initially seeking land within Liverpool city limits before settling on greenbelt land on Finch Lane in Halewood (Wikipedia – Finch Farm). The club acquired the site in 2005–2006, then sold the land for approximately £2.1 million before having the complex developed to club specifications by ROM Capital.

Facilities built at the new site

On completion, Finch Farm was valued by ROM Capital at around £17 million, significantly increasing Everton’s operating costs compared with the old Bellefield facility. Liverpool City Council purchased Finch Farm from Hudson Capital Properties in May 2013 for approximately £12.9 million and leases it back to the club (Wikipedia – Finch Farm). In July 2016, the council announced about £4 million in improvement works for Finch Farm.

What this means: public subsidy of private sports infrastructure remains a point of contention, even when framed as economic development.

Do Everton still train at Finch Farm?

Yes. Everton continue to train at Finch Farm as of 2025, with both first-team and academy sessions held at the Halewood complex (Wikipedia – Everton F.C.). The facility remains central to the club’s daily operations despite ongoing plans for a new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock.

Current status of training ground use

Finch Farm operates year-round, supporting Everton’s men’s side, women’s team, and academy programme. The training complex was temporarily branded “USM Finch Farm” after USM Holdings secured naming-rights sponsorship in 2017–2018 (ToffeeWeb – Everton general information).

Future plans for a new stadium training complex

Everton have explored building a new training ground adjacent to the planned Bramley-Moore Dock stadium. However, these plans remain in development and Finch Farm continues to serve as the club’s primary training base. Football infrastructure commentators compare Finch Farm’s 55-acre footprint as smaller than some Premier League training grounds—Arsenal’s London Colney spans roughly 140 acres—but still above average in size and facilities (Jobs In Football – Training Grounds).

Is Finch Farm a good settlement in Fallout 4?

In Fallout 4, Finch Farm functions as a small agricultural settlement run by the Finch family, appearing in the Commonwealth and associated with the quest involving the family’s son and the Shishkebab weapon (Wikipedia – Fallout 4).

Advantages and disadvantages

Fallout 4 settlement guides recommend Finch Farm as a useful mid-game food hub because it starts with existing crops and can be quickly expanded for higher food production. The location offers water access and a buildable overpass tower for defensive positioning. However, some players find the location under the highway inconvenient for defense, and Fallout 4 building strategies stress balancing defense, food, and happiness by investing in turrets and guard posts due to its exposed rural location and vulnerability to raider attacks (Fallout Wiki – Finch Farm page, IGN – Settlements guide).

Comparison to other settlements

The settlement is available after completing the related quest. Many player guides advise establishing supply lines from Finch Farm to larger hub settlements such as Sanctuary Hills to share agricultural output while using surplus settlers for defense and scavenging (PC Gamer – Settlement building guide).

The catch: players who skip early defensive investment at Finch Farm often lose crops and settlers to raider attacks, making initial turret placement critical.

How to get to Finch Farm in Fallout 4 and complete the quest

Location on the map

Finch Farm is located east of Lexington, near the Massachusetts state border in the Commonwealth. The settlement sits under a ruined section of elevated highway, making it visually distinctive but potentially difficult to spot on initial exploration.

Walkthrough of the quest

The quest “The First Step” can lead the player to Finch Farm. Players must clear the area of raiders to claim the settlement. The related quest involves the Finch family’s son and the Shishkebab weapon, providing narrative context for the location. After clearing the hostiles, players can access the workbench and begin building.

1. Travel east from Lexington toward the Massachusetts state border.
2. Locate the elevated highway ruins—Finch Farm sits directly underneath.
3. Clear all hostile raiders from the area.
4. Speak with Finch family NPCs to progress the associated quest.
5. Access the workshop to begin settlement construction.

The history beneath the surface

Before Everton arrived, the land carried a different name entirely. Archaeological work prior to development recorded Finch Farm’s 19th-century agricultural history, including brick barns built in 1877 on the site of an earlier holding called Platt’s House (Oxford Archaeology evaluation report). Local recollections describe the site used for strawberry farming, with fields and ponds where Halewood residents worked and played before the area became Everton’s training base (Everton FC Heritage Society – Finch Farm visit).

“Then rated as the best in the country, and not in a million years did I think, while picking the fruit, that one day this would be exactly where the Blues would be training,” wrote Rob Sawyer of the Everton FC Heritage Society, capturing the striking transformation of the site.

The pattern: the site’s evolution from agricultural heritage to Premier League facility mirrors broader trends in English football’s infrastructure investment since the 2000s.

Confirmed and uncertain facts

• Everton F.C. moved to Finch Farm in 2007.
• Finch Farm features in Fallout 4 as a location and settlement.
• The facility includes multiple training pitches and a medical center.

What’s still unclear

• Exact date when the real-world Finch Farm site was originally developed before Everton’s construction
• Whether the new training ground at Bramley-Moore Dock will replace Finch Farm entirely
• Detailed lore of the Finch family before the Quincy Massacre in Fallout 4

Further significant increases in operating costs were also incurred in the year following the opening of the new Finch Farm training facility.

— Everton Football Club annual report (Financial Review)

“Then rated as the best in the country, and not in a million years did I think, while picking the fruit, that one day this would be exactly where the Blues would be training.”

— Rob Sawyer, Everton FC Heritage Society writer

For Everton supporters, Finch Farm represents a £17 million bet on the club’s future competitiveness—one that has produced Premier League footballers while generating ongoing debates about public subsidy for private sports infrastructure. For Fallout 4 players, the location offers practical food-production benefits alongside narrative depth from the Finch family’s story, though community-built wikis remain the primary source for in-game details.

Frequently asked questions