Coxheath Common at

Coxheath Coxheath is a village and civil parish within the Borough of Maidstone, Kent, England. The parish is approximately south of Maidstone. It is mainly centred along Heath Road which links the villages of Yalding and Boughton Monchelsea to the we ...

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 ...

was used as 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 for several known top-class matches between 1728 and 1789 as well as for a number of minor matches. The venue is first referenced in 1646, in the records of a court case following a cricket match played there on 29 May. The case concerned non-payment of a wager that was made at the game. The participants included members of the local gentry. The match has the added interest of being an "odds" game in that Samuel Filmer and Thomas Harlackenden played as a pair, and won, against four men from Maidstone: Walter Franklyn, Richard Marsh, Robert Sanders and William Cooper. The earliest known important match on the common was in 1728 when

Edwin Stead Edwin Stead (1701 – 28 August 1735) was a noted patron of English cricket, particularly of Kent teams in the 1720s. He usually captained his teams but nothing is known about his ability as a player. He was born at Harrietsham in Kent and d ...

's Kent team played against a team from Sussex organised by

Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond, 2nd Duke of Lennox, 2nd Duke of Aubigny, (18 May 17018 August 1750) of Goodwood House near Chichester in Sussex, was a British nobleman and politician. He was the son of Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmo ...

. Further matches on the common were recorded in 1736 and 1744.Other matches played on The Heath, Coxheath
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-12-17. By the middle of the 18th century, the heath was being used as a military training ground and it was not recorded as being used for cricket again until 1787 when it seems that a "new ground" had been established near the former ''Star'' Inn.Buckley GB (1935) ''Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket'', p.135. Cotterell.Milton H (1979) Kent cricket grounds, in ''The Cricket Statistician'', no.28, December 1979, pp.2–10.Milton H (1979) Kent cricket grounds, in ''The Cricket Statistician'', no.30, June 1980, p.15. The location of the original ground (1728 to 1744) is unknown, but the ''Star Inn'' was located just inside Linton Park close to the crossroads of the modern A229 road and the B2163, and that ground was probably adjacent to the inn.Star Inn, Coxheath
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-12-17. A total of five matches were played at the Star Inn ground from 1787 to 1789, four of which were awarded retrospective

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 Star Inn, Coxheath
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-12-17. The last known match was in August 1789 between teams from West Kent and East Kent. Following 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 Fre ...

, the heath was no longer needed by the military and was enclosed. The modern village is a relatively recent development.

References

1726 establishments in Great Britain Cricket grounds in Kent Defunct cricket grounds in England Defunct sports venues in Kent English cricket venues in the 18th century History of Kent Borough of Maidstone Sports venues completed in 1726 {{England-cricket-ground-stub