# List of Essex County Cricket Club grounds

Essex County Cricket Club is one of the 18 member clubs of the English County Championship, representing the historic county of Essex. The club was established on 14 January 1876 and has played first-class cricket since 1894, List A cricket since 1963 and Twenty20 cricket since 2003. Unlike most professional sports, in which a team usually has a single fixed home ground, county cricket clubs have traditionally used different grounds in various towns and cities within the county for home matches, although the use of minor "out grounds" has diminished since the 1980s. Essex have played first class, List A, or Twenty20 matches at 14 different grounds.
The club's debut home fixture in first-class cricket was played at the County Ground in Leyton against Leicestershire in 1894. This ground remained the county's headquarters and principal match venue until the end of the 1933 season and was used regularly for over 80 years. Until April 2024 it had still hosted more of the county's first-class matches than any other ground. Essex played their final match at the venue in 1977, however, since when the similarly named County Ground in Chelmsford has hosted the majority of first-class games. The ground in Leyton has continued to be used for matches in local competitions.
The club's first home List A fixture took place in 1965 against Derbyshire at the Old County Ground in Brentwood. This venue had been used since the 1920s for first-class matches, but only staged two List A matches, and its use was discontinued altogether in 1969. The County Ground in Chelmsford played host to the club's first home Twenty20 fixture in 2003, against Kent, and has since hosted every one of the county's home Twenty20 matches with the exception of a single game in 2014 which was played at Castle Park in Colchester.
Essex traditionally staged annual "cricket festivals" in the towns of Colchester, Ilford and Southend-on-Sea, which usually consisted of two first-class matches over the course of a week, and later incorporated one List A match following the introduction of that format. The Ilford event was abandoned following the 2002 season. The Southend festival moved from its traditional home at Southchurch Park to Garon Park in 2005, making the latter venue the county's only new home ground of the 21st century. Following the 2011 season, however, Essex discontinued the Southend festival altogether, leaving Castle Park in Colchester as the only venue regularly used by the county other than its main base in Chelmsford. The Colchester festival was not held in 2017, and all the county's home games were played at Chelmsford; the Colchester festival has remained suspended.

## Grounds

Below is a complete list of grounds used by Essex County Cricket Club for first-class, List A and Twenty20 matches. Statistics are complete through to the end of the 2024 season. Only matches played by Essex CCC at the grounds are recorded in the table. Matches abandoned without any play occurring are not included.
| Name | Location | First-class | First-class | First-class | List A | List A | List A | Twenty20 | Twenty20 | Twenty20 |
| Name | Location | First | Last | Matches | First | Last | Matches | First | Last | Matches |
| County Ground | Leyton | 14 May 1894 v Essex | 10 August 1977 v Glamorgan | 407 | 3 August 1969 v Sussex | 7 August 1977 v Derbyshire | 10 | – | – | 0 |
| Southchurch Park | Southend-on-Sea | 13 August 1906 v Leicestershire | 28 July 2004 v Nottinghamshire | 130 | 10 July 1977 v Middlesex | 25 July 2004 v Northamptonshire | 28 | – | – | 0 |
| Castle Park | Colchester | 18 June 1914 v Worcestershire | 4 August 2016 v Sussex | 123 | 30 June 1974 v Yorkshire | 5 August 2015 v Middlesex | 46 | 12 July 2014 v Kent | no other matches to date | 1 |
| Old County Ground | Brentwood | 5 July 1922 v Dublin University | 24 May 1969 v Worcestershire | 58 | 28 April 1965 v Derbyshire | 13 May 1967 v Kent | 2 | – | – | 0 |
| Valentines Park | Ilford | 9 June 1923 v West Indians | 12 June 2002 v Northamptonshire | 116 | 15 June 1969 v Middlesex | 16 June 2002 v Lancashire | 37 | – | – | 0 |
| Garrison A Cricket Ground | Colchester | 18 June 1924 v Gloucestershire | 7 June 1972 v Somerset | 25 | 26 June 1970 v Yorkshire | 4 June 1972 v Lancashire | 2 | – | – | 0 |
| County Ground | Chelmsford | 20 June 1925 v Oxford University | 26 September 2024 v Surrey | 413 | 27 April 1969 v Nottinghamshire | 9 August 2024 v Surrey | 381 | 20 June 2003 v Kent | 14 July 2024 v Surrey | 120 |
| Vista Road Recreation Ground | Clacton-on-Sea | 22 July 1931 v Lancashire | 20 August 1966 v Leicestershire | 60 | – | – | 0 | – | – | 0 |
| Chalkwell Park | Westcliff-on-Sea | 13 June 1934 v Nottinghamshire | 10 July 1976 v Worcestershire | 69 | 12 July 1970 v Middlesex | 11 July 1976 v Leicestershire | 8 | – | – | 0 |
| Gidea Park Sports Ground | Romford | 24 May 1950 v Hampshire | 22 May 1968 v Surrey | 34 | – | – | 0 | – | – | 0 |
| Hoffmann's Sports and Social Club Ground | Chelmsford | 29 August 1959 v Lancashire | 14 June 1961 v South Africa Fezelas | 3 | 6 July 1969 v Northamptonshire | no other matches | 1 | – | – | 0 |
| Harlow Sportcentre | Harlow | 27 June 1970 v Cambridge University | 1 July 1970 v Kent | 2 | 25 May 1969 v Worcestershire | 27 June 1982 v Leicestershire | 7 | – | – | 0 |
| Thames Board Mills Sports Ground | Purfleet | – | – | 0 | 20 July 1969 v Kent | 9 July 1972 v Glamorgan | 4 | – | – | 0 |
| Garon Park | Southend-on-Sea | 3 August 2005 v Durham | 27 July 2011 v Leicestershire | 7 | 7 August 2005 v Middlesex | 31 July 2011 v Somerset | 7 | – | – | 0 |