The old roller

This is the original roller at Lord Sheffield's cricket ground where Lord Sheffield's XI played the Australians 5 times between 1884 and 1896. Lord Sheffield loved cricket so much he financed the 1891-92 England tour to Australia.  The ground also staged the first ever matches in England involving teams from India (1886) and South Africa (1894). The roller was pulled by a horse wearing leather shoes. Over the fence behind the roller is a tree with a metal girder ( see extra) to mark the spot where W G Grace hit an enormous 6 and hit the tree way outside the boundary.; a shot of 136 yards.  Lord Sheffield's home is now owned  by the National Trust and cricket matches still take place on the cricket ground now home to the Armadillos CC, although given the state of the ground I suspect most of their games will have been postponed or cancelled because of a water-logged pitch.