Rectory Field is a sports ground in

Blackheath Blackheath may refer to: Places England *Blackheath, London, England ** Blackheath railway station **Hundred of Blackheath, Kent, an ancient hundred in the north west of the county of Kent, England *Blackheath, Surrey, England ** Hundred of Blackh ...

in the

Royal Borough of Greenwich The Royal Borough of Greenwich (, , or ) is a London borough in southeast Greater London. The London Borough of Greenwich was formed in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. The new borough covered the former area of the Metropolitan Borough ...

in south-east

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. It was developed in the 1880s by Blackheath Cricket, Football and Lawn Tennis Company and became the home ground of

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

team

Blackheath F.C. Blackheath Football Club is a rugby union club based in Well Hall, Eltham in south-east London. The club was founded in Blackheath, London, Blackheath in 1858, and is the fourth-oldest rugby club in continuous existence in the world, after Du ...

between 1883 and 2016.A brief history of the club
Blackheath Sports Club. Retrieved 2017-11-27. The ground has hosted international rugby matches and at one time, along with the

Richmond Athletic Ground Built in 1886, and located in London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, Richmond upon Thames, London, the Athletic Ground is a rugby ground, managed by Richmond Athletic Association, home to RFU Championship, Green King IPA Championship sides Rich ...

, it was the unofficial home of the

England national rugby union team The England national rugby union team represents England in men's international rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. England have won the championship on 29 occasion ...

before the development of

Twickenham Stadium Twickenham Stadium () in Twickenham, south-west London, England, is a rugby union stadium owned by the Rugby Football Union (RFU), English rugby union governing body, which has its headquarters there. The England national rugby union team play ...

. The ground was also used for first-class and

List A cricket List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

Kent County Cricket Club 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 ...

between 1887 and 1972. The field is named after the Charlton Rectory that once stood at the site. It is used today by Blackheath Sports Club for cricket, rugby, tennis and squash.Welcome to Rectory Field
Blackheath Sports Club. Retrieved 2016-08-30.
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', 2006-08-01. Retrieved 2016-08-30.

Location

Rectory Field is located east of Greenwich town centre, around north-east of the Sun in the Sands roundabout, the junction of the main A2 and A102. The main entrance to the ground is on the B212 Charlton Road with the A207 running to the south of the ground.Explorer Map 162 – Greenwich & Gravesend,

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, 2015-09-16.

Establishment and history

Located slightly away from the centre of Blackheath, Rectory Field is situated east of

Greenwich Park Greenwich Park is a former hunting park in Greenwich and one of the largest single green spaces in south-east London. One of the Royal Parks of London, and the first to be enclosed (in 1433), it covers , and is part of the Greenwich World Herita ...

. Before the adoption of the ground sport had been played on the Blackheath grounds, or Heath, for many years.

Blackheath Football Club Blackheath Football Club is a rugby union club based in Well Hall, Eltham in south-east London. The club was founded in Blackheath in 1858, and is the fourth-oldest rugby club in continuous existence in the world, after Dublin University Foot ...

played on the Heath from 1871, but as the popularity of the sport grew, games began attracting crowds. After a match with Richmond was abandoned in 1877 due to a pitch invasion the club adopted a proper, demarked ground. One of the club members, Maurice Henry Richardson, knew of a part of the heath that was owned by his father and the club rented this part of the park for their matches. This pitch become known as Richardson's Field, and this playing ground hosted several internationals, including the first rugby match between

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

1881 Events January–March * January 1– 24 – Siege of Geok Tepe: Russian troops under General Mikhail Skobelev defeat the Turkomans. * January 13 – War of the Pacific – Battle of San Juan and Chorrillos: The C ...

. Richardson's Field was bought for commercial use in 1882–83, and the team were forced to find a new ground. The club captain,

Lennard Stokes Dr. Lennard Stokes was a rugby union international who represented England from 1875 to 1881. He also captained his country on five occasions, notably in the first ever match against Wales. Like his brother Frederick Stokes, after captaining h ...

located a new ground for the club, just east of the old Richardson Field on the Charlton Road. This location was a plot which would become the Rectory Field. Cricket was first played on the ground in 1886 after Blackheath Cricket Club secretary

Montague Druitt Montague John Druitt (15 August 1857 – early December 1888)His body was discovered on 31 December 1888 about a month after his death. A train ticket dated 1 December was found in his pocket. His gravestone reads 4 December 1888; his death ...

negotiated the use of the Rectory Field during the summer months. With several sports now using the ground, the Blackheath Cricket, Football and Lawn Tennis Company was formed to provide amenities for the players.

Rugby history

first played at Rectory Field in 1883. The first match on the ground was against

Guy's Hospital Guy's Hospital is an NHS hospital in the borough of Southwark in central London. It is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and one of the institutions that comprise the King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre. ...

. On 2 January 1886, Rectory Field hosted its first international rugby union match, with England facing Wales as part of the

1886 Home Nations Championship The 1886 Home Nations Championship was the fourth series of the rugby union Home Nations Championship. Five matches were played between 2 January and 13 March 1886. It was contested by England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The 1886 Championship ...

. With England withdrawing from international rugby in late 1887, the field was not used by the national team again until the arrival of the world's first touring Southern Hemisphere rugby team, the New Zealand Māori in 1889. England continued to use three sites for international rugby, Rectory Field, the Athletic Ground in Richmond and Whalley Range in Manchester, but after 1900, only the two London locations were used. In 1910, Twickenham became the new stadium for the England team, but not before Rectory Field was allowed one last historic international when it hosted the first touring

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

rugby team in 1909. When the initial lease expired, the Rectory Field was in danger of being sold for commercial development. After £9,000 was raised through

debenture In corporate finance, a debenture is a medium- to long-term debt instrument used by large companies to borrow money, at a fixed rate of interest. The legal term "debenture" originally referred to a document that either creates a debt or acknowl ...

s, the field was purchased in 1921, providing a permanent home for the cricket and rugby teams. Directly after the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Richmond and Blackheath merged for a season, and several other teams were allowed the use of the grounds, including

London Irish London Irish RFC is a professional rugby union club which competes in the Premiership, the top division of English rugby union. The club has also competed in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, the European Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup. While ...

. On 30 April 2016 Blackheath F.C. played their final first team game at the Rectory Field, defeating

Blaydon Blaydon is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England, and historically in County Durham. Blaydon, and neighbouring Winlaton, which Blaydon is now contiguous with, form the postal town of Blaydon-on-Tyne. The Blay ...

45–17. After 133 years at the ground, the club had decided to move to their training ground, Well Hall in

Eltham Eltham ( ) is a district of southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is east-southeast of Charing Cross, and is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. The three wards of Elt ...

, for the 2016–17 season in order to boost revenue, although the ground remains in use by the club for other teams. The ground is now home to Askeans RFC, who took over a lease having moved out of Well Hall in 2021.

Cricketing history

The first cricket match to be played on the Rectory Field was between Blackheath and GG Hearne's XI on 26 April 1886.Leighton, D. J. (2006) ''Ripper Suspect: The Secret Lives of Montague Druitt'', p.45. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing. . The first

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 ...

match on the ground was held in 1887 when

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 ...

played

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

.First-Class matches played on The Rectory Field, Blackheath
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-11-27. Kent went on to play regularly at the ground until 1971, playing a total of 84 home first-class matches on the ground with at least one match each season from 1905. The majority of matches were against Surrey, whose ground at

The Oval The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since ...

is less than away.Rectory Field

CricInfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

. Retrieved 2017-11-27. The final first-class match was against

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

in June 1971.Grounds Records in ''Kent County Cricket Club Annual 2017'', pp.210–211. Canterbury:

. Kent also played three

matches at Blackheath, one each in 1969, 1970 and 1972.List A matches played on The Rectory Field, Blackheath
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-11-27. The ground was used by the Kent Second XI between 1921 and 1936 for

Minor Counties Championship The NCCA 3 Day Championship (previously the Minor Counties Cricket Championship) is a season-long competition in England and Wales that is contested by the members of the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the so-called national cou ...

matches and one Second XI match was played at Blackheath in 1987.The Rectory Field, Blackheath
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-11-27. Kent have had a long history of playing at grounds in what the club terms "Metropolitan Kent".Clifford J (2016) 'Welcome to the Kent County Ground, Beckenham' in ''Match Guide'', 2016-06-03. Canterbury:

. Grounds in nearby

Beckenham Beckenham () is a town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley, in Greater London. Until 1965 it was part of the historic county of Kent. It is located south-east of Charing Cross, situated north of Elmers End and E ...

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building * ...

Catford Catford is a district in south east London, England, and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Lewisham. It is southwest of Lewisham itself, mostly in the Rushey Green (ward), Rushey Green and Catford South Ward (electoral subdiv ...

and

Dartford Dartford is the principal town in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located south-east of Central London and is situated adjacent to the London Borough of Bexley to its west. To its north, across the Thames estuary, is Thurrock in ...

have all also been used by the club in the past for a total of more than 150 matches and the first match played by the county club after its foundation in 1842 was played at

White Hart Field White Hart Field was a cricket ground in Bromley in south-east London. The ground, which was in the county of Kent until 1965, was on an area of open space and farm land which stretched from Bromley Palace to Widmore Green.

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, char ...

. The club stopped using the ground at Blackheath due a wish to consolidate at its main

St Lawrence Ground The St Lawrence Ground is a cricket ground in Canterbury, Kent. It is the home ground of Kent County Cricket Club and since 2013 has been known as The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence, due to commercial sponsorship. It is one of the oldest grounds ...

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

and as a result of issues with car parking and the quality of the outfield.History
Blackheath Cricket Club. Retrieved 2017-11-27. Future Kent and

bowler

Colin Blythe Colin Blythe (30 May 1879 – 8 November 1917), also known as Charlie Blythe, was an English professional cricketer who played Test cricket for the England cricket team during the early part of the 20th century. Blythe was a Wisden Cricketer of ...

was first spotted bowling at Rectory Field. Before the start of the final days play in the County Championship match between Kent and

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

in July 1897, Blythe was asked to bowl at Kent's Walter Wright to provide some practice. He was watched by

William McCanlis Captain William McCanlis (30 October 1840 – 19 November 1925) was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Kent County Cricket Club between 1862 and 1877 and later became known for his role in coaching young cricketers at the cou ...

who was the manager of Kent's

Tonbridge Nursery The Angel Ground was a sports ground at Tonbridge in the English county of Kent. It was used as a venue for first-class cricket by Kent County Cricket Club between 1869 and 1939 and then for association football by Tonbridge Angels F.C., until ...

, the county's recently established professional player development centre based at the Angel Ground in

Tonbridge Tonbridge ( ) is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, south west of Maidstone and south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Malling, it had an estimated population ...

, and was invited to a trial. Blythe, who had grown up in nearby

Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, within the London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home to Deptford Dock ...

, went on to become one of the leading bowlers of the period before the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, playing 381 times for Kent and making 19

Test match Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

appearances for England.Colin Blythe 1879-1917

, 2017-11-08. Retrieved 2017-11-09.Haigh G (2006
Blythe's canvas immortality

, 2006-08-01. Retrieved 2017-11-09. In local cricket the ground has been used by Blackheath Cricket Club, who play in the

Kent Cricket League The Kent Cricket League is the top level of competition for recreational club cricket in Kent, England. The league was founded in 1970 and the first season of play was 1971. The twelve founding clubs were Ashford, Aylesford Paper Mills, Dart ...

, since 1886. The club operates ten league sides and a youth section, playing at the Rectory Field and at other grounds in the area.Background
Blackheath Cricket Club. Retrieved 2017-11-27.

Records on the ground

A total of 84 first-class and three List A matches were played on the ground, all featuring Kent as the home side. *Highest total: 560 for 6 declared by

against

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, 1959 *Lowest total: 51 by Essex against Kent, 1964 *Highest partnership: 343, 3rd wicket by

Paul Gibb Paul Antony Gibb (11 July 1913 – 7 December 1977) was an English cricketer, who played in eight Tests for England from 1938 to 1946. He played first-class cricket for Cambridge University, Yorkshire and Essex, as a right-handed opening or mid ...

and Dick Horsfall, for Essex against Kent, 1951 *Highest individual score: 250,

Colin Cowdrey Michael Colin Cowdrey, Baron Cowdrey of Tonbridge, (24 December 19324 December 2000) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Oxford University (1952–1954), Kent County Cricket Club (1950–1976) and England (1954–1975). Univers ...

, for Kent against Essex, 1959 *Best bowling in an innings: 10/54,

Tony Lock Graham Anthony Richard Lock (5 July 1929 – 30 March 1995) was an English cricketer, who played primarily as a left-arm spinner. He played in forty nine Tests for England taking 174 wickets at 25.58 each. Lock took 2,844 first-class wickets ...

, for

against Kent, 1956 *Best bowling in a match: 16/83, Tony Lock, for Surrey against Kent, 1956 In the three List A matches held on the ground the highest team score was 201 for 8, recorded by

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

in the ground's first List A match in 1969. The total was scored from 39 overs. The highest individual score was 69 runs, made by Kent's

Brian Luckhurst Brian William Luckhurst (5 February 1939 – 1 March 2005) was an English cricketer, who played his entire county career for Kent County Cricket Club. He played for Kent from 1958 to 1976, usually opening the batting, then in 1985, in an emerge ...

in the same match. The last List A match on the ground, against Surrey in 1972, finished with the scores tied, Surrey winning the match after losing fewer wickets.

Other sports

Tennis has been played on the ground since it was created. Eight hard and three grass tennis courts are situated to the north of the rugby and cricket ground. All of the courts are floodlit.Blackheath Lawn Tennis Club
Retrieved 2017-11-28. Two squash courts were built on the southern side of the site in 1937 and remain in use.

References

External links

on CricInfo {{RFU Championship Venues Rugby union stadiums in England Sports venues in London Defunct cricket grounds in England Sport in the Royal Borough of Greenwich Blackheath, London Sports venues completed in 1873 Conservation areas in London