Starting gun fired on Northamptonshire £13million second home

The club say the new facility will allow them to construct "a world-class academy" to accommodate the women's, disability, pathway and community cricket now incumbent of a first-class county

Northamptonshire are facing questions about the scale of their proposed new ground after a local council "fired the starting gun" on a "state-of-the-art cricket facility" on the outskirts of Northampton.

On Tuesday night West Northamptonshire Council approved heads of terms for a 125-year lease on a 41-acre plot of council-owned land at New Manor Farm in Moulton, to the north of Northampton.

Any development would still be subject to the club raising the money to build the facility – which they estimate at around £13million – and securing planning permission. The club envisage the project taking five years.

READ: James Coyne's full feature on Northamptonshire's plans for the construction of a second ground

The club say the new facility will allow them to construct "a world-class academy" to accommodate the women's, disability, pathway and community cricket now incumbent of a first-class county.

A second ground would also allow the County Ground square to breathe, and to leverage the full commercial potential of Northants' headquarters back in the town.

^{Northamptonshire are looking for a second ground to supplement Wantage Road (David Rogers/Getty Images)}

Officials have repeatedly maintained that they have no intention of leaving or selling off their HQ at Wantage Road, where they have played since 1886, and that any new site would be the county's "second home".

The site at New Manor Farm is green wedge land surrounded by housing on three sides. The plan incorporates "two first-class standard pitches (one to County Championship standard and one for academy/pathway cricket), outdoor practice areas, a pavilion, an indoor cricket training school, hard-standing for temporary stands, parking areas, gym and physiotherapy areas and landscaped and maintained walking area for local residents".

Northants propose for the main pitch to be "capable of hosting at least occasional full games" – leaving open the potential for some 1st XI games to be played at Moulton.

Related Topics

• Questions raised over scale of Northamptonshire's second home as green light is given for new site