Baseball game at Cheriton Road ground, on the location of the current indoor bowls club, c. 1914-1918

Picture credit: Christine Warren

What I love about this photograph is that the same spot has been so many things over the years. Originally it was farm land. Then it was a cricket pitch. Then, clearly, a baseball field. Then it was tennis courts. Then it was a walkway to a football ground. Then it was an indoor bowls club.

Bats, bats, rackets, balls, bowls.

In many ways this sums up the Cheriton Road site very well. Multiple sports coexisting together, and in this case on the same spot. The various sports have worked together, and sometimes against each other, but they are all still on the same site.

The more I have dug into the history of the site, the more diversity I have found. I thought I was only looking into the history of the football ground.

The picture alone also is a great aid to investigation. Nothing you can see in the photo is there anymore! So how did I work out where it is, or was? Well the main giveaway is the triangular rooves in the middle of the photo. These used to be at the main entrance to the Cheriton Road cemetery.

As I’d added the history of the cemetery to my investigations this meant that I could use their location for this photo perspective. Secondly, the pavilion on the right was the original cricket ground pavilion dating form approximately 1901, that later became the football ground changing room, later to be demolished (early 1970s?). Every new photo or piece of information leads to a fascinating investigation.