Mount 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 str ...

ground located at

Ospringe Ospringe is a village and area of Faversham in the English county of Kent. It is also the name of a civil parish, which since 1935 has not included the village of Ospringe. The village lies on the Roman road Watling Street (nowadays the A2 ro ...

on the south-western edge of

Faversham Faversham is a market town in Kent, England, from London and from Canterbury, next to the Swale, a strip of sea separating mainland Kent from the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames Estuary. It is close to the A2, which follows an ancient Briti ...

in the English 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 ...

. It was associated with The Mount, a large house built west of the ground, and was used for one

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 officia ...

match in 1876.

Cricketing history

The ground was used to host one first-class match in 1876. Kent County Cricket Club lost to Hampshire County Cricket Club by an innings and six runs in August in a fixture which immediately followed the club's

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 ...

festival.Scorecard – Kent v Hampshire in 1876
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2008-12-17. It was used by Faversham Cricket Club in the 19th century,Who’s Who in Faversham’s History N-O
Faversham Enterprise Partnership. Retrieved 2017-12-09.Shepherd Neame Brewery
Neame Family. Retrieved 2017-12-09.Turcan R (2013) ''Faversham Through Time''. Stroud: Amberley Publishing Limited.
Available online
Retrieved 2017-12-09). but only one other scorecard of a match is known to exist, an 1864 fixture between the Gentlemen of Kent and the Gentlemen of Sussex,
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-12-09. and was the home ground used by the cricket team from the local gunpowder works in the 1920s.Milton H (1979) Kent cricket grounds, in ''The Cricket Statistician'', no.28, December 1979, pp.2–10. The ground was located between the main A2 London Road and the main London, Chatham and Dover railway line just to the east of Ospringe and west of

Faversham railway station Faversham railway station is on the Chatham Main Line in England, serving the town of Faversham, Kent. It is down the line from . The station and all trains that call are operated by Southeastern. History The original 1858 station (built for t ...

.Ordnance Survey Map of Kent, XXXIV.SW. Revised: 1896. Published: 1898.Explorer Map 163 – Sittingbourne & Faversham, Isle of Sheppey,

Ordnance Survey Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was a ...

, 2015-09-16. Most of the ground is now built over, with a residential road called Mount Field occupying the area of the ground. A small strip of the ground remains as part of the

King George V playing field A King George's Field is a public open space in the United Kingdom dedicated to the memory of King George V (1865–1936). In 1936, after the king's death, Sir Percy Vincent, the then-Lord Mayor of London, formed a committee to determine a ...

.Mount Field, Faversham
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2008-12-17.Our parks

Swale Borough Council Swale or Swales may refer to: Topography * Swale (landform), a low tract of land ** Bioswale, landform designed to remove silt and pollution ** Swales, found in the formation of Hummocky cross-stratification Geography * River Swale, in North Y ...

. Retrieved 2017-12-09.

The Mount

The Mount is a large 18th-century house which is situated in the south-western corner of the remaining playing field at the eastern edge of Ospringe.Ospringe conservation area character appraisal

, 2004-09-09. Retrieved 2017-12-09. It was described as one of "a number of elegant seats" along the road east of Ospringe in 1837, at which point it was occupied by Lieutenant-general Gerard Gosselin, a Deputy Lieutenant of Kent and a magistrate, and known as Mount Ospringe.Brady JH (1837) ''The Dover Road Sketch Book; Or, Traveller's Pocket Guide, Between London and Dover, Wherein is Described Every Object of Interest on this Road, Etc. ith Maps.', p.79. Canterbury: Henry Ward.
Available online
Retrieved 2017-12-09). Burke J (1834) ''A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland Enjoying Territorial Possessions Or High Official Rank, But Uninvested with Heritable Honours'', p.303. London: Henry Colburn.
Available online
Retrieved 2017-12-09). Gosselin had joined the Marine Forces in 1780 and transferred to the Army later in his career. He served in the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

and was appointed Commandant of the

Republic of Genoa The Republic of Genoa ( lij, Repúbrica de Zêna ; it, Repubblica di Genova; la, Res Publica Ianuensis) was a medieval and early modern maritime republic from the 11th century to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast. During the La ...

after he commanded a Brigade during its capture in April 1814. Later in the year he commanded a Brigade at the Capture of Castine in

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

and then commanded British forces at

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348 ...

.Two veterans, ''

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'' (f ...

'', issue 23333, 1859-06-15, p.10.Philippart J (1820) ''The Royal Military Calendar, Or Army Service and Commission Book: Containing the Services and Progress of Promotion of the Generals, Lieutenant-generals, Major-generals, Colonels, Lieutenant-colonels, and Majors of the Army, According to Seniority: with Details of the Principal Military Events of the Last Century, Volume 3'', pp.209–210. London: AJ Valpy.
Available online
Retrieved 2017-12-09).
British Generals of the Napoleonic Wars 1793-1815. Retrieved 2017-12-09. Gosselin died in 1859Deaths, ''

'', issue 23332, 1859-06-14, p.1. and by 1866 the house was occupied by Percy Beale Neame,Marriages, ''

'', issue 25597, 1866-09-07, p.1. a hop farmer who, in 1864, had become a partner in the Faversham brewing business which became known as

Shepherd Neame Shepherd Neame is an English independent brewery which has been based in the market town of Faversham, Kent, for over 300 years. While 1698 is the brewery's official established date, town records show that commercial brewing has occurred on the ...

.Brewery history

Shepherd Neame Brewery Shepherd Neame is an English independent brewery which has been based in the market town of Faversham, Kent, for over 300 years. While 1698 is the brewery's official established date, town records show that commercial brewing has occurred on the ...

. Retrieved 2017-12-09. Neame and his wife Florence, lived at the house until his death at the age of 76 in 1913 and all ten of his children were born there.Deaths, ''

'', issue 40102, 1913-01-07, p.1.Arthur Neame 1871–1916
Faded Genes. Retrieved 2017-12-09. On his death the estate, including the business, of which he was the sole owner, as well as the house was worth £240,000.The man who put the Neame in Shepherd Neame
Beer Today, 2014-11-28. Retrieved 2017-12-09. Florence remarried in 1915Marriages, ''

'', issue 40962, 1915-09-17, p.1. and the house, which was empty, was used as a

Voluntary Aid Detachment The Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) was a voluntary unit of civilians providing nursing care for military personnel in the United Kingdom and various other countries in the British Empire. The most important periods of operation for these units we ...

hospital during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

.Creswick P, Pond GS, Ashton PH (1915) ''Kent's Care for the Wounded''. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
Available online
Retrieved 2017-12-09).Faversham in the First World War - Part 1
Faversham Enterprise Partnership. Retrieved 2017-12-09. After the war it was used as a home for refugee children from

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...

and in 1921 it became a

National Children's Home Action for Children (formerly National Children's Home) is a UK children's charity created to help vulnerable children & young people and their families in the UK. The charity has 7,000 staff and volunteers who operate over 475 services in the ...

property, closing in the 1930s.Children's Home, Faversham, Kent
Children's Homes. Retrieved 2017-12-09. The building, which is 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 Ir ...

, was later used as an office by the Ministry of National Insurance and by the Kent Agricultural Emergency Committee. It is now divided into residential flats.

References

{{Kent CCC Defunct cricket grounds in England Cricket grounds in Kent Defunct sports venues in Kent Faversham