HCH Collection Highlights

Imagine how pleased we were to receive the following e-mail here at HCH in September 2024

Mark Butler and his family have lived for 7 generations in Hambledon, until the house was sold in 2022. One of the more valuable artefacts in the house was a screen with a lot of old score cards, including one when Hambledon defeated the rest of England in 1777, thanks to the skills of the likes of John Small and Richard Nyren. His family has been very concerned that such an important part of cricket’s history should never be lost, particularly as at is still in such good condition. The screen was housed at Lords for some time (back in the 90’s), but the then new curator had different plans, so it was returned to their Hambledon home. Their thought has always been that it remains part of Hampshire history, and Mark therefore contacted Hampshire Cricket Heritage via e-mail last month for us to take custody of it. Not only has the Butler family very kindly donated it to HCH, Mark even dropped it off with us at the Utilita Bowl - see picture of Mark above.  We can't say thank you enough for the culture of giving that now exists towards Hampshire Cricket Heritage and we are only too delighted to take receipt of this unique screen from the extremely generous Butler family. They have also provided information on the screen for us to publish on our Website. The link below takes you to that piece in the Other Items in the Archive Room Collection tab on this site. It includes research from Ian Maun, the notable cricket Historian, who spent many an hour studying the screen for one of his books.

Mark Butler at the same time as handing over the Scorecard Screen passed on some information, sent to him by contemporary cricket historian Ian Maun about the Butler family Hambledon Scorecard Screen, to share with HCH and its Supporters, 

The eighteenth-century collection of printed score-cards, pasted on a large screen and now in the possession of HCH (having been donated by the Butler family of Hambledon), is certainly one of the most interesting artifacts known to enthusiasts of the period. In 1878, Fred Gale, the ‘Old Buffer’, wrote to the owner of Baily’s Magazine a letter concerning Hambledon, entitled ‘The Cradle of Cricket’. In this missive, he mentions ‘the cricket screen, which has been seventy or eighty years in the possession of the family of Colonel Butler, of Hambledon. I saw in his dining room a screen with the original scores of the Old Hambledon, commencing in 1787, printed on paper as our scores are not on card; most of the matches being headed, ‘Grand Match, 1000 guineas a-side.’ It was while passing through Southsea that Gale had heard of the screen from ‘a gentleman’. This article was reproduced in the Hampshire Independent and the Hampshire Advertiser in 1878. 

Canon William Benham, a native of West Meon, wrote in a letter to a magazine in 1890, ‘within a walk of Hambledon, the head-quarters of the first great cricket club of England.’ He stated: ‘One of the old Hambledon players had a big screen on which had pasted all of the scores of the matches played by the club. I once told Frederick Lillywhite of him, when he was gathering his great list of cricket scores, and he went off at once to Hambledon. I knew not whether he succeeded in getting them from him.’ This is not entirely factually correct, as not all the matches played by the Club are on the screen, and many played by other sides are also listed. 

In 1893, R.S. Holmes, discussing printed score-cards in the magazine Cricket, states: ‘Cricket scores were printed on cards and paper (but not sold on cricket grounds, probably because few persons could read then, over 100 years ago.) They may be seen on a screen in the dining-room of Colonel Butler’s house at Hambledon.’ In 1895, Holmes, in Cricket, again writes: ‘When was the score card first issued? In the last century scores were printed on thin sheets of paper at the close of each day’s play, I believe. Witness that famous screen in the possession of Colonel Butler, of Hambledon, which is covered with the original scores of the matches of the Hambledon Club from the year 1777 down to the break-up of the Club in 1788, when it was absorbed into the Hampshire County.’ 

As for the screen itself, Ian Maun adds that "the careful positioning of the score-cards within painted frames of ‘beading’ show that the screen may have been designed/made to accommodate cards of a given dimension. Ashley-Cooper states that the screen originally came from Whitedale, a house close by Windmill Down. This was at one time owned by John Richards, treasurer to the Hambledon Club. Regarding the origin of the cards themselves and the story of their printing is unknown. Aidan Haile suggests that their origin may lie with the Earl of Winchilsea. The earliest score-card in the collection (June 30th, 1785) is also the earliest known of a match in which Winchilsea played."