2023 Annual Preview Article

 

SIR JULIEN CAHN’S LEGACY: HISTORIC BATS AT TRENT BRIDGE

By Martyn Shaw

The historic Pavilion at Trent Bridge is home to many items of memorabilia which tell the story of our County Cricket Club and the great Nottinghamshire and England players who have graced the ground.  Treasures include the England tour jackets worn by Bill Voce and Derek Randall, a replica of Harold Larwood’s statue in Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Enid Bakewell’s ICC Hall of Fame cap and numerous portraits and photographs of players and teams of yesteryear.

 

The collection also includes a significant collection of over 100 historic cricket bats displayed in the Long Room and the adjacent Museum Room.  Many members and spectators will have seen them but how many of us know who owned them and why they are at Trent Bridge?  Are they simply decoration or is there more to be revealed?

 

A recent heritage project has researched the history and origins of these bats with a view to understanding their significance. Most of the bats on display in the Pavilion were originally collected by Sir Julien Cahn, Nottinghamshire President on three occasions in the 1930s and a great benefactor of the Club.  Cahn began assembling his collection in March 1931 when he acquired 149 bats which had been originally collected by Charles Pratt Green of Great Malvern.  A.W.Shelton, a long-standing member of Nottinghamshire’s General Committee, assisted Cahn with the acquisition of the bats.

 

The original owners of the bats were cricketers from across the game, including many big names from cricket’s ‘golden age’, among them Archie MacLaren, C.B.Fry, Gilbert Jessop and Pelham Warner.  The bats of several Australians, including Clem Hill, Victor Trumper and Syd Gregory, also feature.  The oldest bat belongs to Fuller Pilch, who appeared for Kent at Trent Bridge in 1841 in a game against a Nottinghamshire side captained by founder of the ground William Clarke.  The original collection was not focused particularly on Nottinghamshire players but the bats of A.O.Jones, Alfred Shaw, Arthur Shrewsbury and J.A.Dixon are among those included.

 

Sir Julien initially put the bats on display in the Pavilion of his own ground on Loughborough Road, West Bridgford (West Park).  This venue staged hundreds of games featuring Sir Julien’s Cahn’s XI, including matches in the 1930s against the touring national sides of West Indies, New Zealand and South Africa.  In June 1931, the Nottingham Journal and Nottingham Evening Post newspapers reported that the bat collection would be made available for the public to view.  Admission to the Loughborough Road Pavilion would be gained by purchase of a ‘biographical catalogue’ of the bats at the price of one shilling.  Compiled by J.N.Pentelow, the catalogue provides biographical details of each cricketer plus details of when many of the bats were used.  It was also reported that proceeds from the sale of the catalogue would go to the benefit fund of Notts opener William ‘Dodge’ Whysall, who had recently died in tragic circumstances.  No reports have been found to indicate whether viewing of the historic bats was positively received by the Nottingham public.

 

The Nottingham Evening Post article reported that it was Sir Julien Cahn’s intention to add to the collection by adding the bats of other famous players.  By 1938, a large number had been added and, again, Cahn received considerable assistance from A.W.Shelton.  President of the County Club in 1933, Shelton played a key role in establishing the initial collection of artefacts and historical records at Trent Bridge which today form part of the Wynne-Thomas Library at the ground.  He assisted Cahn by acquiring a further 40 bats, most of which had been presented to Shelton by their owners.  Additionally, Shelton helped Cahn add a further 28 bats to the collection which had originally been collected by a Mr Farrant, an innkeeper from Putney.  By the outbreak of the Second World War, Cahn’s collection of historic bats had grown to well over 200 items.

 

Bats collected during the 1930s include those of Notts greats Arthur Carr, George Gunn and Harold Larwood, Australian Don Bradman plus many of the leading English players of the era, including Maurice Leyland, Herbert Sutcliffe, Percy Fender and Les Ames.  Bats from overseas tourists such as Learie Constantine and George Headley from West Indies and Dudley Nourse and Jack Siedle of South Africa were also added to the collection.  These international players all played for their country against Sir Julien Cahn’s XI at West Park.  Is it too fanciful to suggest that they agreed to part with their blade following Cahn’s legendary hospitality at his own ground?

 

Sir Julien Cahn died on 26 September 1944 and it quickly became apparent that to cover the death duties payable, Lady Cahn would have to leave the family home at Stanford Hall and sell most of her husband’s most valuable possessions.  Amongst other items, a significant collection of cricket books and memorabilia was disposed of quickly and chaotically. 

 

It was at this point that the collection of historic bats was gifted to Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club and at their meeting in February 1945 the General Committee ‘resolved to send a letter of thanks to Lady Cahn for the gift of the famous collection of cricket bats.’  Two members of the Committee agreed to inspect the bats and investigate provision of a special rack to display them.  By 1946, a selection of the bats was on display in the Long Room at Trent Bridge for the first time.

 

The Club quickly concluded that there was insufficient space at Trent Bridge to show the whole collection and 84 bats were put up for sale in 1947.  Nottingham sports outfitters Redmayne & Todd were asked to manage the sale and produced a catalogue of the items available.  In the forward to the catalogue, Sir Douglas McCraith, Nottinghamshire’s President, asserted that the sale was taking place with ‘Lady Cahn’s consent’ and that proceeds would swell the appeal fund for Notts C.C.C., which was struggling financially following the War.  Cahn’s granddaughter and biographer Miranda Rijks quotes concerns raised at the time by the Executor of Cahn’s will that the sale of the bats took place without the consent of the family.  However Club records and the sale catalogue clearly suggest that consent had been given and it is unlikely that the full story can now be confirmed one way or the other.

 

Most of the bats put up for sale were from cricketers from counties other than Nottinghamshire, but many leading players were represented, including Bobby Abel, Lord Hawke, Tom Hayward and John Tyldesley.  Surprisingly, four of Arthur Shrewsbury’s bats were also offered.  Bats were priced according to their condition, with those in very good condition listed at five guineas, with others priced at four or three guineas and some at just one guinea.  Of the 84 bats listed for purchase, 65 were part of the original collection of 149 purchased by Cahn in 1931.  After the initial sale, a few bats remained unsold and these were offered through a subsequent revised catalogue.  No record of the items sold or the value of the proceeds to Nottinghamshire has so far been discovered in the Club’s archives.

 

Today, there are 122 bats on display in the Trent Bridge Pavilion.  Almost all are part of the legacy gifted to the Club after the death of Sir Julien Cahn.  A handful of more recent bats from the 1990s are on display in the Museum Room, including an experimental bat developed for Chris Broad and bats signed by Nottinghamshire and England teams.  Over time, the bats have been displayed in various locations within the Pavilion, with the current display dating from the last major reorganisation of the building.

 

Recent work by Heritage Volunteers has unearthed the details of the development of the collection and seen brief biographies compiled for all the cricketers who originally owned the bats, sometimes accompanied by details of the years and matches in which the bat was used.  The condition of the bats has also been reviewed.  Some have evidence of woodworm which has been successfully treated, while a small number appear to have live woodworm and these have temporarily been removed for treatment by specialists.  Some of the written inscriptions and dedications on the bats are now faded and difficult to decipher, a consequence of the less-than-ideal conditions in which they have been displayed over the years.

 

Attention is now turning to how the bats can be used to support other heritage activities.  One of W.G.Grace’s bats was available during recent heritage presentations on ‘WG at Trent Bridge’, with those attending encouraged to have their photographs taken with it in return for a donation to the Trent Bridge Community Trust.  A bat used by New Zealand’s first captain Tom Lowry in 1931 was part of the ‘visiting nations’ display in the Museum Room during the 2022 Test Match.  The bat was highlighted by Simon Doull as part of Sky TV’s cricket coverage, in a piece about links between New Zealand and Trent Bridge.  Such work sees the start of a transformation from the collection being seen as mere decoration to revealing the importance and relevance of the bats to the history of cricket.

 

With thanks to fellow volunteers Peter Smith, Chris Walker and Heritage Officer Steve LeMottee for their help with the research