Exeter baseball club breaks ground on Chadwick Field to honour sport pioneer

Spitfires break ground for Chadwick Field in tribute to Exeter-born baseball pioneer

Exeter Spitfires have marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of the ‘father of baseball’ in the city.

Henry Chadwick, who was born on October 5, 1824, was a sportswriter, baseball statistician and historian, dubbed by some the father of baseball for his contribution to the development of the game.

He edited the first baseball guide sold to the public and was posthumously inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1938.

The Spitfires, the city’s baseball club, is having a diamond created at the Bromham’s Farm Field site next to the Exeter Canal in Riverside Valley Park. It is expected to be ready for use in 2026.

To mark Chadwick’s birthday they held a ceremonial turf cutting at the spot where the diamond will be located.

And the club also revealed it will be called Chadwick Field in honour of the pioneering Exonian.

Spitfires chairman Matt Cousins said: “Henry Chadwick was born less than a mile away from the pitch, in St Thomas. He moved to the United States in 1837 and he became hooked on baseball, effectively rewriting and standardising the rules and scoring methods and became recognised as the pioneer and driving force behind the game.

“We are incredibly excited by this space, and I want to thank Exeter City Council. We will be here in 2026, and we are planning to grow with a youth section, which will secure the future of the club, as well as investing in a women’s team.”

As well as the baseball diamond, three football pitches are being created on the site which is owned by Exeter City Council.

The project is being funded by the Environment Agency, which used the location as a site compound for the city’s flood defence scheme. The fields had been used as sports pitches before the flood defence work started.

Councillor Duncan Wood, the city council’s lead councillor for leisure services and healthy living, said: “I am really pleased that we are able to give baseball a permanent home in the city, the region and beyond to compete, and I wish the Spitfires every success in the future.

“This is a community space that we have worked hard, together with our partners at the Environment Agency, to bring back into use and I very much look forward to watching football, baseball and other sporting activities here in the future.”

The Spitfires, which formed in 2000, topped the Westcountry Baseball League in the summer. They lost only two of 15 matches, finishing above teams from Newton Abbot, Plymouth, Truro, Wellington and Yeovil.