Mount Field (cricket ground)

Mount Field was a cricket ground located at Ospringe on the south-western edge of Faversham in the English county of Kent. It was associated with The Mount, a large house built west of the ground, and was used for one first-class cricket match in 1876.

Mount Field
The Mount, a house standing in the corner of the present day field
Ground information
LocationOspringe, Faversham, Kent
Coordinates51.311°N 0.879°E / 51.311; 0.879
Team information
Kent County Cricket Club (1876)
As of 9 December 2017
Source: CricketArchive
Entrance to the King George's Playing Field

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 festival.[1] It was used by Faversham Cricket Club in the 19th century,[2][3][4] 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,[5] and was the home ground used by the cricket team from the local gunpowder works in the 1920s.[6]

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 0.5 miles (0.80 km) west of Faversham railway station.[7][8] 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 3.2 hectares (7.9 acres) King George V playing field.[9][10]

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.[11] 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.[12][13] Gosselin had joined the Marine Forces in 1780 and transferred to the Army later in his career. He served in the Napoleonic Wars and was appointed Commandant of the Republic of Genoa 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 during the War of 1812 and then commanded British forces at Halifax, Nova Scotia.[14][15][16]

Gosselin died in 1859[17] and by 1866 the house was occupied by Percy Beale Neame,[18] a hop farmer who, in 1864, had become a partner in the Faversham brewing business which became known as Shepherd Neame.[2][19] 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.[3][20][21] On his death the estate, including the business, of which he was the sole owner, as well as the house was worth £240,000.[22]

Florence remarried in 1915[23] and the house, which was empty, was used as a Voluntary Aid Detachment hospital during World War I.[4][24][25] After the war it was used as a home for refugee children from Serbia and in 1921 it became a National Children's Home property, closing in the 1930s.[26] The building, which is a Grade II listed building, was later used as an office by the Ministry of National Insurance and by the Kent Agricultural Emergency Committee.[27] It is now divided into residential flats.[11]

References
  1. Scorecard – Kent v Hampshire in 1876, CricketArchive. Retrieved 2008-12-17.
  2. Who’s Who in Faversham’s History N-O, Faversham Enterprise Partnership. Retrieved 2017-12-09.
  3. Shepherd Neame Brewery, Neame Family. Retrieved 2017-12-09.
  4. Turcan R (2013) Faversham Through Time. Stroud: Amberley Publishing Limited. (Available online. Retrieved 2017-12-09).
  5. Other matches played on Mount Field, Faversham, CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-12-09.
  6. Milton H (1979) Kent cricket grounds, in The Cricket Statistician, no.28, December 1979, pp.2–10.
  7. Ordnance Survey Map of Kent, XXXIV.SW. Revised: 1896. Published: 1898.
  8. Explorer Map 163 – Sittingbourne & Faversham, Isle of Sheppey, Ordnance Survey, 2015-09-16.
  9. Mount Field, Faversham, CricketArchive. Retrieved 2008-12-17.
  10. Our parks, Swale Borough Council. Retrieved 2017-12-09.
  11. Ospringe conservation area character appraisal, Swale Borough Council, 2004-09-09. Retrieved 2017-12-09.
  12. 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. [With Maps.], p.79. Canterbury: Henry Ward. (Available online Retrieved 2017-12-09).
  13. 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).
  14. Two veterans, The Times, issue 23333, 1859-06-15, p.10.
  15. 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).
  16. Gosselin, Gerard, British Generals of the Napoleonic Wars 1793-1815. Retrieved 2017-12-09.
  17. Deaths, The Times, issue 23332, 1859-06-14, p.1.
  18. Marriages, The Times, issue 25597, 1866-09-07, p.1.
  19. Brewery history, Shepherd Neame Brewery. Retrieved 2017-12-09.
  20. Deaths, The Times, issue 40102, 1913-01-07, p.1.
  21. Arthur Neame 1871–1916, Faded Genes. Retrieved 2017-12-09.
  22. The man who put the Neame in Shepherd Neame, Beer Today, 2014-11-28. Retrieved 2017-12-09.
  23. Marriages, The Times, issue 40962, 1915-09-17, p.1.
  24. Creswick P, Pond GS, Ashton PH (1915) Kent's Care for the Wounded. London: Hodder and Stoughton. (Available online. Retrieved 2017-12-09).
  25. Faversham in the First World War - Part 1, Faversham Enterprise Partnership. Retrieved 2017-12-09.
  26. Children's Home, Faversham, Kent, Children's Homes. Retrieved 2017-12-09.
  27. Historic England. "The Mount (1343843)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 2017-12-09.


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