CAHS Snapshots of Local History
With contributions from Cirencester Archaeological & Historical Society, members & friends
Remembering Charlie Barnett, Gloucestershire and England cricketer
On 21 March Cirencester Civic Society erected a blue plaque to commemorate the Gloucestershire and England cricketer Charlie Barnett (1910-1993), who was closely associated with the town. By kind permission of the owner, Ms Fi MacMillan, the plaque is on the wall of the building currently occupied by Knight Frank on the corner of the Market Place and West Market Place where Mr. Barnett ran an iconic high-class poultry and game shop for many years after his retirement from his playing days.
The plaque was unveiled by David Graveney OBE, the former Gloucestershire cricketer and chairman of the England Test selectors and a current member of the Gloucestershire County Cricket Club Executive Board. Charlie’s daughter Judy and over a dozen family members were present to witness the unveiling together with representatives of the County Cricket Club, Cirencester Cricket Club and Cheltenham Cricket Society.
Charlie Barnett was one of the very best batsmen of the 1930s, an era of great batsmanship. He was a punishing right-hander who opened for Gloucestershire once he became established in the team and played in 32 Tests for England before and after the war.
In playing for the County, Charlie followed a family tradition because his father (C.S.) and two uncles also played for the club as amateurs. After attending Wycliffe College and still aged only 16 he began as an amateur against Cambridge University in 1927.
In his early days in the Gloucestershire team, Charlie made a lot of runs in the middle order but in 1932 he moved to open the innings in a style that these days would be called “Bazball” and, later that season, he was playing for England against West Indies at The Oval. He made 52 even though he had to bat at No. 8!
In the late thirties England did not have a regular opening pair. However, in 1938 after Charlie was accorded the accolade of being one of Wisden‘s five Cricketers of the Year in 1937, it looked as though Barnett and Hutton might become the successors to Hobbs and Sutcliffe.
That year 1938, like 2023, was an Ashes year. In the First Test at Trent Bridge, he played the innings that possibly cemented his name coming nearer than anyone had done to scoring a first-morning hundred before lunch. He managed 98 and then reached the landmark with a four past extra cover from the first ball that he received in the afternoon session. By tea-time he had a telegram of congratulations from his mother in Cirencester!
However, he was dropped before the final Test at the Oval, missed out on the winter 1938-1939 tour to South Africa and, not helped by the intervention of the Second World War, did not play another Test match for nine years.
In summary, the key statistics that provide an overview of Charlie’s career are that between 1933 and 1948 in first-class matches, he hit 48 centuries, averaged over 36, passed the 2,000 mark four times and only twice scored less than 1,500 runs in an English season. As the years went by, he also became an ever more effective bowler with a stock in-swinger above medium pace varied with a leg-cutter. In 1947 he was ninth in the bowling averages, with 50 wickets.
In 1948, Charlie Barnett retired after 32 caps for England and 424 matches for Gloucestershire to play League cricket for Rochdale, run the iconic high-class poultry and game shop in Cirencester Market Place and hunt with the Beaufort and the Berkeley Vale Hounds. Thirty years after his death, many people still remember his shop as an important feature in the very centre of the town.
Brian Hudson
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