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Clifton Villa Estate, also known as New Cricket Ground, was a cricket ground in the Cliftonville area of the town of Margate in Kent. The only first-class cricket match played on the ground was between Kent County Cricket Club and Sussex County Cricket Club in July 1864. The ground was leased from the Cliftonville Estate from July to October to be used for cricket, although only one other match is known to have taken place on the ground. This took place in the same year and was a non-first-class match between a Margate team and the United All-England Eleven.

The ground was built on farmland on the eastern outskirts of Margate. It was only in existence for a short time with the land being built on soon after 1864 as Margate and Cliftonville experienced a rapid expansion following the arrival of the railway in the area. It was probably located in the area of the modern Dalby Square in Cliftonville. This was originally known as Ethelbert Square and was developed as a residential area from 1865. The large Cliftonville Hotel was built in 1868 on what was described as "an island site in the middle of corn fields" to become Margate's "first grand hotel". Grass tennis courts and a croquet lawn were laid out in Dalby Square Gardens from at least 1885 and today the area is laid out as ornamental gardens.

Kent teams had played first-class matches on Dandelion Paddock in the Garlinge area to the west of Margate in the 1790s before the establishment of the first county club in 1842.

References

1. Grounds Records in Kent County Cricket Club Annual 2017, pp.210–211. Canterbury: Kent County Cricket Club.
2. First-Class matches played on Clifton Villa Estate, Margate, CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-12-07.
3. ^ Milton H (2020) Kent County Cricket Grounds, p.214. Woking: Pitch Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78531-661-6
4. Other matches played on Clifton Villa Estate, Margate, CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-12-07.
5. 3 Historical development, Proposed Ethelbert Road and Athelstan Road Conservation Area, Thanet District Council, 2014. Retrieved 2017-12-08.
6. Clifton Villa Estate, CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-12-07.
7. ^ Foad S (2010) Dalby Square, Cliftonville, Newsletter, Issue 361, winter 2010, pp.4–5, Margate Civic Society. Retrieved 2017-12-08.
8. ^ Margate's Seaside Heritage Archived 2017-08-12 at the Wayback Machine, English Heritage. Retrieved 2017-12-08.
9. Dalby Square Townscape Heritage Initiative, Thanet District Council. Retrieved 2017-12-08.
10. Margate, The Times, issue 25594, 1866-09-04, p.14.
11. Quoted in Thanet District Council Op. cit..
12. Dalby Square, Margate, Thanet, The Kent Compendium of Historic Parks and Gardens for Thanet District, June 2013. Retrieved 2017-12-08.
13. Dandelion Paddock, Margate, CricketArchive. Retrieved 2017-12-08.

External links

• Clifton Villa Estate on CricInfo

• Cricket grounds in Kent
• Defunct cricket grounds in England
• Defunct sports venues in Kent