Project celebrates village's rich cricket heritage
The story of cricket in a Shropshire village spanning over 160 years is being researched in a project which aims to create a definitive archive and a fascinating social insight.
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And now the hunt is on for photos and information about the illustrious past of Whittington Cricket Club, which was founded in 1858, and the personalities involved down the years.
The project led by Nigel Davies, who played for the club for over 30 years, will build on historical research done to celebrate the 150th anniversary in 2008 by Mike Brunt, who has been involved with the club for over 65 years and is the current club President.
Nigel is particularly tapping into Mike’s knowledge and memories. As well as providing material, his knowledge in identifying who's who and what's what on some of the historic photos is proving invaluable.
"It was really Mike’s research done for 2008 that the idea sprang of working with him and people of his age group to get memories, photographs, and the whole history of the club and put it into a cohesive archive," said Nigel.
"The club lost a lot of material, including scorebooks, photos and so on, when the clubhouse was burned down in 1987 but both Mike and myself have been surprised by how much is still out there, on top of what Mike had luckily kept himself, which is a rich source.”
The club moved to its existing ground on the outskirts of the village in 1936 on a peppercorn rent from nearby Halston Hall, a close club association with the hall that has existed throughout all of its long life. Indeed, one of the archive gems is film footage of the President's match played at the ground in 1974, donated by estate owner Rupert Harvey, whose father John was club President at the time.
Old newspapers have been a source of information for games from yesteryear including results, players and insights.
"As an example, I think it was in 1877 that the club used 74 players. Back then you could play for whoever you wanted to during a season, with no league structure or registration, hence the high turnover. If you look at the list of players from that year, clergymen were very well represented, there were two MPs, landowners, policemen, and so on.
"The idea is to get as much information on the people and the players themselves to give a social snapshot of the village at any particular time.”
Nigel says the hope is to initially create a website resource, hopefully with help from a genealogical society or similar group as well as the local community.
The backdrop to the project is a resurgence of cricket in Whittington, led by the new women's section following the hiatus in the men’s game almost 10 years ago.
"Cricket at the club has had a break. It ceased after 164 years, with the last league game being played in 2014. Thankfully, Whittington has also been a bowling club since the early 1990s and the section continued with the club stewardship, doing a fantastic job in keeping everything going. We wouldn’t be in a position to do any of this without them.”
With cricket having lean times, the outfield became a haunt for grazing sheep.
"The cricket at the club has been completely rebuilt, with the help of the ECB and Cricket Shropshire, becoming the Shropshire Women and Girls Hub. As a part of this we started with a ladies' side, the Whittington Witches, in 2022 and that’s gone from strength to strength. This has expanded to include the Wizards midweek men's team, with a very active youth structure for both girls and boys already feeding young players into these teams.
"It's a bit of a phoenix club and to put the history and the archive together gives new members a sense of the scale and the history of the club and how they fit into that – a pride of place if you like.”
Nigel is looking out for material for the project and can be contacted at nigeld1962@icloud.com by email. He says other clubs may have pictures from league or friendly matches of yesteryear against Whittington, such as examples the club currently hold of other local sides.
He is keen to underline the role of Halston Hall in the club's story.
"Halston Hall has been integral to the history of the club from the very beginning. Some of the very early games were played there, although where on the estate we’re not yet sure. Many of the players at this time also worked on the estate, such as the head gardener and bailiff.
“The tradition of the owner of the hall being club President started at this time and continued until Mike took over the role five years ago, so the link has been extremely strong.”
