Hawkhurst Moor is a village green and sports field at

Hawkhurst Hawkhurst is village and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England. The village is located close to the border with East Sussex, around south-east of Royal Tunbridge Wells and within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Nat ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. It was the centre of the original village and lies to the south of the modern town, with the

A229 road A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

running across the area.Milton 1979, p. 7. A

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

ground on the Moor was the venue for two

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

matches in the 1820s. The Moor was originally an area of common land. The right to hold an annual fair was held on the green was established by a deed granted by

Edward II Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), also called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. The fourth son of Edward I, Edward became the heir apparent to t ...

in 1311, and a fair was held annually until the 19th century. A market was also held on the green until the 17th century and the area is used today for community events.Everleigh, p. 12.Everleigh, p. 10. The area is designated a conservation area, one of four in Hawkhurst.Neighbourhood Plan, p. 11. The village church, the ''Eight Bells''

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

, parish council office, a former brewery, the original Victorian village school, closed in 2003, and a former post office and stores building surround the village green area.Everleigh, p. 13.Eight Bells
Maidstone and Mid-Kent

Campaign for Real Ale The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) is an independent voluntary consumer organisation headquartered in St Albans, England, which promotes real ale, cider and perry and traditional British pubs and clubs. With just under 155,000 members, it is th ...

. Retrieved 2023-04-14. To the east, the King George V playing field was established in 1937 and is the modern sports ground.Milton 1992, pp. 22–23.

Cricket

The cricket ground, which was located on the village green, is first known to have been used in 1788 by Hawkhurst Cricket Club, although the club is known to have played cricket from 1727 and it is probable that this took place on the Moor. The club was considered one of the most influential in Kent at the beginning of the 19th century and challenged the County XI a number of times. During the 1820s the ground was the venue for a number of matches considered notable, and in 1825 and 1826 two matches which are now considered to hold first-class status were held there.Hawkhurst Moor, Hawkhurst
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-12-17. Both of these matches were organised by the Hawkhurst club and featured Kent sides playing against Sussex XIs. In each year Kent sides also played Sussex at the

Royal New Ground The Royal New Ground, also known as "Box's Ground", in Brighton, Sussex was a venue for first-class cricket matches from 1814 to 1847. Originally called "Brown's Ground" in the 18th century, it was located where Park Crescent, Brighton now stan ...

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

as part of the same arrangement.Carlaw, p. 38. These were the first inter-county matches played since the end of the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

. During the 1830s the ground was used for at least one match by the

Gentlemen of Kent Kent County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Kent. A club representing the county was first founded in 1842 but Ke ...

amateur side against

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

. The ground remained in use until 1927, although the buildings to the north of the green had to be shuttered during play due to the small size of the ground. The main road running to the east of the green became too busy and was widened, reducing the area usable for cricket.Milton 2020, p. 213. The cricket club moved to play on a local school playing field from 1928 to 1936, but returned to the Moor in 1937, using the newly opened King George V playing field across the main road from the original ground.

References

Bibliography

*Carlaw D (2020) ''Kent County Cricketers A to Z. Part One: 1806–1914'' (revised edition), pp. 8–12.
Available online
at the

Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in England in 1973 for the purpose of researching and collating information about the history and statistics of cricket. Originally called the Association of Cricket Stati ...

. Retrieved 2020-12-21.) *Everleigh N (1999) ''Hawkhurst Conservation Areas Appraisal''. Tunbridge Wells:

Tunbridge Wells Borough Council Tunbridge may refer to the following places: * Tunbridge, Illinois, United States * Tunbridge, North Dakota, see Locations in the United States with an English name#North Dakota * Tunbridge, Tasmania, Australia * Tunbridge, Vermont, United States ...

.
Available online
Retrieved 2024-04-14.) *''Neighbourhood Plan 2016—2033'', Hawkhurst Parish Council, 2020.
Available online
Retrieved 2024-04-14.) *Milton H (1979) Kent cricket grounds, in ''The Cricket Statistician'', no. 28, December 1979, pp. 2–10.

at

The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in England in 1973 for the purpose of researching and collating information about the history and statistics of cricket. Originally called the Association of Cricket Statis ...

. Retrieved 2023-04-14.) *Milton H (1992) ''Cricket Grounds of Kent''. Nottingham:

.
Available online
Retrieved 2022-04-04.) *Milton H (2020) ''Kent County Cricket Grounds''. Woking: Pitch Publishing. {{Hawkhurst Defunct cricket grounds in England Hawkhurst Cricket grounds in Kent Defunct sports venues in Kent Sports venues completed in 1825 1825 establishments in England