Cricket Pavilion at Ashton Wold

Cricket Pavilion at Ashton Wold

This cricket pavilion was built in the late 1920s or early 1930s, probably designed by William Huckvale for Lord Rothschild and the Ashton Estate. It is constructed as a timber building on a coursed rock-faced limestone plinth, with a hipped reed thatched roof.

The pavilion is a single-storey, seven-bay rectangular building with full-length verandahs on the east and west elevations. The oversailing eaves of the roof are supported on brackets positioned either side of regularly spaced posts. Between the posts are wooden railings patterned with diagonal crosses, except for the central bay which is left open with two stone steps down to ground level. Access to the interior is provided through five glazed double doors with overlights on both east and west elevations; single windows at either end of both elevations and two windows on the north and south elevations light the changing rooms at either end.

The interior is lined with vertical plank panelling throughout. The largest central communal room has been fitted with new serving areas, though the Members' end has been only slightly modified. Doors at the north and south ends lead into the changing rooms, identified by signs reading "Members" and "Visitors". These rooms are fitted with narrow benches around the walls and hooks above, and are subdivided to provide washing facilities. All doors, door furniture and other fixtures appear to be original.

The Ashton Estate stretches from the River Nene near Oundle in the west to Ashton Wold in the east and has been occupied since Roman times. By the 18th century it was a well-known sporting estate with avenues of chestnut trees planted in a cross as rides and a number of fox coverts. In the early 19th century under the ownership of William Walcot it was largely farmed by tenants, with Ashton Wold continuing as a sporting ground. When the estate was purchased by Lionel Rothschild in 1860, it was described as a valuable and important landed estate with sporting advantages but no house adapted for a gentleman's occupation. The only structural work undertaken in the 19th century was the building of a hunting lodge. However, when Lord Rothschild's second son, Nathaniel Charles (1877-1923), known as Charles, discovered Ashton by chance and was impressed by its rich fauna and flora, he persuaded his father to build him a house on the site of the hunting lodge. In 1900 Lord Rothschild commissioned William Huckvale to design not only a house but a model farm and an entire complement of estate buildings including the Steward's house, stables, gardeners' accommodation, a fire engine house, petrol store, kennels (now derelict) and a dog hospital. Most cottages at nearby Ashton were rebuilt to create a model village. High quality design and workmanship were consistent themes throughout the estate, employing traditional vernacular building traditions with simple working buildings afforded the same care as dwellings, farmsteads and garden structures.

The cricket pavilion is a relatively late structure on the Ashton Estate. It does not appear on the estate map of 1901 or the Ordnance Survey map of 1926, indicating that the cricket ground was added in the late 1920s or early 1930s, presumably to provide recreation for the young men who lived and worked on the estate. The pitch and pavilion remain in use today, with a local team drawn from Ashton and the surrounding villages.

William Huckvale (1847-1936) worked mainly for the Rothschilds and designed numerous buildings for them on the Tring Park estate, undertook considerable work at the Rothschild bank in New Court in the City of London, served as architect for the Royal Mint Refinery, and carried out work on the Rothschild estate at Aston Clinton.