Parks and playgrounds directory

Location

New Addington, Lodge Lane.  The Tram service for the park stops at Addington Village - Route 3.

Area

29 1/5 acres 11.94 hectares.

Facilities

• Football pitches
• Changing rooms
• Children's playground beside Fieldway

History

In 1936 the Corporation acquired an option on land south of Addington Village, the land was purchased for public open space while a new village grew up around it.  A number of parks were created covering over 250 acres.

Rowdown Fields were developed as a public open space as a result of pressure created by the building of the Fieldway Estate and was proposed initially in July 1967.  The larger part of the ground, fronting Lodge Lane is laid out for football with a pavilion and car park beside the road.  

The fields on which Rowdown Fields are based and the fields to the north west were known as Kent Fields because of their proximity to the Kentish border.  When William I granted the manor to his cook Tezelin in 1086 the fields were included and were adjacent to the old "Castle" and were afterwards known as "Cooks Enclosure" and later "Coestre", Bainbridges map shows House Farm beside Lodge Lane which then was a cart track.