MEM23834 - Lynton Cricket Ground (Monument)

The Lynton and Lynmouth Cricket Club was established in 1876. The sports pavilion in the current grounds at Lynton was built around the beginning of the 20th Century, but may have been predated by another structure (see MEM23833).

The Lynton and Lynmouth Cricket Club was established in 1876. Its ground is situated in the centre of the Valley of Rocks. [1] The cricket ground was levelled in the 1890s. The pavilion building was thatched until it was burned by arsonists in the 1990s. The wall around what is now the cricket pitch enclosed the rabbit warren. Stones for walls and gateposts around the valley were robbed from the Bronze Age and Iron Age settlement near the roundabout. [2] The area currently labelled "The Warren" and "Cricket Ground" on modern mapping data is sited at SS 7097 4980. This area is simply labelled "The Warren" on the 1st and 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey maps and it is not clear at what stage it became used by the cricket club. A small building is depicted in the corner of the plot on the 1st Edition map (MEM23833) and may or may not have been in use by the club, but had apparently become ruinous by the time the 2nd Edition map was surveyed, at which time what is now the Sports Pavilion at SS 7095 4986 was extant; the plan form of this latter structure appears to have been little altered since this time. [3-5] The site is mentioned in the 2019 Conservation Area Appraisal for Lynton. [6]