Clarence Park is a Victorian park used for sports and leisure in

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

, England. Opened in mid-1894, it is still largely in its original form and has a rich variety of trees and planting. It is close to

St Albans City railway station St Albans City railway station is one of two stations serving St Albans in Hertfordshire, England, the other being . It is the larger of the two, on the Midland Main Line from London St Pancras, served by Govia Thameslink trains on the Tha ...

Overview

The park was laid out in early 1894, and comprises a municipal sports ground and a public park and pleasure ground. The benefactor, Sir John Maple, the owner of Maple's furniture store in

Tottenham Court Road Tottenham Court Road (occasionally abbreviated as TCR) is a major road in Central London, almost entirely within the London Borough of Camden. The road runs from Euston Road in the north to St Giles Circus in the south; Tottenham Court Road tu ...

who lived at nearby Childwickbury, donated the land and paid for the laying out, the planting and the construction of the buildings; the layout of the park itself was designed by the City Surveyor, Mr G. Ford. A striking water fountain, which can still be seen today, was donated by Lady Maple. The park was opened on 23 July 1894 by the

Duke of Cambridge Duke of Cambridge is a hereditary title of nobility in the British royal family, one of several royal dukedoms in the United Kingdom. The title is named after the city of Cambridge in England. It is heritable by agnatic, male descendants by pr ...

, a member of the

Royal family A royal family is the immediate family of monarchs and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term papal family describes the family of a pope, while th ...

, and the event was accompanied by great celebrations in the city of St Albans. The sports ground hosts cricket, hockey, bowls and croquet and is also the home of St Albans City Football Club. The public park includes large grass areas used for sun bathing and games during summer, a bandstand, a children's play-park and a café. The public park is also used as the site of some of the human "Peopletown" skits on

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's preschool series '' Bunnytown''.

Football ground

Clarence Park is the home ground of

St Albans City F.C. St Albans City Football Club (nicknamed ''The Saints'') is a semi-professional association football team based in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England. The club competes in the Isthmian League Premier Division, the seventh level of the English foot ...

and has been since their formation in 1908. It was used by St Albans F.C. and St Albans Amateurs F.C. prior to the formation of St Albans City. On 22 September 1894, the first football match at Clarence Park took place. In the 1992-93 season, St Albans City finished as runners-up in the

Isthmian League The Isthmian League () is a regional Association football, football league covering Greater London, East of England, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, th ...

but were denied promotion due to a low ground grading as a result of a diseased oak tree within one of the terraces.

Cricket ground

Next to the football ground is a

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

ground. The first recorded match played on the cricket ground came in 1875, when

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

played

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

. The first

Minor Counties Championship The NCCA 3 Day Championship or National County 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 counties (previously ca ...

match played on the ground came in 1895 when Hertfordshire played

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...

. From 1895 to 1997, the ground hosted 84 Minor Counties Championship matches and 2

MCCA Knockout Trophy The National Counties Cricket Association Knockout Cup was started in 1983 as a knockout one-day competition for the National Counties in English cricket. At first it was known as the ''English Industrial Estates Cup'', before being called the ...

matches. The cricket ground has played host to two List-A matches, the first of which came in the 1984 NatWest Trophy between Hertfordshire and Somerset. The second and final List-A match played on the ground came in the 1990 NatWest Trophy between Hertfordshire and

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

. The ground also hosted a single match in the

1973 Women's Cricket World Cup The 1973 Women's Cricket World Cup was the inaugural Women's Cricket World Cup, held in England from 20 June to 28 July 1973. It was the first tournament of its kind, held two years before the first limited overs World Cup for men in 1975. The ...

, which was contested between

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago, officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean, comprising the main islands of Trinidad and Tobago, along with several List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, smaller i ...

. In local domestic cricket, the ground is the home of St Albans Cricket Club who play in the Saracens Hertfordshire Cricket League Division 2A. The cricket pavilion opened in 1894 and underwent a restoration of the external structure in 2023.

References

External links

* * {{Hertfordshire CCC Football venues in England Cricket grounds in Hertfordshire St Albans City F.C. Buildings and structures in St Albans Sports venues in Hertfordshire Parks and open spaces in Hertfordshire Sports venues completed in 1894