The area around Hambledon has been inhabited from earliest times and worked flints and traces of Iron Age barrows have been found here, as well the remains of a Roman villa. However, the village is best known for cricket and, although the game may not have been invented here, Hambledon has been called the ‘cradle of cricket’ because this is where the rules were first standardised. Today, a commemorative stone stands on the village’s Broadhalfpenny Down, which was the original pitch of the Hambledon Cricket Club. Just opposite is the Bat and Ball Inn, which used to house the clubroom for members of the cricket club in its heyday in the mid-18th century. The pub is still noted for its cricket memorabilia, including a new collection specifically relating to Richard Nyren, who was the landlord of the inn from 1760 to 1771 and one of the great men of English cricket.