Barrow Cricket Club
Founded 1856
Our Ground
Cavendish Park till 1927.
Ernest Pass Memorial Ground, Abbey Road - Formal opening 28th April 1928.
Gifted to Barrow Cricket Club by the Chairman Mr Alfred Shakespeare Pass in memory of his late son Ernest Pass, who was killed in action during the First World War.
The formation of
Barrow Cricket Club
History
Barrow Cricket Club was formed on Tuesday, 22nd July 1856 at a meeting convened in the Queens Arms Hotel in Rawlinson Street, Barrow-in-Furness.
Barrow CC was formed on 22nd July 1856 at a meeting in the Queen’s Hotel on Rawlinson St.
This was before Barrow became a shipbuilding and industrial town. At the time there were only approx. 300 residents living in Barrow. There were no docks, only a section of the railway had been built and there was no Iron Ore Furnace.
At the meeting, the committee set some club rules and regulations. Subscriptions were to be 4 old pennies a month, anyone disobeying the captain would be fined 1d and there would be a 2d fine for not attending committee meetings!
The Club started playing cricket at Salthouse Marsh – which we believe was where Cavendish Dock is now, but there were problems with the drainage of the pitch, I think there might have been a clue in the name of the ground!
Early Challenge Matches
There was no cricket league – so when a team was considered ready to play a game – a challenge was issued. One of the first matches was against Broughton “11 of theirs against 11 of ours” – there was no score recorded in the minute book other than a note to say that “we gave them a jolly good whacking!”
A later combined Barrow & Dalton team played against Ulverston – due to a “weakness” in the Barrow team.
The club must have thought things were going well as they invested in a single set of wickets and committee members purchased 2 bats. (I’m not sure what they playing with before)
Club Moves to the Parade Ground
Attempts to drain Salthouse Marsh were unsuccessful. The club considered playing on a field at Furness Abbey, but in 1867 moved to the Parade Ground – on the corner of Duke St & Abbey Rd at Ramsden Sq.
At the Parade ground a club tent offered a dressing area with lockers and hat pegs. Sir James Ramsden, who was club President, paid the princely sum of £6.3 3d for the pitch to be re-turfed and drains added.
A groundsman (who was also a bowler) was appointed and a club professional was appointed.
A new home at Cavendish Park
The Parade ground was not big enough for the ever-expanding club and so they moved to Cavendish Park on Barrow Island. Maybe a sign of how times had changed in the now thriving town of Barrow was the donation of £150 from Furness railway towards the £200 building costs of the new pavilion.
The first game at the new ground was against Preston and a brass band played. Teams travelled from as far away as Middlesbrough and Liverpool to play Barrow. An acrimonious match against Kendal, reported in the Westmorland gazette, accused the Umpires of “wrongfully” giving 4 batsmen out.
WG Grace’s South of England side visited Barrow to play a 3 day game – the club purchased 11 bats for 10 shillings & 6 pence each especially for the occasion!
More than just Cricket
In 1876 Barrow Football Club were being charged £7 a year rent to use the ground and pavilion. In 1879 the club made a loss & so the ground was let out for winter sheep grazing. In 1884 Barrow Amateur Cycling club was granted use of the ground.
The club also held an annual Barrow Cricket Club Athletic Sports Competition, with trains bringing spectators from as far away as Manchester and Leeds.
The North Lancs & District League
The North Lancs & District League was formed in 1892, with Barrow as a founding member. The league was very successful, according to “The Mail” at the time “Attendances improved” with meagre gates becoming a “thing of the past” and “big crowds” lining the field. The club celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 1906. A game was arranged between the “Past 17” or “Old Crocks” and the current team. Some of the Old Crocks were said to be “Scampering between the wickets like deer” The current team won the match, which was probably for the best, as they would never have heard the end of it if “The Old Crocks” had won!
When World War 1 broke out in 1914, the military took over Cavendish Park. However, the club was playing there again by the early 1920’s as we have photographs of teams from that era stood outside the pavilion.
Barrow Cricket Club moves to Monk’s Croft
In 1927 the Club Chairman Alfred Shakespeare Pass purchased 4 acres of land known as Monk’s Croft for an estimated £1500. It was said to be only half a cricket ground as it was “surmounted with mounds” He paid for the ground to be levelled. His only request that the ground be named in memory of his son Ernest, to perpetuate his memory, as he was among the missing at the end of The Great War.
Who were the Pass Family?
Alfred Shakespeare Pass was born in Manchester in 1865, but had moved to Barrow by 1881. He married his wife Ada, daughter of Alderman Fish in 1890. Alfred’s occupation was described as Music Shop Manger. In the 1901 census Alfred & Ada were living at 234 Abbey Rd with their 3 sons, John Norman, Alfred Ernest and Cedric Arthur. The photograph shows Pass & Co, on the corner of Duke St & Forshaw St, Barrow’s 1st department store where you could famously buy anything from a “Pin to a Piano”
Alfred Shakespeare Pass
Ernest Pass was born in Barrow in 1894. He studied at the Barrow Municipal school for Boys. In the 1911 census Ernest, aged 15, was working as a general merchant, probably for his father. At 18 he signed up to fight for his country and saw action in France with the Army Service Corps. He then went on to serve with the 10th Battalion, Duke of Wellington regiment. The Battalion was sent to Northern Italy in 1917. Sadly, Ernest was killed in battle only days before the end of the war on 26th August 1918 aged just 24. In a letter from the Colonel of the Regiment to Alfred, he writes that “Ernest was wounded under heavy machine gun fire” but refers to “the young officers utmost gallantry during the attack.”
Opening of the new cricket pavilion
Barrow Cricket Club settled at Ernest Pass Memorial Ground and in 1936 a new cricket pavilion was opened by the Mayor of Barrow, Alderman Ellison. President of Barrow Cricket Club, Colonel Wadham at that time started that the ground should not only perpetuate the memory of Ernest Pass, but it would “serve as an encouragement to youth in Barrow to play cricket, the finest game in the world”
And so, the history of Barrow CC continues on. In 2026 it will be 170 years since that first meeting in The Queen’s Hotel.
The club has a wealth of photographs, minute books, scorebooks and records detailing the club’s history, which we aim to preserve for future generations.