Brunswick Field by Andrew Hignell

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Ground:

Brunswick Field, Swansea

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DateLine: 30th June 2012

 

Brunswick Field

 

Between 1865 and 1867, Swansea CC played at Brunswick Field, roughly where the Brunswick Medical Centre currently stands at 140 St. Helen's Road, about a mile or so to the east of the present-day St. Helen's ground.

 

The use of Brunswick Field followed the loss of previous grounds, including the land on the foreshore at Crymlin Burrows. The club were eager to secure a permanent base in the rapidly expanding town so they created a Field Committee, and on 14th March 1865, the minute book records how "The club has succeeded in securing the large field by St Helens", following agreement with the landowners of Brunswick Court who were happy for the cricket club to use the large field which lay to the south of the house and adjoined the main road running west from the town towards the Oystermouth Road and further west towards the Mumbles.

 

The first match on record at Brunswick Field took place on May 25th when Swansea met the Cadoxton club, and it must have proved to be a satisfactory location as the Swansea club were back at Brunswick Field in 1866 with The Cambrian newspaper announcing how the season would begin in April with "... a trial match between the first eleven and the next twenty-two, which will be played on the ground adjoining Brunswick Place".

 

Given it's location in the St.Helen's area, the ground was also sometimes referred to as "St.Helen's Field". Indeed, this was the case with the newspaper posters advertising the grand match on 11th, 12th and 13th July 1866 when a XXII of Swansea and District met the United All England Eleven. But a trawl through local newspapers has confirmed that it was Brunswick Field where the game took place, rather than the ground adjoining Gorse Lane, a mile or so further west with The Cambrian reporting how, one of the English professionals, George Paling, the Nottinghamshire right-handed batsman, "... sometimes sent the ball into the back gardens of houses in Brunswick Street."

 

The Swansea club however were aware that their use of Brunswick Field might not be long-term, and the staging of the match against the United All England Eleven was an attempt by the club to raise funds to secure a permanent home elsewhere. Their fears were realised at the end of the 1867 season when the Brunswick Field was acquired for building purposes, and for their activities in 1868 the club subsequently moved to the Bryn-y-Mor Field, a couple of miles to the north-west, and away from the sprawling edge of the town.

 

The tree-lined Bryn-y-Mor Field was situated opposite the Uplands Hotel, a fine local hostelry where the healthy young sportsmen of the town could celebrate a victory, or drown their sorrows after a defeat, as well as a place where they could get changed and also hold meetings. Indeed, the move to Bryn-y-Mor appeared to give a new lease of life to the Swansea cricketers who enjoyed their summer activities so much that they decided to maintain their camaraderie by playing football during the winter months.

 

Their first fixture, played against Neath on November 23rd, 1872 was played under Association rules, but during 1874 they switched to the rugby union code, and on November 28th played their inaugural fixture against the young men of Llandovery College. But there was a downside to this, as the field was often unusable in the early part of the cricket season and, as one cricketer of the time commented "the upshot of playing football over the cricket pitch was that the wickets only began to get in decent condition about the end of August!."

 

Others had found the location a little bit too far out of town where many of the young gentlemen worked. Brunswick Field had been in a far more central location, and on a couple of occasions, Swansea CC used Primrose Field, another recreation ground close to the town centre which was the headquarters of Swansea's Working Men's Club. But this was also far from ideal for either cricket as it had a pronounced slope. Ever since the move away from Brunswick Field, several influential members of the Club had been casting an eye on other land in the St.Helen's area where a decent wicket could be cut, and in August 1867, shortly after the news of the imminent loss of Brunswick Field, The Cambrian newspaper carried a letter asking why "the [Swansea] corporation – with such means at its disposal – does not make some provision for the healthful recreation of the inhabitants of the town. All available ground is being rapidly built upon. Why not therefore at once secure those (reclaimed) fields on the Mumbles road, by Gorse Lane, for a people's park – a part of which might be reserved as a cricketing ground?"

 

Their wishes true in the early 1870s as Robert Eaton, the owner of Bryn-y-Mor Field informed the Club that the land would also be acquired for building. Discussions swiftly began about a return to the St.Helen's area and during 1873 the Swansea Cricket and Football Club successfully acquired the area of sandbanks owned by Colonel Llewellyn Morgan, adjacent to the Oystermouth Road on the foreshore of Swansea Bay. 1874 was therefore the final summer of cricketing activity on the Bryn-y-Mor Field with the St. Helen’s ground being formally opened on Whit Monday 1875.

(Article: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author only.
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