The Ashes urn, one of cricket’s most famous symbols, is traditionally believed to contain the ashes of a burnt cricket bail.
Nobody can say for sure where the tiny terracotta urn came from or what it truly contains. But one thing is certain: it represents one of cricket’s most enduring symbols. The idea of The Ashes began in 1882, when England suffered their first defeat to Australia at home, losing by seven runs at the Oval.
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Shocked by the loss, The Sporting Times published a mock obituary announcing the “death of English cricket,” declaring that the balls would be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. Meant as a joke—and a nod to the period’s debate on legalising cremation—the idea quickly caught on. England captain Ivo Bligh vowed to “reclaim the Ashes”, while Australia’s Billy Murdoch promised to defend them.
How were ‘The Ashes’ born?
That winter, before the official Test series began, Bligh and his team visited Rupertswood, the home of Sir William Clarke near Sunbury in Victoria. After winning a friendly match there on Christmas Eve, Lady Janet Clarke decided Bligh had symbolically regained the honour of English cricket. She burned a ball, placed the ashes inside a small terracotta urn-possibly an old perfume or cosmetic jar-and presented it to him. In that moment, The Ashes were born.
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The urn’s meaning deepened when Bligh met the Clarke family’s governess, Florence Rose Morphy, during the same visit. She later became his wife, and the urn remained with them as a treasured keepsake until after Bligh died in 1927, when Florence gifted it to MCC. More than a symbol of rivalry, the urn is at its core a love story-one meant to unite rather than divide.
Though The Ashes as a concept faded for two decades after 1883, it returned to prominence with Pelham Warner’s 1903–04 tour. The urn itself remained largely unknown to the public until its first display in 1926. To this day, MCC regards it not as a trophy but as the personal memento it was always meant to be.
