Chevening, Kent
Chevening is a village and civil parish in the Sevenoaks District of Kent, England. It was the location for the world's earliest known organised cricket match; the parish is located to the north west of Sevenoaks on the southern slopes of the North Downs. The parish is a small one, being 6.5 miles in length and 1 mile wide. It has a population of 2,762, increasing to 3,092 at the 2011 Census. Apart from the village the remaining area is rural. Chevening House is located here; the Pilgrims' Way crosses the parish. Close to Chevening, the path of Harold Godwinson's army en route to the Battle of Hastings in 1066, heading south along what is now Chipstead Lane, crosses William the Conqueror's route after the battle towards London along the Pilgrim's Way; the village of Chevening is small. It stands on the upper reaches of the River Darent; the village lies close to the M25 motorway. Its parish church is dedicated to St Botolph. Chevening was the venue for the world's earliest known organised cricket match.
The match can be deduced from a 1640 court case recording a "cricketing" of "Weald and Upland" against "Chalkhill" at Chevening "about thirty years since". The case concerned the land. Chevening was served by a halt on the Westerham Valley Branch Line running between Westerham and Dunton Green: the branch opened in 1881 but the halt at Chevening was not added until 1906 when steam railmotor services began on the line. Both line and halt closed in 1961. Location map and historical notes Chevening Parish Council website Chevening parish news
Lewes
Lewes is the county town of East Sussex and by tradition of all of Sussex. Lewes remains the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes, it is a civil parish and is the centre of the Lewes local government district as well as the seat of East Sussex County Council at East Sussex County Hall. The population of Lewes is now around 17,000; the settlement is a traditional market town and centre of communications and, in 1264, it was the site of the Battle of Lewes. The town's landmarks include Lewes Castle, the remains of Lewes Priory, Bull House, Southover Grange and public gardens, a 16th century timber-framed Wealden hall house known as Anne of Cleves House. Other notable features of the area include the Glyndebourne festival, the Lewes Bonfire and the Lewes Pound. Archaeological evidence points to prehistoric dwellers in the area. Scholars think that the Roman settlement of Mutuantonis was here, as quantities of artefacts have been discovered in the area.
The Saxons built a castle. After the Norman invasion, William the Conqueror rewarded William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey, with the Rape of Lewes, a swathe of land along the River Ouse from the coast to the Surrey boundary, he built Lewes Castle on the Saxon site. Lewes was the site of a mint during the Late Anglo-Saxon period and thereafter a mint during the early years after the Norman invasion. In 1148 the town was granted a charter by King Stephen; the town became a port with docks along the River Ouse. The town was the site of the Battle of Lewes between the forces of Henry III and Simon de Montfort in the Second Barons' War in 1264, at the end of which de Montfort's forces were victorious; the battle took place in fields now just west of Landport. At the time of the Marian Persecutions of 1555–1557, Lewes was the site of the execution of seventeen Protestant martyrs, who were burned at the stake in front of the Star Inn; this structure is now the Town Hall. A memorial to the martyrs was unveiled on Cliffe Hill in 1901.
Through the 17th and 18th centuries, Lewes developed as the county town of Sussex, expanding beyond the line of the town wall. It was an active port and developed related iron and ship building industries. In 1846 the town became a railway junction, with lines constructed from the north and east to two railway stations; the development of Newhaven ended Lewes's period as a major port. During the Crimean War, some 300 Finns serving in the Russian army captured at Bomarsund were imprisoned at Lewes. Lewes became a borough in 1881; the name Lewes is the name of the parliamentary constituency and the local district council as well as Lewes Town Council. Lewes is where the East Sussex County Council has its main offices, located at County Hall in St Anne’s Crescent. Lewes District Council is administered from offices in Southover House on Southover Road. Lewes Town Council is based in the Town Hall on Lewes High Street. For many years, Lewes was dominated at local and national levels. In 1991, the Liberal Democrats won the District Council for the first time, the constituency returned a Liberal Democrat MP for the first time in 1997.
The Conservatives won control of the District Council in 2011, strengthened this position in 2015. They won back the parliamentary seat in the 2015 election with Maria Caulfield defeating the incumbent Liberal Democrat of 18 years, Norman Baker by 1,083 votes. In organisational terms, Lewes became one of the non-county boroughs within the Sussex, East county under the Local Government Act 1933. In 1974, Lewes District Council was formed on 1 April 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, was a merger of the former borough of Lewes along with Newhaven and Seaford urban districts and Chailey Rural District; the election in 2015 was the first time in which Green Councillors had been elected to the Lewes District Council, all from the wards in the town of Lewes. The Lewes Councillor elected to the District Council, Ruth O'Keeffe, was elected as Chairman of the Council; the town of Lewes became a civil parish with the title of town. Lewes Town Council is one of the 300 largest of the 9,800 parish councils in England and Wales, with expenditure budgeted at just over £1 million.
In the 2015 elections for Lewes Town Council, the Green Party were the largest party with 9 seats. But, they lost a seat to an Independent in a by-election and split. There are now 6 Liberal Democrats, 5 Greens, 4 Independents and 3 Independent Green members of Council; the Mayor for 2017/18 is Councillor Michael Chartier and the Deputy Mayor is Janet Baah, both Liberal Democrats. The representation from Lewes wards at local government levels, as at the latest elections, is as follows. On 31 March 2009 Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for Environment and Rural Affairs, announced his decision to confirm the designation of the South Downs National Park, which came into being one year and includes the town of Lewes within its boundaries. You can see Lewes lying like a box of toys under a great amphitheatre of chalk hills... on the whole it is set down better than any town I have seen in England. Lewes is situated on the Greenwich Meridian, in a gap in the Sout
Lord's Old Ground
Lord's Old Ground was a cricket venue in London, established by Thomas Lord in 1787. It was used by Marylebone Cricket Club for major matches until 1810, after which a dispute about rent caused Lord to relocate; the first match known to have been played at Lord's Old Ground was White Conduit Club v Middlesex on Monday 21 May 1787. The first regular cricket fixture at Lord's which continues today was the annual Eton v Harrow match, first played on the Old Ground in 1805; the inaugural Gentlemen v Players match took place at the Old Ground in July 1806. Lord's Old Ground was on the site of. Lord relocated in 1811 to Lord's Middle Ground, a site at Lisson Grove in the vicinity of Regent's Park but he lost that venue after only three years because the land was requisitioned for a canal cutting. In 1814, he opened the present Lord's Cricket Ground a duckpond in St John's Wood. A commemorative plaque was unveiled in Dorset Square by Andrew Strauss on 9 May 2006. Lord's CricInfo's page on the original Lord's
London
London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south-east of England, at the head of its 50-mile estuary leading to the North Sea, London has been a major settlement for two millennia. Londinium was founded by the Romans; the City of London, London's ancient core − an area of just 1.12 square miles and colloquially known as the Square Mile − retains boundaries that follow its medieval limits. The City of Westminster is an Inner London borough holding city status. Greater London is governed by the Mayor of the London Assembly. London is considered to be one of the world's most important global cities and has been termed the world's most powerful, most desirable, most influential, most visited, most expensive, sustainable, most investment friendly, most popular for work, the most vegetarian friendly city in the world. London exerts a considerable impact upon the arts, education, fashion, healthcare, professional services and development, tourism and transportation.
London ranks 26 out of 300 major cities for economic performance. It is one of the largest financial centres and has either the fifth or sixth largest metropolitan area GDP, it is the most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the busiest city airport system as measured by passenger traffic. It is the leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. London's universities form the largest concentration of higher education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted three modern Summer Olympic Games. London has a diverse range of people and cultures, more than 300 languages are spoken in the region, its estimated mid-2016 municipal population was 8,787,892, the most populous of any city in the European Union and accounting for 13.4% of the UK population. London's urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census.
The population within the London commuter belt is the most populous in the EU with 14,040,163 inhabitants in 2016. London was the world's most populous city from c. 1831 to 1925. London contains four World Heritage Sites: the Tower of London. Other landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square and The Shard. London has numerous museums, galleries and sporting events; these include the British Museum, National Gallery, Natural History Museum, Tate Modern, British Library and West End theatres. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world. "London" is an ancient name, attested in the first century AD in the Latinised form Londinium. Over the years, the name has attracted many mythicising explanations; the earliest attested appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written around 1136. This had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had taken over the city and named it Kaerlud.
Modern scientific analyses of the name must account for the origins of the different forms found in early sources Latin, Old English, Welsh, with reference to the known developments over time of sounds in those different languages. It is agreed; this was adapted into Latin as Londinium and borrowed into Old English, the ancestor-language of English. The toponymy of the Common Brythonic form is much debated. A prominent explanation was Richard Coates's 1998 argument that the name derived from pre-Celtic Old European *lowonida, meaning "river too wide to ford". Coates suggested that this was a name given to the part of the River Thames which flows through London. However, most work has accepted a Celtic origin for the name, recent studies have favoured an explanation along the lines of a Celtic derivative of a proto-Indo-European root *lendh-, combined with the Celtic suffix *-injo- or *-onjo-. Peter Schrijver has suggested, on these grounds, that the name meant'place that floods'; until 1889, the name "London" applied to the City of London, but since it has referred to the County of London and Greater London.
"London" is sometimes written informally as "LDN". In 1993, the remains of a Bronze Age bridge were found on the south foreshore, upstream of Vauxhall Bridge; this bridge either reached a now lost island in it. Two of those timbers were radiocarbon dated to between 1750 BC and 1285 BC. In 2010 the foundations of a large timber structure, dated to between 4800 BC and 4500 BC, were found on the Thames's south foreshore, downstream of Vauxhall Bridge; the function of the mesolithic structure is not known. Both structures are on the south bank. Although there is evidence of scattered Brythonic settlements in the area, the first major settlement was founded by the Romans about four years after the invasion
Duppas Hill
Duppas Hill is a park and surrounding residential area in Waddon, near Croydon in Greater London. Duppas Hill has a long history of recreation, it is said that jousting took place there in medieval times and the story goes that Lord William de Warenne was treacherously slain there during a joust in 1286. Duppas Hill was a used by Croydon Cricket Club for cricket matches in the 18th century; the earliest known match took place in 1707. It is recorded in the 1730s as the home venue of Croydon and sometimes by Surrey teams. Duppas Hill was the site of the Croydon workhouse. In 1726 the Vestry of Croydon resolved to erect the town's first workhouse at a site on what was called "Dubber's Hill"; the establishment was governed by a committee of Trustees. In 1836 it became the Croydon Poor Law Union workhouse; the workhouse moved to a new building at Thornton Heath in 1866, but the infirmary remained in the Duppas Hill buildings until 1885 and the establishment of a new infirmary close to the new workhouse.
There has been a public park at Duppas Hill since 1865, when the Croydon Board of Health bought land from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for £2,000 to create Croydon's first recreation ground. It was laid out with a bandstand, pavilion and an ornate drinking fountain; the Board of Health had to deal with drinking booths and other problems. The Board had proposed enclosing it with iron posts and railings intending to turn the area into a park rather than a recreation ground for all to enjoy sports and games and in particular aimed to restrict horse-riding; some of the Board wanted to ban horse-riding on the public open space, others to ban grooms exercising horses but not the general public riding for pleasure. Sir Francis Head, a famous soldier who lived at Duppas Hall overlooking the park, chaired a large public meeting to prevent the enclosure, wrote letters and memoranda to the press and headed a memorial of 3,500 people protesting against enclosure, he argued that the horse riders protected defenceless ladies, but he was satisfied with notices forbidding people from exercising their horses, with Duppas Hill becoming the space for recreation it still is today.
The ground was used for public celebrations and firework displays. On the eve of the 1926 General Strike, it was the venue of a mass rally of trade unionists and workers. In World War II it hosted a baseball match between Canadian soldiers. Today the park is still a recreation ground, football and cricket are still played there. Part of the site was used as the Heath Clark school part of Croydon College, which has now been developed into housing; the road is a section of the Ewell to Orpington A232 road, preceded by Stafford Road to the west and succeeded by the Croydon Flyover to the east. It is a no-stopping Red Route for its entire length. List of Parks and Open Spaces in Croydon McInnes, Paula; the Croydon Workhouse. Croydon: Key Croydon/Croydon Society. ISBN 0-9512713-2-6. Hidden History in Croydon's Parks, Croydon Council History of Duppas Hill, Croydon Council
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of, a 20-metre pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striking the ball bowled at the wicket with the bat, while the bowling and fielding side tries to prevent this and dismiss each player. Means of dismissal include being bowled, when the ball hits the stumps and dislodges the bails, by the fielding side catching the ball after it is hit by the bat, but before it hits the ground; when ten players have been dismissed, the innings ends and the teams swap roles. The game is adjudicated by two umpires, aided by a third umpire and match referee in international matches, they communicate with two off-field scorers. There are various formats ranging from Twenty20, played over a few hours with each team batting for a single innings of 20 overs, to Test matches, played over five days with unlimited overs and the teams each batting for two innings of unlimited length.
Traditionally cricketers play in all-white kit, but in limited overs cricket they wear club or team colours. In addition to the basic kit, some players wear protective gear to prevent injury caused by the ball, a hard, solid spheroid made of compressed leather with a raised sewn seam enclosing a cork core, layered with wound string. Cricket's origins are uncertain and the earliest definite reference is in south-east England in the middle of the 16th century, it spread globally with the expansion of the British Empire, leading to the first international matches in the second half of the 19th century. The game's governing body is the International Cricket Council, which has over 100 members, twelve of which are full members who play Test matches; the game's rules are held in a code called the Laws of Cricket, owned and maintained by Marylebone Cricket Club in London. The sport is followed in the Indian subcontinent, the United Kingdom, southern Africa and the West Indies, its globalisation occurring during the expansion of the British Empire and remaining popular into the 21st century.
Women's cricket, organised and played separately, has achieved international standard. The most successful side playing international cricket is Australia, having won seven One Day International trophies, including five World Cups, more than any other country, having been the top-rated Test side more than any other country. Cricket is one of many games in the "club ball" sphere that involve hitting a ball with a hand-held implement. In cricket's case, a key difference is the existence of a solid target structure, the wicket, that the batsman must defend; the cricket historian Harry Altham identified three "groups" of "club ball" games: the "hockey group", in which the ball is driven to and fro between two targets. It is believed that cricket originated as a children's game in the south-eastern counties of England, sometime during the medieval period. Although there are claims for prior dates, the earliest definite reference to cricket being played comes from evidence given at a court case in Guildford on Monday, 17 January 1597.
The case concerned ownership of a certain plot of land and the court heard the testimony of a 59-year-old coroner, John Derrick, who gave witness that: "Being a scholler in the ffree schoole of Guldeford hee and diverse of his fellows did runne and play there at creckett and other plaies". Given Derrick's age, it was about half a century earlier when he was at school and so it is certain that cricket was being played c. 1550 by boys in Surrey. The view that it was a children's game is reinforced by Randle Cotgrave's 1611 English-French dictionary in which he defined the noun "crosse" as "the crooked staff wherewith boys play at cricket" and the verb form "crosser" as "to play at cricket". One possible source for the sport's name is the Old English word "cryce" meaning a staff. In Samuel Johnson's Dictionary, he derived cricket from "cryce, Saxon, a stick". In Old French, the word "criquet" seems to have meant a kind of stick. Given the strong medieval trade connections between south-east England and the County of Flanders when the latter belonged to the Duchy of Burgundy, the name may have been derived from the Middle Dutch "krick", meaning a stick.
Another possible source is the Middle Dutch word "krickstoel", meaning a long low stool used for kneeling in church and which resembled the long low wicket with two stumps used in early cricket. According to Heiner Gillmeister, a European language expert of Bonn University, "cricket" derives from the Middle Dutch phrase for hockey, met de sen. Gillmeister has suggested that not only the name but the sport itself may be of Flemish origin. Although the main object of the game has always been to score the most runs, the early form of cricket differed from the modern game in certain key technical aspects; the ball was bowled underarm by the bowler and all along the ground towards a batsman armed with a bat that, in shape, resembled a hockey stick.
Penshurst Park
Penshurst Park Cricket Ground known as the Earl of Leicester's Park, is a cricket ground at Penshurst in Kent. It is one of the oldest cricket venues in England. Part of the Penshurst Place estate, it hosted its first recorded match in 1724. Penshurst Park is known to have been the venue for matches played as early as the 1720s, it is first recorded in 1724 for a match involving a combined the Penshurst, Tonbridge & Wadhurst cricket team against Dartford Cricket Club. And in the 1728 English cricket season when it was used for two matches organised by Kent patron Edwin Stead against teams led by the 2nd Duke of Richmond and Sir William Gage. In 1729, Stead used it as his home venue for another match against Sir William Gage's XI. A number of matches were played by a Penshurst club in the mid-19th century; the ground is the home of the modern Penshurst Cricket Club
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