Broadhalfpenny Down

Reader! if thou hast any love or knowledge of this noble game,—if thou hast any delight in traversing the ancient fields of glory, or visiting the scenes of departed genius, or hanging a slender wreath on the monument of men who deserved a richer sepulchre,—shut your eyes for one moment to the follies and vanities of passing events, and believe yourself walking in a fine summer morning on the down of Broad Halfpenny, waiting the commencement of a match. You know the scenery of that secluded vale; the fine undulating sweep of its beechen forests, the beautiful and variegated turf, the glittering of the ocean, the blue hills of the Isle of Wight looming in the distance, and the elmy gardens and half-wild orchards sprinkled in the bottom. Well! believe yourself transported there…¹

Introduction

For me, if two words encapsulate the history and appeal of Eighteenth Century cricket, the words are Broadhalfpenny Down. Situated high on a hill, two miles outside the Hampshire village of Hambledon, this ground is not really the cradle of cricket as it is often described, but it was the epicentre of the cricket world for the fifteen years from 1765 to 1780, and I like to think, it was there that cricket discovered itself. The ground faded into obscurity in the nineteenth century, but was revitalised in the twentieth and now thrives as host for a variety of exhibitions and club matches. To those fascinated by cricket history, this ground has a magic of its own.

If you visit the ground at midnight on Midsummer’s Day, keep very quiet and very still, you can hear the sounds of cricket from ages past echoing across the South Downs. Fact.

History

Pre-cricket

In the early part of the Eighteenth Century, Broadhalfpenny Down was the village’s sheep common where Hambledon villagers had grazing rights; it was also used for an annual horse race meeting, though this had come to an enforced end by 1740. The Down was also a place of public assembly and held an annual Toy Fair on the first Tuesday in May. Next to the common was an unimpressive hostelry called The Hut (or the Hutt). The Down itself is not on a pinnacle, it is on what locals call a hanger, just below the summit to the South. To the North and East are now farm fields, in the lea of Buster Hill – in the Eighteenth Century, these were orchards. At some point, locals decided the Down would be a good place to play a game of cricket.

Early use as a cricket field (1756? – 1763)

The first record of a game on the Down arises in 1756, coming from a passage in “The Oxford Gazette and Reading Mercury” which advertised the loss of a dog at a cricket match on Broad-Halfpenny Down. It seems that the match was Hambledon v Dartford, one of a series of three matches, the last of which was at the Artillery Ground. Dartford, however, were an established side and the Artillery Ground a prestigious location, so, certainly, Hambledon were already a force in the game. Indeed, a newspaper report on the Artillery game spoke of ‘the famous Hambledon gamesters’, so they were known. When cricket started, though and how it progressed in the early days is not known. Clues are sparce indeed, the most famous is that the then-aged Billy Beldham stated to Rev James Pycroft in 1859 “If you want to know, sir, the time the Hambledon Club was formed, I can tell you by this;—when we beat them in 1780, I heard Mr. Paulet say, ‘Here have I been thirty years raising our club, and are we to be beaten by a mere parish?’ so, there must have been a cricket club, that played every week regularly, as long ago as 1750.” This, though, is problematic as Beldham is speaking from a distant memory, and he is talking of the broader Hambledon Club, rather than the Hambledon cricket team. As it happens, most authorities think cricket would have started earlier, but the club itself would have been formed later.

It was 1762 when Richard Nyren took over as landlord of The Hut, adjacent to the ground, and that was the precursor for the Great era of the ground. Nyren himself came from Sussex, from Eartham, near the great cricket village of Slinden and was taught to play the game by his uncle, Richard Newland, himself perhaps the greatest player of the 1740s. Nyren was in his early twenties and keen to advance both his business and the cricket club. There were reports of games in the early 1760s, even in the London press, and these soon grew- the great days were beginning.

The glory days of Broadhalfpenny – 1764 to 1781

It was these days and this side, combined with the writing of Richard Nyren’s son John about the subject, that lie behind the reverence the ground inspires. By contrast, the later Hambledon ground, at Windmill Down, inspires very little modern interest at all; its location is not marked in any way, and visitors are all but unknown. There is a reason – the great days of Hambledon, the years on which the club’s fame was based, were mostly at Broadhalfpenny. It was then that Nyren kept the Inn (for part of the period anyway), it was then that the side, if not all villagers, came from the the surrounding area, it was then that the crowds would reputedly number up 20,000 and it was then that had regular matches against the Rest of England. Cricket was also in retreat from London, where it became established, and the rural game was in the ascendancy. The first first-class match (1772) comes right at the centre of this period. Let’s consider John Nyren’s famous description of the atmosphere of the games:

There was high feasting held on Broad-Halfpenny during the solemnity of one of our grand matches. Oh! it was a heart-stirring sight to witness the multitude forming a complete and dense circle round that noble green. Half the county would be present, and all their hearts with us. Little Hambledon pitted against All England was a proud thought for the Hampshire men. Defeat was glory in such a struggle—Victory, indeed, made us only ‘a little lower than angels’. How those fine brawn-faced fellows of farmers would drink to our success! And then, what stuff they had to drink!—Punch!—not your new Ponche à la Romaine, or Ponche à la Groseille, or your modern cat-lap milk punch—punch be-deviled; but good, unsophisticated John Bull stuff—stark!—that would stand on end—punch that would make a cat speak! Sixpence a bottle! We had not sixty millions of interest to pay in those days. The ale too!—not the modern horror under the same name, that drives as many men melancholy-mad as the hypocrites do;—not the beastliness of these days, that will make a fellow’s inside like a shaking bog— and as rotten; but barleycorn, such as would put the souls of three butchers into one weaver. Ale that would flare like turpentine—genuine Boniface!—This immortal viand (for it was more than liquor) was vended at twopence per pint. The immeasurable villany of our vintners would, with their march of intellect (if ever they could get such a brewing), drive a pint of it out into a gallon. Then the quantity the fellows would eat! Two or three of them would strike dismay into a round of beef. They could no more have pecked in that style than they could have flown, had the infernal black stream (that type of Acheron!) which soddens the carcass of a Londoner, been the fertilizer of their clay. There would this company, consisting most likely of some thousands, remain patiently and anxiously watching every turn of fate in the game, as if the event had been the meeting of two armies to decide their liberty. And whenever a Hambledon man made a good hit, worth four or five runs, you would hear the deep mouths of the whole multitude baying away in pure Hampshire—’Go hard! go hard!—Tich and turn!—tich and turn!’

During the 1780s, this team was replaced by a new generation of players, headed by Silver Billy Beldham, possibly even more skilled, but who came from further afield, and so lacked the local connection that so enthused the crowds. Richard Nyren had sold The Hutt in 1772, achieving a good price to reflect the considerable trade that the Inn was doing, and had taken The George Inn, located in the village itself. Also, by 1778, Hampshire (a name used more or less interchangeably with Hambledon) chose to play the occasional fixture at Stoke Down, a few miles away, near Arlesford. It was here that the Hambledon side achieved their most famous victory when, on 23 June 1779, the team routed the rest of England by an innings and 89 runs. On 23 August of that year, though, they were back at Broadhalfpenny Down to beat England again, this time by 149.

1781 was the last season before the move to Windmill Down, a ground leased by the club and therefore more private. Although the club continued to use Broadhalfpenny Down from time to time, the great days of the ground were over.

Eighteenth Century decline (1781 – 1792)

Towards the end of the Eighteenth Century, cricket was returning to London. Windmill Down, though a serviceable ground, did not attract the crowds or, it seems, the enthusiasm of Broadhalfpenny Down, which was nevertheless still seen as second best. One important match took place in 1783, and the next and final such match, in 1792. The sun had truly set on the great ground.

Nineteenth Century

There is no record of cricket being played on Broadhalfpenny Down during the Nineteenth Century. The pub, however, did survive, albeit is a much reduced state. An important event was the Enclosure Act of 1836, which meant that the Down was no longer common land and passed into private ownership. The ground then became overgrown, but by 1857, it had been ploughed up and was been farmed. When Frederick Gale visited the site in 1878, he reported that the pub was in a very poor state, no relics of the cricket days remained, and the field was growing wheat. Gale painted a watercolour of the pub, and this is shown below.

Twentieth Century

Activity at the ground was still sporadic, but Harry Altham, a Master at Winchester College, first-class cricketer, cricket historian and President of MCC, emerged as a campaigner for the return of cricket to the ground and in 1924, he persuaded Winchester College to purchase it. There was a grand, well-attended match in 1925 to celebrate the acquisition. On New Year’s Day 1929, a charity cricket match was played at Broadhalfpenny Down between The Hampshire Eskimos and The Invalids, a game which, not surprisingly, was a cold and low-scoring affair.

It was not until 1936, however, when the ground was leased to the local engineering firm of Wadhams, that Harry Altham’s wish for regular cricket to be played at Broadhalfpenny Down was fulfilled, a Wadhams XI occasionally arranging fixtures. In 1952, Wadhams gave up their tenure, and Harry Altham successfully lobbied HMS Mercury (a shore establishment of the Royal Navy which had moved to Leydene House, a mile from the ground) with a view to their taking on the lease. The lease was later taken over by the Ministry of Defence. In 1959, four officers founded the Broadhalfpenny Brigands CC to secure regular fixtures for the ground. When, many years later, it became clear that HMS Mercury would be closed, the Brigands applied for the lease and in 1992, this was granted to them by Winchester College on condition that they would set up an independent trust to secure the ground’s long-term future.
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On the initiative of the Brigands and Winchester College, the Broadhalfpenny Down Association was set up in 1996 to take over the lease and run the ground. It was independent of the Brigands and included representatives of the Cricket Society, English Schools Cricket Association, Hambledon Cricket Club, Hampshire Cricket Board and the MCC. Facilities then improved rapidly with a stylish new pavilion opening in 1999. Following the formation of the Association, use of the ground increased, with a fixture list shared between The Brigands, Hambledon CC 3rd XI, a midweek Bat and Ball Inn XI and occasional exhibition matches.

Twenty First Century

In 2010 the Broadhalfpenny Down Preservation Trust was formed with the objectives of raising money for the maintenance of the ground, enhancing its use and promoting its history. It has members representing local, county and national cricket bodies as well as the Brigands and the College.

Important matches

1	18 Aug 1756	Hambledon	Dartford
2	17 Sep 1764	Hambledon	Chertsey
3	04 Aug 1767	Hampshire	Sussex
4	28 Sep 1767	Hambledon	Caterham
5	05 Aug 1768	Hampshire	Sussex
6	29 Aug 1768	Hambledon	Kent
7	05 Sep 1768	Hambledon	Sussex
8	29 Jun 1769	Hambledon	Caterham
9	28 Sep 1769	Hambledon	Surrey
10	04 Oct 1770	Hambledon	Caterham
11	20 Aug 1771	Gentlemen of Hampshire	Gentlemen of Sussex
12	30 Sep 1771	Hambledon	Chertsey
13	24 Jun 1772	Hampshire	England
14	10 Aug 1772	Hampshire and Sussex	Kent
15	30 Jul 1773	Hambledon Town	Hampshire
16	04 Aug 1773	Hampshire	England
17	26 Aug 1773	Hambledon Town	Surrey
18	27 Sep 1773	Hampshire	Surrey
19	22 Jun 1774	Hampshire	England
20	13 Jul 1774	Hampshire	Kent
21	15 Aug 1774	Hampshire	Kent
22	14 Sep 1774	Hambledon	Hampshire
23	29 Jun 1775	Hampshire	Kent
24	13 Jul 1775	Hampshire	Surrey
25	02 Jul 1776	Hampshire	Kent
26	26 Aug 1776	Hampshire	Surrey
27	07 Jul 1777	Hampshire	England
28	08 Sep 1777	Hampshire	England
29	24 Sep 1778	Hampshire	Surrey
30	23 Aug 1779	Hampshire	England
31	30 Jul 1781	Hampshire	Kent
32	20 Sep 1791	Hambledon Town	West Sussex

The Hutt / Bat and Ball Inn

Nyren’s time there was very successful, and when he sold it to fellow player, William Barber, it changed hands for £185, a considerable price for an Inn. Barber sold it on in 1788, after the great days were over, and only received £126.

Since then, it has continued as a pub to this day, known for nearly all that time as the Bat and Ball, and acting as a small museum to Early Cricket. One brief hiatus occurred around 2000 when, bizarrely, the pub owners decided that it would do better with the name The Natterjack Toad, and getting rid of anything that suggested a link with cricket. It didn’t work. And so it soon changed hands again. The new owners (Fullers) have done their best by restoring the name, displaying some cricketing pictures of the period and bringing in some memorabilia, but it isn’t quite what it was.

Incidentally, as far as I can ascertain, this was the only permanent structure ever on the site. Ashley Mote does seem to think that there was a semi-permanent building called The Lodge on the boundary, which acted as a spectator facility.² I am not aware of his source of information for this, although he goes as far as to identify an engraving (actually labelled as being of a ground at Swaffam, Norfolk) as illustrating this building. My view is that there was no such structure at Broadhalfpenny Down and the Inn, and a collection of marquees was all there ever was. It seems he is getting confused with a building that did exist at the Windmill Down ground and is labelled on one map as being a ‘Cricket House’. There are references in the club accounts and minutes to a building, but these references are well into the Windmill Down era. If anyone, however, can support Mote’s view, it would be very good to hear from them.

Videos

And a song

The Cricketers of Hambledon – Bruce Bunt, set to music by Peter Warlock. 1928. The London Quartet – Chris Hatt

The Monarch’s Way

Broadhalfpenny Down lies on England’s longest inland waymarked walking route, The Monarch’s Way. This is because it lay on the route of the escape of King Charles II after the Battle of Worcester. He also spent a night in the village at or near Bury Lodge.

Further Reading

There is no shortage of books on Hambledon Cricket, including the following:

• Cricket – The Rev Mr Cotton of Winchester (1775) – the club song of Hambledon
• The Hambledon Men – edited by E.V. Lucas (1907)
• The Hambledon Cricket Chronicle – FS Ashley-Cooper (1923)
• From Hambledon to Lords: The Classics of Cricket – John Arlott (editor) – (1975)
• Hambledon – The Biography of a Hampshire Village – John Goldsmith (1994)
• The Glory Days of Cricket – Ashley Mote (1997)
• Here’s the Hambledon Club – Neil Jenkinson (2001)
• Hambledon – The Men and the Myths – John Goulstone (2001)

See also – more or less any book in the Library.

Footnotes

1. Mitford ↩︎
2. Mote pp 41-43 ↩︎