Chalkwell Park is a recreational park in

Chalkwell Chalkwell is a suburb of the city of Southend-on-Sea, in the City of Southend-on-Sea, in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. It faces the Thames Estuary and is in traditional terms still part of Westcliff-on-Sea. History The Crow Stone (le ...

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...

, in

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 Grea ...

, England. It covers and contains several flower gardens, two children's playgrounds, a skateboard/ BMX park and football,

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 str ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

and

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

fields. The arts and music festival Village Green is held on the grounds of Chalkwell Park annually in the summer. The festival often receives more than 25,000 visitors each year.

History

In 1830, Chalkwell Hall was built in the centre of the park. At the time, it didn't have a well-defined purpose. The park was formed from the land surrounding the hall. In 1901 or 1903, the

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council Southend-on-Sea City Council is the local authority of the Southend-on-Sea district in Essex, England. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. It is a member of the East of England ...

purchased the land for £20,000. A small garden of remembrance commemorating those who lost their lives during the

Second World War 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 opposi ...

was opened in the park on 30 April 1952. In the 1950s or earlier, a small petting zoo was established in Chalkwell Hall containing at various points in time

peacocks Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera '' Pavo'' and ''Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female peafowl are ref ...

, monkeys and in the 1970s, a

Himalayan black bear The Himalayan black bear (''Ursus thibetanus laniger'') is a subspecies of the Asian black bear found in the Himalayas of India, Bhutan, Nepal, China, and Pakistan. Description It is distinguished from '' U. t. thibetanus'' by its longer, thicke ...

named ''Lulu''. The last inhabitants were four peacocks in an enclosure which were eventually relocated to a private estate where there was more space. The hall also serves as a modern art house. Chalkwell Hall was designated as a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

in 1974.

Cricket ground

The cricket ground was first used by the Essex County Cricket Club, 1st XI in 1934 for

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

matches and in 1970 for List A matches. The ground has not been used by the club 1st XI since 1976. The ground has hosted 69 first-class matches and 8 List A matches:

Game information

Game statistics – first-class

Game statistics – one-day matches

Club cricket

:Chalkwell Park is home to Westcliff-on-Sea Cricket Club and Leigh-on-Sea Cricket Club. Westcliff-on-Sea have played there since 1907 and moved a

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

to the ground in 1910. Leigh-on-Sea started out as Chalkwell Park Cricket Club and played their first match here in 1907 against

South Benfleet South Benfleet is a town and former civil parish, now in the unparished area of Benfleet, in the Castle Point district of Essex, England, 30 miles east of London. It is adjacent to the village of North Benfleet. The Benfleet SS7 post town includ ...

. They built their first pavilion for the 1922 season and a later replacement tat forms the core of their current building opened at the start of the 1954 season.

References

Cricket grounds in Essex Buildings and structures in Southend-on-Sea {{England-cricket-ground-stub