Primarily known as a cricket ground, the venue also contains a large indoor sports hall, an all-weather pitch used for football and hockey and a series of rooms used for meetings, conferences and weddings.

Horntye Park became the towns' premier cricket ground in 1996 due to the development of Priory Meadow Shopping Centre on the Central Recreation Ground which forced Hastings Priory to move here.

The site has been used for sport since the 1880s, primarily for football and was turned into allotments following its purchase by the Hastings Corporation in 1919.

The site had been considered as a location for a new community sports ground in 1920 alongside The Pilot Field, with the latter being chosen.

[2] Sussex played two more fixtures at the ground in 2001 and were due to return on 26 May 2008 for a Friends Provident Trophy match against Essex.