The Downs pitch, first recorded on an Ordnance Survey map in 1873, remained the town’s cricket centre until fashionable attention transferred to the Manor House ground, laid out on the lower slopes in 1893 by Viscount Cantelupe.
![](https://www.bexhillmuseum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Down-Cricket-Ground-c1892l-300x146.jpg)
Cricket is still played on the old ground, situated north of the A259 (Little Common Road|), between West Down Road and Down Road.