NEHL - New Seaham Ernest CC had been formed by at least the early 1870s, though it isn't conclusive whether they used this ground from their inception as most matches appear to be have been played at Seaham Harbour. However, it is evident Ernest were using the ground just south of Seaham Colliery by at least 1887, as it became a meeting place for pitmen. A piece from the Sunderland Daily Echo from August 1887 notes a mass meeting was held at the cricket field due to "agitation against the system", and the "question of tub-loading on idle days and on Sundays".

The club was noted as "old-established" in the AGM of 1899, with its clubhouse at the nearby Colliery Inn just west of Seaham Colliery. At this time the club were of a healthy state, and were laying a new pitch for it to be "unsurpassed by any working men's ground in the country". Lord Londonderry was its patron. At this time the ground had a small pavilion on its southern end and a fully enclosed boundary next to the pit terraces.

Ernest, who played in the Durham North East League in the 1900s, had folded sometime in the 1910s. It may have been due to the outbreak of war. By this time a new club had commenced in Lord Londonderry's New Seaham Park on the northern edge of the settlement in 1903.