The Clarence Club became the main cricket club in Barnsley in the 1850sand established these grounds in 1859 (Barnsley Rugby Union Football Club 2008 [accessed 10/01/08]). The club was built on an area of strip fields enclosed from an open town field. By 1649 these fields had been enclosed as Barnsley is recorded as having four townfields called Churchfield, Old Mill Field and Swinhill field (Elliot 2002, 37). These are marked on historic maps north east of the town. This area of strip fields is known as Shaw Lands. The name suggests the land was near a small copse (Field 1972, 199). There is fragmentary legibility of the former strips.