White Hart Field was 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 in

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 ...

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 ...

. The ground, which was in the county of

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 ...

until 1965, was on an area of open space and farm land which stretched from

Bromley Palace Bromley Palace (also known as the Bishop's Palace) is a manor house in Bromley, London Borough of Bromley; and was the residence of the Bishops of Rochester from the 12th century to 1845. The building, which is now part of Bromley Civic centre, is ...

to Widmore Green.Queens Garden
Friends of Bromley Town Parks. Retrieved 2016-11-13. The area was used regularly for cricket in the 18th century and the cricket field was at the back of the White Hart Inn which it was named after,Queen's Gardens
London Gardens Online. Retrieved 2016-11-13.Cricket – Kent Against All England, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', 1841-09-16.Milton H (1979) Kent cricket grounds, in ''The Cricket Statistician'', no. 28, December 1979, pp.2–10. although the only recorded matches on the ground took place in the 1840s.White Hart Field, Bromley
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2016-11-13. Teams representing Kent played two matches on the ground in 1841 and 1842 against an England team.First-Class Matches played on White Hart Field
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2016-11-13. The second match, which took place in August 1842, marks the first match which

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 ...

played after the official formation of the club during the 1842

Canterbury Cricket Week Canterbury Cricket Week is the oldest cricket festival week in England and involves a series of consecutive Kent home matches, traditionally held in the first week in August. It was founded in 1842, although a similar festival week was first hel ...

. These two matches were retrospectively awarded

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 ...

status. The final recorded match on the ground took place in 1847 when the Gentlemen of Kent played the Gentlemen of Surrey.Other matches played on White Hart Field, Bromley
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2016-11-13. The ground was the home ground of Bromley Cricket Club between 1856 and 1886. The field where the ground was located was in private ownership until 1897 when it was donated to the town of Bromley to mark the

Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria was officially celebrated on 22 June 1897 to mark the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession on 20 June 1837. Queen Victoria was the first British monarch ever to celebrate a Diamond ...

with part of the field becoming an ornamental park. Originally named Victoria Gardens, the site of the ground is now part of Queens Gardens managed by

Bromley Borough Council Bromley London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Bromley in Greater London, England. It is one of 32 London borough councils. History There have previously been a number of local authorities responsible for the Bro ...

alongside The Glades shopping centre.Queens Gardens
London Borough of Bromley. Retrieved 2016-11-13. The area is no longer used for cricket and the ground itself is no longer physically in existenceReid J (ed) 'VII Grounds Records' in ''2016 Kent County Cricket Club Annual'',

, p.230. although a plaque marks the former use of the gardens.

References

External links

White Hart Field
on

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 ...

{{Kent CCC Defunct cricket grounds in England Cricket grounds in Kent Cricket grounds in London Defunct sports venues in London Sport in the London Borough of Bromley Sports venues completed in 1841