List of Kent County Cricket Club grounds

The St Lawrence Ground in Canterbury was unusual in having a tree of over 100 feet in height (visible on the left of the picture) within the boundary of the playing area. The tree blew down in a storm in 2005, and a much smaller replacement was planted at the same spot later that year.

This is a list of grounds that Kent County Cricket Club have used since the formation of the first county club in August 1842. The club has used 29 grounds for first-class, List A and Twenty20 home matches. Prior to the formation of the first county club an informal county team had appeared in first-class matches from 1773 and cricket had been played in the county from at least the 17th century.^[1][2]

White Hart Field in Bromley played host to the club's first home fixture in first-class cricket against an All England cricket team in 1842.^[1] The county was based at the Beverley Ground in Canterbury until 1846 and Canterbury Cricket Week was first established at this ground.^[3][4] From 1847 the base for the county moved to the St Lawrence Ground, also in Canterbury, and this ground was later established as the county's formal headquarters.^[5] It is now the main ground for the county and hosts the majority of home matches. The ground is famous for having had a tree, the St Lawrence Lime, on the playing area for most of its history.^[6][7][8] although it was only used for county cricket during Canterbury week until well into the 20th century.^[9]

Unusually for a first-class county, Kent have played over 100 home fixtures at seven grounds and continued to play the majority of its matches away from the St Lawrence Ground until well into the 20th century.^[9][10] The out-grounds still in use as of 2018 are the Nevill Ground in Tunbridge Wells, which hosts the annual Tunbridge Wells Cricket Week, and the County Cricket Ground, Beckenham.

The 29 grounds that Kent have used for home matches since 1842 are listed below. Not recorded as a home ground is The Oval in London, which is the home ground of Surrey. Kent hired The Oval for a match against Essex in the 2010 Friends Provident t20.^[11][12]

Grounds

Below is a list of grounds used by Kent County Cricket Club in first-class, List A and Twenty20 matches. Grounds are listed in order of their first use by the county. The count only includes matches where Kent were the home team. Many grounds have been used by other teams, including for international matches.^{[upper-alpha 1]}

As of 19 September 2018

Name	Location	FC	LA	T20	First match	Last match	Refs
White Hart Field	Bromley	1[upper-alpha 2]	0	0	25 August 1842 v England		[13]
Beverley Ground	Canterbury	7[upper-alpha 3]	0	0	13 July 1843 v Sussex	3 August 1846 v England	[14]
Hemsted Park[upper-alpha 4]	Benenden	1	0	0	17 August 1843 v England		[15]
Higher Common Ground	Tunbridge Wells	28[upper-alpha 5]	0	0	31 July 1845 v Sussex	25 August 1884 v Somerset	[16]
Preston Hall Ground	Aylesford	2	0	0	23 July 1846 v Surrey	15 July 1847 v Surrey	[17]
St Lawrence Ground	Canterbury	572[upper-alpha 6][upper-alpha 7]	364[upper-alpha 7]	61	2 August 1847 v England	18 September 2018 v Glamorgan	[19][20]
Bat and Ball Ground	Gravesend	142[upper-alpha 6][upper-alpha 8]	0	0	21 June 1849 v All England Eleven	26 May 1971 v Pakistanis	[19][21]
School Field	Cranbrook	2	0	0	15 July 1850 v All England Eleven	24 July 1851 v All England Eleven	[22]
Mote Park	Maidstone	218	53[upper-alpha 9]	2	23 June 1859 v MCC	5 June 2005 v Derbyshire	[23]
New Brompton Cricket Ground	Chatham	1	0	0	12 June 1862 v Cambridgeshire		[24]
Swifts Park	Cranbrook	2	0	0	24 July 1862 v Yorkshire	23 July 1863 v Nottinghamshire	[25]
Sandgate Plain	Folkestone	2	0	0	31 July 1862 v Sussex	30 July 1863 v Sussex	[26]
Crystal Palace Park	Crystal Palace	5[upper-alpha 10]	0	0	21 July 1864 v Nottinghamshire	25 August 1870 v Sussex	[27]
New Cricket Ground	Margate	1	0	0	28 July 1864 v Sussex		[28]
B. M. Close's Ground	Southborough	1	0	0	8 July 1867 v Hampshire		[29]
Angel Ground	Tonbridge	106	0	0	22 July 1869 v Nottinghamshire	7 June 1939 v Glamorgan	[30]
Private Banks Sports Ground	Catford	38	0	0	31 May 1875 v Sussex	29 June 1921 v Nottinghamshire	[31]
Mount Field	Faversham	1	0	0	17 August 1876 v Hampshire		[32]
Old County Ground	West Malling	4[upper-alpha 11]	0	0	3 June 1878 v Nottinghamshire	3 July 1890 v Sussex	[33]
Foxgrove Road	Beckenham	14	0	0	22 July 1886 v Surrey	3 August 1905 v Surrey	[34]
The Rectory Field	Blackheath	84	3	0	26 May 1887 v Gloucestershire	3 June 1972 v Surrey	[35]
Nevill Ground	Tunbridge Wells	188	27	6	15 July 1901 v Lancashire	20 June 2018 v Warwickshire	[19][36]
Crabble Athletic Ground	Dover	106	4	0	11 July 1907 v Gloucestershire	21 July 1976 v Derbyshire	[37]
Garrison 1 Cricket Ground	Chatham	3[upper-alpha 12]	0	0	9 June 1926 v Derbyshire	14 May 1927 v Northamptonshire	[38]
Cheriton Road	Folkestone	85[upper-alpha 13]	23[upper-alpha 13]	0	8 September 1926 v MCC	1 July 1995 v Cambridge University	[39]
Garrison Ground 2	Gillingham	28[upper-alpha 14]	3	0	5 May 1937 v Worcestershire	6 August 1972 v Leicestershire	[40]
The Kent County Cricket Ground	Beckenham	6[upper-alpha 15]	7	22	9 June 1954 v Gloucestershire	12 August 2018 v Middlesex	[19][41]
Hesketh Park	Dartford	33	2	0	16 May 1956 v Essex	8 August 1990 v Leicestershire	[42]
Midland Bank Sports Ground	Beckenham	0	1	0	10 May 1970 v Lancashire		[43]

Notes

References