Lives in Cricket No 5 - Rockley Wilson

employed as groundsman and net bowler. There is no record of there being a cricket field on the Broomhead estate. After the death of James Rimington-Wilson in 1877, the estate passed to his son Reginald Henry Rimington-Wilson, a military man whose main outdoor interests were the usual pursuits of a Victorian country gentleman - hunting, fishing and particularly grouse-shooting. The Squire of Bolsterstone, as he was known, was a popular figure around the village. Reginald Henry was the incumbent of Broomhead Hall at the time that Rockley Wilson was growing up and the family would have been regular visitors to the Hall. Reginald Henry never married and died in 1927, Rockley Wilson being among the family mourners at his funeral. He was succeeded by his nephew, Henry Edmund Rimington-Wilson, another military man. Henry Edmund preferred to live in London however, and visited Broomhead Hall only intermittently. During the Second World War the Hall was used by the military. After the war it fell into disrepair and was eventually demolished in 1980. Only a few foundation stones remain as reminders of a once handsome property. Ben Rimington-Wilson, a descendant of the last inhabitant of Broomhead Hall, lives in a cottage nearby. Rockley’s family We must now follow this rather complicated family background with an account of Rockley Wilson’s own family. William Reginald Wilson, Rockley’s father, was educated at Sheffield Collegiate School, a private school established in 1835, and then at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was chosen for his house cricket team at Harrow and he may well have played some cricket at Cambridge. After graduation, he probably continued to play for the Collegiate School cricket club, which fielded sides consisting of pupils, masters and old boys. He was a keen follower of the game, frequently walking the few miles from the family home, Brincliffe Towers, to the Bramall Lane ground, which opened in 1855, to watch matches between local clubs. Like many younger sons of well-to-do families in Victorian England, William Reginald Wilson entered the church after completing his University studies. In 1865 he married Martha Thorp, whose father had played once for Yorkshire, at Barnsley in 1862. After a period as curate, in 1867, as already noted, William became vicar of Bolsterstone, where his relation James The Wilson Family 8