Lives in Cricket No 29 - AN Hornby

21 Harry played his cricket for Cheshire (1861-63), and was the joint- founder and first captain of the East Lancashire Cricket Club. Cecil Lumsden (1843-96) played in one match for Lancashire (1877) and also appeared for Cheshire between 1861 and 1874. He joined the Army and retired as a captain in 1881, having served in the Zulu War of 1879 and the first Boer War in 1880-81. When in September 1876 he was called away on military duty, A.N. stepped in and played for Eighteen of Chichester against James Lillywhite’s Australian tourists at Priory Park Ground, shortly before their return to Australia. Charles Herbert (1849-93) went to Harrow, played cricket for Cheshire (1863-76) and married well – clearly, all Hornby traits! In 1856 the Hornbys moved to Shrewbridge Hall at Nantwich in Cheshire, where in 1861 eight of the children were with them and they had no fewer than 15 servants. They left around 1867 and the hall was purchased in 1883 by the Nantwich Salt Springs Hotel Ltd and re-opened in 1893 as the Brine Baths Hotel. As Nantwich sought to establish itself as a spa town, the hotel became known for the healing properties of its natural salt water and springs, and was said to cure rheumatism, fits and other complaints. There were facilities for permanent residents, for visitors undergoing hydrotherapy and for the Cheshire Hunt, with suites reserved during the hunting season and stabling for 50 horses. The hotel was later sold and turned into a convalescent home for miners and was eventually demolished in 1958. Now only the brine baths, installed in 1892, remain as a reminder of the once thriving salt trade. Ironically, A.N.Hornby suffered greatly from rheumatism in his later years. In 1871 the parents and two of their offspring were living at Poole Hall near Nantwich, but A.N. and his older brothers E.K. and W.H. were back in Blackburn in a separate household at Brookhouse Cottage, Whalley Road, in the heart of the area where the mill was situated. All three were described as ‘cotton spinning manufacturers’, so perhaps their 65-year-old father had more or less retired and they were running the family business, although A.N. was not to be involved with it for long. You might think that Hornby Lodge in Bury New Road, Prestwich, Greater Manchester, might have once been the home of the Hornby cricketing family. In fact, it was the family domicile of the Hornby train set family. Hornby is quite a common name in Lancashire, and William Henry’s cotton firm had no connection Born with a silver spoon