CHAIR’S REPORT on behalf of the Trustees 2022/23
How important is the heritage and history of cricket in Kent to the club? When I travel to other county cricket grounds, it is immediately clear that most of these clubs cherish their past. Some counties have excellent museum spaces, like Sussex, Gloucestershire and Somerset, for example. Some do their best to prove to all visitors that this is a cricket place – at Derby, Surrey or Leicester you will see large images of cricket all around their grounds. Yet at Canterbury, what tells you that this is a place where cricket is played? Nothing. Just a Sainsbury’s and, as you go through the main gate, a large white wall covered in advertisements for the club’s sponsors. I am not belittling or disparaging any of our very valued commercial partners, but surely a huge white space on the pavilion wall should feature a Kent cricket image or two among all the adverts? What does that tell our visitors about the club’s priorities?
Last year I reported that the problem of space on the ground for the Heritage Trust to keep, manage and catalogue the club’s collections was becoming more acute, and sadly I have to report that nothing has improved since then. The fallout from the Azeem Rafiq affair at Yorkshire has resulted in the ECB issuing many new guidelines, some of which have the effect of taking up space at the ground which the club simply does not have. So we still have no permanent home as a hub for the work of the Heritage Trust, and our newly appointed Curator, Ian Phipps, has to hot-desk his work and find a space wherever he can. The storage of our collections is still unsatisfactory, although much work has been done to ensure that the items are stored as safely as we can manage, but still a proper heat-, light- and humidity-controlled storage space for our memorabilia is still no more than a pipe dream. This is not the fault of the club, although it would be good if there was one member of the new board who had the word ‘heritage’ in their list of responsibilities. The collection now has an estimated value of £2.5 to £3 million, so any deterioration in the items caused by poor storage conditions is knocking tens of thousands of pounds a year off the book value of the club’s assets.
As for display space – don’t get me started. To give an example, when the Cowdrey building was redecorated, the paintings and other artwork that hung in the stairwells were taken down, but so far they have not been put back or replaced. We just see white walls – beautifully painted maybe, but still just plain white walls. The painting of Lord Cornwallis, valued well into five figures, was taken to the old Committee Room, now used as a match control centre, where it still resides as I write this, standing on its side. Because the club owns the memorabilia, they are entitled to move things, or indeed to dispose of them altogether, but the task of the Heritage Trust to manage the collection is not made any easier if we have no way of knowing where anything might be at any time. What we need – and this is asking for the moon, perhaps – is a fully lockable space which can be used as storage space, for displaying some of our treasures, and for research and cataloguing work.
On to more positive things. We have significantly expanded our means of spreading our story beyond the club gates. Quite apart from recent appearances on the BBC’s Antiques Road Show and Celebrity Antiques Road Trip , Howard Milton continues to produce “Inside Edge”, our quarterly newsletter, and we now have a website (kcht.co.uk), and a Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter (@kcht) presence, as well as a blog (kentcricketheritagetrust.wordpress.com) and an Instagram (@kentcricketheritagetrust) account. Please check them all out.
We have had several additions to our collections over the past year, including Cecilia Robinson’s England blazer and skirt, and the greater part of the late John Clark’s cricket memorabilia collection among other things. The fact remains, however, that unless we can convince potential donors that we can store and display their gifts properly, they may be less willing to part with their treasures.
We are also testing out a new tour programme this season, with over 40 ground tours planned. Tickets (£10 for adults) are available from the KCCC website, and we hope to expand this offering over time.
Financially, as you will see from the accounts, we are still in a strong position. Our membership numbers have stayed steady at just over 100 members, and we have also benefited from the sales of the sales of “Kent County Cricket Grounds”, the excellent book by Howard Milton and Peter Francis (a few copies still remain for sale through the club shop), and from second hand book sales, which we plan to continue this season.
Finally, I would like to thank my fellow committee members for their great efforts, cheerfully rendered, over the past year. Sadly,
both Derek Barnard and Don Austen have decided to step down from the committee, and we thank them in particular for all they have done for us over the years. We have recently appointed new trustees, as their predecessors had to step down in rotation according to the Trust’s rules, and with a new Curator, Ian Phipps, a new Treasurer, Keith Austin, and a new Secretary, Colin Jarman, we have a great intake of enthusiasm and skill to take the Trust forward.
Jonathan Rice Chair Kent Cricket Heritage Trust April 2023
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