#ground sale

2 incidents tagged

Thomas Lord Sells the Ground — William Ward Saves Lord's, July 1825

n/a

1825-07-28

In 1825 Thomas Lord, the founder of the ground that bears his name, decided that property development would pay him better than cricket and obtained planning permission to build housing across most of the playing field. The MCC member William Ward MP, a Bank of England director and noted batsman, bought him out for £5,000 to save the ground. Weeks later, on the night of 28 July 1825, the pavilion burned to the ground after a Winchester v Harrow match, destroying the club's records.

#thomas-lord#william-ward#lord-s

⭐Serious

William Ward Saves Lord's — The £5,000 Cheque That Kept Cricket at St John's Wood, 1825

n/a

1825-05-15

When Thomas Lord obtained planning permission in 1825 to redevelop most of his cricket ground for housing, the MCC member William Ward — a Bank of England director and the man who had scored 278 at the same ground five years earlier — wrote a personal cheque for £5,000 to buy out Lord's interest. The transaction preserved Lord's as a cricket ground and is the single most consequential financial act in nineteenth-century cricket.

#william-ward#thomas-lord#1825