- published: 01 Jul 2015
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Rossall Hockey or RossHockey is a unique form of hockey played only at Rossall School, in Fleetwood, on the Fylde coast, Lancashire, England. The game is unique to Rossall School and is played on the beach next to the school during the Lent term only, with the pitch being marked by dragging the hockey sticks in the sand before each match. It is a brutal beach game born of rugby but played with hockey-like sticks by girls as well as boys at the school. It dates back to the 19th century when pitches were too wet for rugby. It is one of the few school coded sports to have remained in use despite the dominance of other national codes in modern sport. The only other examples of school coded sport in the United Kingdom that remain are those of the various Fives codes; of which Rossall has its own, as well as Harrow football, Winchester College football, the Eton wall game and the Eton field game.
Rossall Hockey was referenced in the first issue of the Rossallian in 1867, though its exact date of creation is not known. Rossall Hockey started as a derivation of Rossall Football, an adaptation of the Eton field game introduced to the school in 1857 by a school master who had been a student at Eton College.
Coordinates: 53°53′20″N 3°02′46″W / 53.889°N 3.046°W / 53.889; -3.046
Rossall is a settlement in Lancashire, England and a suburb of the market town of Fleetwood. It is situated on a coastal plain called The Fylde.
Before the Norman conquest of England of 1066, the manor of Rossall was—as part of the ancient hundred of Amounderness—in the possession of Earl Tostig, the brother of King Harold II. In the Domesday Book of 1086, the manor was listed as Rushale, and in later documents as Rossall (1212) and Roshale (1228). In 1086, the area of Rossall was assessed at two carucates of land.
King John gifted the estate to Dieulacres Abbey in Staffordshire in 1206. Later in the 13th century, the moiety of Little Bispham and Norbreck was added to the estate. The abbot of Dieulacres leased Rossall to George Allen, who was a relative of his. The Allens, a prominent Roman Catholic family, occupied the manor until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century. Cardinal William Allen was born at Rossall in 1532. Dieulacres Abbey was dissolved in the 1530s and Rossall was sold to Thomas Fleetwood. Later, when George Allen's grandson Richard died, Thomas Fleetwood's son Edmund evicted Richard's widow and daughters, and they went to live with Richard's brother, Cardinal Allen.