Former Cricket Ball Factory In The Grounds Of The Paddocks

The following building shall be added to the list:-

TQ 54 NW 50/1548

LEIGH PENSHURST ROAD Former Cricket Ball factory in the grounds of the Paddocks.

GV II

Former factory, currently garage and outbuilding. Late C18 or early C19. Weatherboarded on stock brick plinth. Old tiled roof with 2 ridge brick chimneystacks, one with vitrified headers. Centre gable with leaded rectangular fanlight and pargetting to sides with Dutch doors. To left are 2 early C19 fixed casements with pegged architraves, one 3-light and one 2-light with Dutch plank doors on pintle hinges. To the right of the gable are 3 fixed casements, two 3-light and one 2-light and a plank door with pintle hinges. Roof has collar beams and curved tie beams and the wall framing is of thin scantling with diagonal braces. Part is lined with lath and plaster. Bats and balls were made in this factory by the Duke family who lived in the adjoining house 'The Paddocks'. In 1780 the Duke family presented the 1st six-seamed cricket ball ever made to the Prince of Wales, later George IV. In 1841 the factory was moved near Penshurst station. The Duke family were cousins of H G Wells. Joseph Wells, his father, used to come down to the Penshurst area to collect their cricket goods to sell at his shop in Bromley. This building must be one of the oldest cricket ball factories extant. [See 'The History of Kent Country Cricket' by the Right Hon Lord Harris Eyre & Spottiswoode P 39 1907. The register of Kent County Cricketers 1729-1906 P 281 H G Wells 'Experiment in Autobiography' P 54 and 62]

Listing NGR: TQ5254645362