Dartford Brent was an extensive area of common land on the outskirts of

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 ...

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 ...

. Historically, it was the scene of a confrontation between King Henry VI and

Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York Richard of York, 3rd Duke of York (21 September 1411 – 30 December 1460), also named Richard Plantagenet, was a leading English magnate and claimant to the throne during the Wars of the Roses. He was a member of the ruling House of Planta ...

in 1452 and in 1555 thousands of spectators were to witness the burning to death at the stake of Christopher Ward, a Dartford linen weaver, executed for his Protestant faith. Part of Dartford Brent 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 st ...

venue in the 18th century and it was almost certainly used for cricket during the 17th century. It was noted for the quality of its turf, which was said to be "as smooth as a bowling green".Our history: Dartford Brent

Dartford Cricket Club Dartford Cricket Club is one of the oldest cricket clubs in England with origins which date from the early 18th century, perhaps earlier. The earliest known match involving a team from Dartford took place in 1722, against London, but the club's ...

. Retrieved 2017-11-28.

still plays 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 ...

and its present ground at Hesketh Park is on part of the Brent.Our history: Hesketh Park

. Retrieved 2017-11-28. The Brent is now primarily known as the name of a main road in east Dartford linking Dartford town centre and

Stone In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...

, forming part of the A226. 'Brent' is a

Kentish dialect English in Southern England (also, rarely, Southern English English; Southern England English; or in the UK, simply, Southern English) is the collective set of different dialects and accents of Modern English spoken in Southern England. As of ...

word meaning 'steep' and its use here possibly refers to the area of the Brent being located atop Dartford's East Hill.

Cricket venue

Top-class cricket was played at Dartford Brent throughout the 18th century and numerous references have survived from 1709 to 1795. The earliest known inter-county match took place there on 29 June 1709 when a Kent side and one from Surrey played against each otherBuckley GB (1937) ''Fresh Light on pre-Victorian Cricket'', p.1. Cotterell. and there are records of several similar matches held on the Brent between then and 1724.Cricket in Dartford

. Retrieved 2018-12-18. A total of eight matches played on the ground between 1792 and 1794 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.First-class matches played on Dartford Brent, Dartford
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-12-17. Games in Dartford after 1795 were played at

Bowman's Lodge Bowman's Lodge is a house in Dartford, Kent, England and the location of Bowmans, an area in the north west of Dartford Heath. The historian John Dunkin wrote in 1844 that: A poem presented to E.M. Potts at Bowman's Lodge, in around 1834, ran ...

on nearby

Dartford Heath Dartford Heath Common is an area of open heathland situated to the south-west of Dartford, Kent, England, covering around of open space. Dartford Heath is classified as lowland heath and is one of only two substantial heathland blocks remaining ...

until Hesketh Park opened in 1904, although the Brent was used for occasional matches.

Campaign against closure

An unsuccessful campaign was waged against the Brent's enclosure during the 1870s and the townspeople presented a petition to the Court of Common Council. Among other things, the petition held that a portion of the Brent had been used as the town cricket ground throughout the whole period of living memory; while the whole area had been "constantly resorted to for all sorts of past times and has been looked upon as the recreation ground of Dartford".A brief history of the Brent

. Archived 2004-10-04. Retrieved 2018-12-18. The cricket ground at that time lay near the top of Brent Lane, somewhere across the road which passes alongside Hesketh Park.

Today

Dartford Cricket Club still plays in the Kent League and its present ground at Hesketh Park is almost all that is left of the old Brent.

References

{{English cricket venues to 1725 1709 establishments in England Cricket grounds in Kent Dartford Defunct cricket grounds in England Defunct sports venues in Kent English cricket venues in the 18th century History of Kent Sports venues completed in 1709