Bourne Park House and sheep fields - geograph

Bourne Paddock was 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 at

Bourne Park House Bourne Park House is a Queen Anne style country house on Bourne Park Road, between Bishopsbourne and Bridge near Canterbury in Kent. Built in 1701, it has been listed Grade I listed on the National Heritage List for England since 1954. An 18th ...

, the seat of Sir Horatio Mann, at

Bishopsbourne Bishopsbourne is a mostly rural and wooded village and civil parish in Kent, England. It has two short linear settlement, developed sections of streets at the foot of the Little Stour, Nailbourne valley south-east of Canterbury and centred ...

around south-east of

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

in the

English county The counties of England are a type of subdivision of England. Counties have been used as administrative areas in England since Anglo-Saxon times. There are three definitions of county in England: the 48 ceremonial counties used for the purpo ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

. It was a venue for

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 of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

matches from 1766 to 1790. The ground was within the grounds of Bourne Park House. Archaeological surveys have shown that it was built on an area which was settled during the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

and Roman periods.Wallace L ''et al.'' (2014) Archaeological Investigations of a Major Building, probably Roman, and related landscape features at Bourne Park, Bishopsbourne, 2011–12, ''Archaeologia Cantiana'', Vol. 134, pp.187–203.
Available online
Retrieved 2017-12-17).Wallace L, Johnson P, Strutt K (2013) ''Bourne Park (Bishopsbourne) Geophysical Survey 2012 Results'', Cambridge University.
Available online
Retrieved 2017-12-17). A modern cricket pavilion and a large iron roller used to roll the cricket pitch remain at the site, but the ground is no longer in use.Johnson P, Wallace L (2012) ''Bourne Park (Bishopsbourne) Geophysical Survey 2011 Results'', Cambridge University.
Available online
Retrieved 2017-12-17).

Matches

Bourne Paddock is first mentioned in an item in the ''Kentish Weekly Post'' describing a recent match involving Mann's own Bourne Cricket Club and Dartford Cricket Club in September 1766. The result of the game is unknown. Buckley GB (1935) ''Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket'', p.18. Birmingham: Cotterell. Bourne Cricket Club effectively represented Kent during the late 18th century and attracted large crowds to the ground. A total of 17 matches played on the ground were given retrospective

status by some sources.Bourne Paddock, Bishopsbourne
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-12-17. Its last known use was for a top-class game between East Kent and West Kent in September 1790. Haygarth A (1862) ''Cricket Scores And Biographies Of Celebrated Cricketers From 1746-1826. Vol 1''. Lillywhite. Mann moved away from Bourne soon afterward. A modern cricket club, Bishopsbourne Cricket Club, played matches on a ground at Charlton Park to the south of Bourne Park. This ground is still in use.Bishopsbourne Cricket Club
Bishopsbourne Parish Council. Retrieved 2018-06-10., Charlton Park. Retrieved 2018-06-10.

References

{{English cricket venues to 1770 City of Canterbury Cricket grounds in Kent English cricket venues in the 18th century History of Kent