Howden’s Ashes story: Pavilion in flames to future plans

As we await the next chapter of England’s Test cricket rollercoaster in Australia, it got me thinking about the Ashes in Yorkshire.

Not at Headingley though, in Howden.

The Ashes Playing Fields is a 15.5 acre park that’s located in the Georgian market town of Howden in East Yorkshire. I’ve walked its boundary a few times and dipped into some of the history there.

Inevitably, I wondered if there was some sort of cricket connection and it turns out there is – but not the name itself. Think trees, rather than a tiny urn. A local brewer Charles Briggs donated the land to the community in 1927 and cricket was played there from the 1950s.

If you read the Howden Town Council minutes from June 2025… well, I’ll save you a job… I am happy to report the eponymous ash trees are showing no signs of ash die-back – a devastating disease that the Woodland Trust reckons will kill up to 80% of ash trees across the UK.

As it happens, Howden cricket (not on that site) dates back centuries, as author Jeremy Lonsdale discovered in his article for this very website on the oldest cricket club in Yorkshire.

He notes that ‘In 1778, gentlemen of Beverley and Howden played a series of ‘Great Cricket Matches’ near North Cave, the first references from the East Riding.’

Club cricket was once a feature in central Howden but there it was ashes to ashes as the pavilion was burnt to the ground in April 2015. That might have been that but there is a renewed desire to see the game return to the park.

One of the current committee of the Ashes Playing Field Trust played for Idle in the Bradford League in another life and there are plans to replace the pavilion if funding can be sourced; at which point cricket may return to the town in some form.

There is already plenty of local cricket nearby though with Goole Town Cricket Club four miles South on the other side of the M62. Carlton Towers, newly promoted to the Yorkshire Premier League North’s Premier Division, are situated further West while Gilberdyke and Eastrington are to the East of Howden.

With the need for more grounds in Yorkshire, there may yet be cricket at The Ashes in future.

Any memories of cricket in Howden?

Remember playing at The Ashes Playing Fields or watching a game there? Leave a comment below…