Geograph - photograph every grid square

Although cricket was played on this site informally from the mid-eighteenth century, its status as an official ground dates from 1839 when the newly formed Tunbridge Wells Cricket Club were given permission to use and improve it. It was enlarged in 1859 and 1875. County matches were played here from 1845 to 1880, but they ceased due to the poor condition of the pitch which was regularly trampled by the public and grazing animals. On either side of the pavilion are flowering cherries planted in June 1953 to commemorate Elizabeth II's coronation. Around the cricket ground, and elsewhere on the Common, can be seen a number of cast iron 'hawthorn' benches dating from the 1860s and restored in the early 1990s subsequently, many replicas of the originals have also been made and installed.