The Hockey Museum (THM) is pleased to share that it is working with Hockey Wales to support their National Lottery-funded heritage project to research, digitise and celebrate Welsh hockey heritage.

When the International Hockey Federation (FIH) became involved in supporting our fledgling museum financially back in 2015, we committed to broadening our collecting remit. This changed from exclusively focusing on English hockey (and on Great Britain at international level) to include international tournaments and the administration of hockey at world level. We changed our name from The National Hockey Museum to The Hockey Museum (THM) to reflect this and, at the same time, committed to guiding other FIH-member nations to recognise and preserve their own heritage.

Despite the FIH withdrawing their annual funding of THM several years ago, we have continued to honour the objectives of the partnership. We have contacts with personal collectors in Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Australia and France, but our work supporting other nations with their heritage has often been closer to home; we have relationships with the Irish Hockey Archive based out of Dublin City Library and the developing Scottish Hockey Heritage Group. Now that list can categorically include Wales after Hockey Wales’s successful grant bid.

THM will support Hockey Wales’s project objectives by offering professional advice around the cataloguing and digitisation of heritage material currently stored in Cardiff, by hosting their visiting researchers, and by drawing on our extensive experience of collating definitive match and player statistics for Great Britain. This work has the added benefit of bringing in some much-needed funding to THM to help plug our annual operating deficit.

The Welsh project involves:

1. Completing a definitive dataset of Wales international players and matches.
2. Presenting ex-international athletes with an honours cap.
3. Digitising memorabilia and records.
4. Developing a cross-curricular resource for primary and secondary schools in and working with schools to educate students on how to digitise data and research historical records.
5. Promoting the history of Welsh hockey clubs.
6. Developing a hockey history page on the Hockey Wales website.

The Hockey Museum (THM) has been awarded a Midlands 4 Cities (M4C) Collaborative Doctoral Award with De Montfort University (DMU).

This funded PhD project, Dressed for the Field: Gender, Bodies, and Society through the Material Culture of Field Hockey, 1880 to the Present, will delve into THM's extensive textile collection. The supervisor team includes Dr. Heather Dichter, a member of DMU's International Centre for Sports History and Culture and a THM Trustee, and Dr. Serena Dyer, historian of fashion and dress and an expert in material culture.

This project will examine how the material, embodied and gendered dynamics of clothing intersect with the complex social and cultural evolution of field hockey since its development as a modern sport in the late nineteenth century. Victorian women hockey players had to navigate contemporary sartorial norms: corsets, bustles and ankle-length skirts could not be discarded, necessitating nuanced strategies of modification and adaptation. Male and female players’ uniforms have since changed dramatically, yet hockey remains one of the few sports where women mostly still wear skirts.

Through THM’s extensive garment collection, images and advertisements in publications, and regulations regarding uniforms, the student will explore how social trends and technological advances in clothing manufacturing have interacted with changing notions of bodily comfort, motion, movement, and the performance of the sportsman/woman’s body. Shaped by gendered distinction, national identity, and the British class system, hockey playing uniforms offer an opportunity to deepen understanding of the intersecting relationship between class, bodies, gender, and sport in British culture.

Information about the project can be found on the M4C website, click here.

Applications will be able to be submitted as of 16 October 2023, with the deadline in early January 2024. The selected student will begin their doctoral studies at De Montfort University in October 2024.

The last few months have seen plenty of Great Britain (GB) honours caps presented in varied locations as we edge towards the target of 581 players who represented GB up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Some 20 presentation events have taken place this year with over 50 caps presented. A further 10 or so events will take place in the second half of 2023. After this we will be mainly looking for the families of deceased players.

Recent activity has seen events in Scotland, Wales, Australia, Switzerland and, of course, here in England.

Please consider making a donation to The Hockey Museum in support of our stats and caps project: Make a donation to The Hockey Museum (supportedgiving.com)

Presentations Abroad

One of the most prestigious presentations took place at Olympic House, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland on 6 June. Jon Wyatt (GB men’s player no. 270) received his cap from IOC President Thomas Bach and International Hockey Federation (FIH) President Tayyab Ikram.

This certainly demonstrated to the Olympic Movement and the FIH just how important history and heritage is to us in Britain.

Read more here: FIH Academy on LinkedIn | FIH Sport Director Jon Wyatt OLY presented with his GB cap

Left: FIH Sport Director Jon Wyatt receives a personal certificate of recognition from IOC President Thomas Bach to accompany his GB honours cap. Right: Jon Wyatt receives his GB cap from FIH President Tayyab Ikram.

On 14 May Caroline Jordan (GB women’s no. 56) had her cap presented in Melbourne by the former CEO of Scottish Hockey and past Scottish international player Andrew Scoular. Caroline represented GB in 1988 Seoul Olympic Games before settling in Australia.

Caroline Jordan receives her GB cap from former Scottish Hockey CEO Andrew Scoular.

Presentations in Woking

Several presentations have taken place at our home in Woking. On 26 May we were honoured by the visit of our local MP Jonathan Lord together with Saj Hussain, Chair of Surrey County Council, which gave us the opportunity to show off our amazing museum facility to those with local influence. We held geographically diverse cap presentations celebrating one Irish, two Scottish and two English GB players. Their careers spanned from 1951 into the 21st century, taking in six Olympic Games and with some very interesting stories arising.

The Irishman, Harry Cahill (109), was regarded as the best goalkeeper in the world in the early 1960s. He played 34 times for GB spanning his three Olympic Games. Local lad (to Woking) Danny Hall (264) also played in three Olympic Games but represented GB 107 times – a reflection of the greater intensity of games in the modern era. Danny scored 36 goals in his 107 outings for GB, which is nearly a goal every three games – an amazing conversion rate for a player who didn’t take penalty corners.

Peter Johnson (66) only played once for GB back in 1951 against Kenya in Nairobi. The GB team were returning from a very arduous tour of South Africa which had taken its toll. By the time they reached Kenya they only had ten fit players. Peter, a recent Cambridge triple blue, was living in Nairobi and was drafted in to play his one and only international match.

The other past athletes to be presented by our MP Jonathan were Louise Gordon (127) and Don Wilson (110).

From left to right: THM President Mike Smith; Chair of Surrey County Council Saj Hussain; GB player Louise Gordon; Ina, widow of GB player Harry Cahill; GB player Danny Hall; Shona, relative of GB player Don Wilson; Natasha, relative of GB player Peter Johnson; Jonathan Lord, MP for Woking.

South-of-the-border Scot Colin Hector (259) also received his cap in Woking; as did past Trustee of The Hockey Museum Lucy Newcombe (109) when she met up with former Museum colleagues in June. Vice President and past Chair Katie Dodd presented Lucy with her GB cap alongside current Trustee Imogen Gibbon who was down from Edinburgh. The photographs are a great reflection of the warmth and camaraderie of the team involved with the Museum.

Left: Colin Hector receives his GB cap from THM President Mike Smith. Centre and right: Lucy Newcombe receives her cap from her trustee contemporaries at The Hockey Museum Katie Dodd (left) and Imogen Gibbon (right).

Pro League Presentations

More recently we have seen a lot of activity at the Pro League mini tournaments that have taken place at Lee Valley over the past month or so.

On the 27 May, Iqbal Singh Kullar (198) received his cap in the VIP suite. This was followed by further presentations of the 17, 18 & 21 June. Most were made on the pitch in front of the crowds, which has given great acknowledgement to our stats and caps project.

All were presented by GB President Sheila Morrow who has shown great support to our initiative.

Iqbal Singh Kullar receives his cap from GB President Sheila Morrow.

Two serendipitous presentations took place on 18 & 21 June. Firstly, former Olympic medallist Sally Walton (141) unexpectedly accompanied students from Royal Grammar School Worcester to Lee Valley. Her students (Sally is their hockey coach) were delighted to see her presented with her GB cap.

Then, on 21 June, the US Field Hockey High Performance Director Craig Parnham (273) received his GB cap having accompanied the US women’s team on their Pro League trip to London. With him now living in USA we had been wondering how we might get his cap to him!

The full list of recipients during the Pro League:

Women: Lisa Scarborough (nee Copeland; 105), Lucilla Parkes Wright (108), Sally Walton (141), Jo Ellis (154), Joie Leigh (180), Zoe Shipperley (187).

Men: Ian McGinn (178), Iqbal Singh Kullar (198), Simon Mantell (209), Soma Singh (248), Simon Nicklin (250), Howard Hoskin (260), Craig Parnham (273), Richard Springham (322), Richard Smith (324), James Bailey (330), Ben Arnold (338), Paddy Smith (342).

GB cap recipients on the Lee Valley pitch. From left to right: Howard Hoskin, Soma Singh, Jo Ellis, Sheila Morrow (GB President), Richard Springham, Simon Nicklin.

Craig Parnham, Simon Mantell, Ben Arnold and Tim Whiteman after receiving their GB honours caps during the Pro League presentations.

Links with Lord's

Most of the recent recipients have been from the modern era, although 17 June saw the only Lee Valley recipient to have played for GB on grass in Ian McGinn (178; pictured). Two of Ian’s 19 GB caps were matches at Lord’s Cricket Ground (against Netherlands and Ireland) in March 1976.

Ian McGinn receives his cap from GB President Sheila Morrow.

Lord’s has a further role to play in our June presentations. The cricket test match on 2 June (England men against Ireland) saw a good gathering of hockey players including Jimmy Kirkwood (226) and Billy McConnell (201) from Northern Ireland, and Englishman Guy Swayne (223). They all received their GB caps with the iconic Lord’s Cricket Ground as their backdrop and in the presence of their hockey teammates.

Guy Swayne, Billy McConnell and Jimmy Kirkwood receive their GB caps from former GB Captain Richard Dodds at Lord's Cricket Ground.

A Powerful Legacy for our Sport

All the players mentioned in this report are suffixed by their GB player number. These numbers perhaps best encapsulate what this project is about. Every GB player now has a legacy number that is unique and personal to them. It will always be theirs. Many, many players have expressed to us the pride that they have taken from being awarded this memento of their GB career, but it best summed up by current GB international Ellie Rayer.

"I currently wear number 13, but I am merely looking after the number for the moment. 193 is my number and it always will be, which is incredibly special. "A huge, huge thank you for the work you have done." -- Ellie Rayer, GB women's player no. 193.

Please click the link to make a donation to The Hockey Museum in support of our stats and caps project: Make a donation to The Hockey Museum (supportedgiving.com)

Can You Help?

Yet we still have approximately 150 players (or their descendants) to find. We need all the help we can obtain to find them so that they too can join in the pride of receiving their GB honours cap and unique legacy number.

Please get in touch if you'd like to help: Contact Us (hockeymuseum.net)

Earlier this year The Hockey Museum (THM) acquired the collection of the late Royal Navy hockey historian Lt Commander Alan Walker. It is a vast collection of memorabilia items and paper archives, which includes unique Royal Navy Hockey material dating back to the 1890s as well as spanning Alan’s life in hockey, from Navy to Combined Services Hockey, from coaching (and coaching coaches) to his time as England Under 21s and senior manager. THM President and Hon. Curator Mike Smith describes it with admiration as, "One of the last great hockey collections we are likely to acquire".

We have drawn on the help of our contacts locally to house Alan’s collection so that we can begin to work through it to catalogue and preserve its fascinating content. We have acquired temporary premises in town with the support of the Surrey Museums Partnership and the Surrey History Centre and now we need to pull together a team of volunteers to undertake the work.

Above: A small part of Alan's archive, now in the care of The Hockey Museum but in need of much work. Below: The late Lt Commander Alan Walker at the Hockey Writers' Club lunch.

Volunteering on the project

We’d like to start work on Alan’s archive in July. You would need to be able to travel to Woking in Surrey to work on the material. Our aim is to have a minimum of two people working together on the project each week, Monday to Friday. You would be trained and supported by THM’s curatorial team making this is an exciting opportunity whether you’re retired and looking to get stuck into a project or keen to gain museum experience and learn new heritage skills.

Click below for the full role description – you can apply to volunteer with us directly or through the Volunteer Woking website.

Volunteers for the Alan Walker Hockey Archive Project for Hockey Museum (The) | Volunteer Woking

Contact Us (hockeymuseum.net)

Funding the materials

This project is going to need a lot of conservation materials and they don’t come cheap. If you cannot make it to Woking to help with work in person, perhaps you would consider making a donation to support the project costs?

We’re confident of acquiring a grant for £1,000, but our initial costings suggest we need to spend in the region of £3,500 to complete the work!

Please make a donation to support the cost of conservation materials. Click the link below.

Make a donation to The Hockey Museum (supportedgiving.com)

This year (2023), there will be over 30 Great Britain honours cap presentation events, not just around the country but around the world. Amazingly, the project has now passed 350 caps produced and presented (out of 581 GB men and women) and we will be beyond 400 by the year end! We anticipate that there will be over 100 GB players or their families that we may never find, mainly because the men’s teams go back over a century to 1920.

Cambridge City Hockey Club presentation, 15 May 2023

From left to right: Mark Brookes (CCHC Chairman); Diane Wilman, Nick Thompson, Christopher Robinson, Tim Ireland (CCHC President), and Mike Smith (The Hockey Museum President and Hon. Curator). Photographs courtesy of Simon Webb Photography.

The latest presentation took place at the magnificent Cambridge City Hockey Club (CCHC) with its three artificial pitches and clubhouse. The event was triggered by the presentation of David Wilman’s cap to his widow Diane. David was a long-time and much respected member of the Club. He played in three Olympic Games – in Rome 1960, Tokyo 1964 and Mexico City 1968 – earning a total of 31 GB caps over nine years, which was exceptional in those days!

Being in Cambridge, our most easterly presentation venue, we were joined by Christopher Robinson, the nephew of Anthony (Tony) Robinson who played in the Helsinki Olympic Games in 1952 winning a bronze medal, and in Melbourne 1956. International matches were much less frequent in those days: Tony totalled 17 GB appearances across the two Olympiads.

It has proved challenging to trace the families of the earlier players and in Tony’s case we have only located six out of 34 of his GB contemporaries. Consequently, the Cambridge presentations were a great joy for The Hockey Museum (THM) as well as for the recipients.

Also at this very special event, former CCHC First XI player Nick Thompson was presented with his cap – 67 caps accrued between 1989 and 1996 including the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games – but sadly his wife Jo (nee Ellis), also a GB hockey player, was unable to join us.

We are grateful to CCHC for their hospitality and thank them for embracing the historical achievements of its past players. The Club now boats six GB internationals and is going to mount a display to celebrate this feat.

Cambridge City HC's write up of the event | cambridgecityhc.org

Left: Diane Wilman (widow of David Wilman) and Nick Thompson with their GB honours caps. Right: Christopher Robinson receives his uncle Tony’s GB honours cap from Mike Smith. Photographs courtesy of Simon Webb Photography.

Looking ahead to England

The families of Tony Robinson and David Wilman will in due course receive their England honours caps, but with over 2,000 England players reaching back to the late 19th century, compiling this definitive dataset and then finding the players or descendants is and will be a much bigger job.

If you are interested in getting involved with THM’s England statistics research project, please get in touch.

Contact Us | hockeymuseum.net

On Friday 21 May 2023, The Times newspaper featured an article on the centenary of Wembley Stadium in London. Frustratingly, they made no mention of the annual women’s hockey international matches which ran from 1951-1991. Under a photograph of the England women’s football team (the ‘Lionesses’) celebrating their European Championship success last year (2022), the article states: “No one imagined a women’s team packing out this stadium when they were building it.” Whilst they may not have foreseen women’s sports teams attracting large crowds, women’s hockey did this in the 1970s!

The record crowds of schoolgirls at Wembley during its hockey heyday; an electric atmosphere perhaps not dissimilar to the rock concerts that Wembley also hosted.

Prior to its article, The Times asked its readership to contribute their memories of Wembley, though the resulting article is surprisingly light on reminiscence. Former England captain Anita White wrote in with her memories of leading out the England team as World Champions in front of a 68,000-strong crowd at Wembley in 1976. Her correspondence was completely ignored by The Times.

The Wembley crowd of mostly schoolgirls in 1976 was a record attendance for women’s sporting event. Indeed, throughout the 1970s and through to the early 1980s the annual Wembley fixture regularly exceeded 60,000 spectators – the second largest crowds after men’s football. Women’s football matches in the UK did not exceed the hockey crowd size at Wembley until the 2012 Olympic final at Wembley (80,000) and again for the 2022 European Championship final at Wembley (87,000).

Anita says: “I'm personally thrilled to see women's sport as a whole beginning to get the recognition it deserves but frustrated at the omission of hockey's spectator appeal in the 1970s. The women’s Wembley internationals are quite unique in the history of the development of women's sport.”

England women vs Scotland at Wembley Stadium in 1972. The match took place in front of a crowd of 65,000. From the collection of Hockey Field magazine's Editor Pat Ward, held by The Hockey Museum.

The Magic of Wembley: enjoy the book

The Times may not have been interested in hockey’s fascinating Wembley legacy, but you can read about the 41 years of England international matches in The Hockey Museum’s (THM) book, The Magic of Wembley. It is available for purchase for only £10 plus postage.

Purchase The Magic of Wembley Book (hockeymuseum.net) or click the poster image.

When we were researching for book, THM team tried to trace the whereabouts of the Wembley Stadium business archives. We presumed that there must be an organisation responsible for keeping records of the multi-event history of the venue – we failed, though ultimately not to the detriment of our book! Having exhausted our contacts at the National Football Museum, we were pointed in the direction of the Football Association (FA) – they were only interested in football rather than the development of and wider use of the stadium itself – and then the London Metropolitan Archives who did have some of the financial records but not a lot else. So where have all the Wembley records gone!? It all rather reinforces Anita White’s view that hockey at Wembley is persistently and sadly overlooked, but at least THM exists to continue to bang the drum!

The 70th anniversary of hockey at Wembley

Back in March 2021, THM partnered with Talk Hockey Radio to record a special panel discussion celebrating the 70th anniversary of the first women’s hockey match at Wembley Stadium in 1951. It featured former England captains Maggie Souyave, Anita White and Kate Richardson-Walsh. You can watch it on our website below.

Click her for more information about the special panel discussion film and other Wembley hockey-related material: Reliving The Wembley Magic: 70th Anniversary Special (hockeymuseum.net)

Reliving the Wembley Magic is a panel discussion produced in March 2021 in partnership with Talk Hockey Radio to celebrate the 70^th anniversary of the first women's hockey match at Wembley Stadium in 1951. 

The Hockey Museum (THM) continues its rewarding programme of Great Britain (GB) honour cap presentations, tracking down past GB players in all four corners of the world. The most recent presentation took place in the British Overseas Territory of the Cayman Islands on Friday 21 April 2023: Andrew West (GB men’s player number 292) received his cap from Nigel Bates, President of Cayman Hockey at the Cayman Compass.

The GB honours cap presentation to Andrew West. Left to right: Ivan Burges (Cayman Hockey Secretary), Andrew West, Nigel Bates (President of Cayman Hockey), and Dwayne Atherley (Cayman captain and Barbadian international) Photography copyright: Compass Media - Seaford - Russell Jr.

Andrew earned 6 GB caps in addition to his representative honours for England, which included the 2005 European Nations Championships in Leipzig, Germany. His GB caps all came during a Tri-Nations tournament against Canada and Belgium in in Vancouver in 2003.

Andrew started playing hockey in Hong Kong, aged five. His parents worked there for several years before returning to their homeland of England when Andrew was nine. He played representative hockey for Northamptonshire, the Midlands and England Under 15s through to Under 21s, captaining all age groups for county and country matches. As an England Under 18, Andrew and his team won the Junior European Nations Championships – he was player of the tournament and top goal scorer. At Under 21 level, Andrew won a bronze medal at the Junior World Cup in Hobart, Australia, in 2001.

From a club perspective, Andrew started his men's club career at Beeston in 1996, competing in the Men's National Hockey League. At the time, he was the youngest ever starting finalist in the Hockey Association Cup, aged 16, when Beeston lost to Cannock in 1998. For the 2000-2001 season Andrew was named captain of Beeston Hockey Club, aged 19, becoming the youngest ever captain of a National League side – do these records still stand?

In 2001, Andrew moved to Cannock Hockey Club and won four National League titles in 2002-‘03, 2003-‘04, 2004-‘05, and 2005-‘06. That is still the longest winning streak of any club, and 3 English Hockey Association Cups in 2001-‘02, 2004-‘05, and 2006-‘07. Andrew left Cannock in 2009 and joined Holcombe Hockey Club for a season before retiring in 2010.

Andrew retired from international hockey in 2005 to start at career in investment banking with JP Morgan.

 The Hockey Museum is indebted to Ivan Burges for his support in tracing Andrew West and organising Andrew’s GB cap presentation in collaboration with THM President Mike Smith.

One of the longest-established touring teams still playing are the Horseshoes Hockey Club, founded in 1970 as a team for current and former pupils of Oakham School that went to the Blackpool Festival each Easter.

The Hockey Museum (THM) volunteer Steve LeMottee took over as the organiser in 1974, and during his 27-year ‘term of office’ the membership was opened up and the fixture list was expanded to include other festivals in England and some overseas tours, the most ambitious being to Vancouver and San Francisco in 1981.

With the exception of the two ‘Covid years’, the recent Bank Holiday was Steve’s 50th consecutive Easter with the Horseshoes, and although his playing involvement is limited to walking hockey these days he had planned to make an occasional guest appearance on the grass pitches at the Skegness Festival – sadly one of only two such gatherings of the hockey family that is still running.

However, even Steve’s modest ambitions were frustrated when he was diagnosed with Myeloma (cancer of the bone marrow) in early March. But not to be deterred, he still went to Skegness and, over the course of the two-day festival, walked 50 times around a pitch to raise money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and Myeloma UK.

Accompanied by teammates, friends and family – and by the entire Horseshoes HC men’s and mixed squads for the final two laps – Steve raised £800 to be shared between the two good causes. Thanks to Festival organisers Ben Read and Stuart Cunnington, a further £200 – the proceeds of the Saturday evening social – was raised for Myeloma UK.

Steve is currently undergoing a course of chemotherapy before a spell in hospital and a recuperation period, but he fully intends to return to Skegness next year for his 51st Easter with the Horseshoes.

THM volunteer Steve LeMottee (right in the bottom photograph) undertook a sponsored walk during the Skegness Easter Hockey Festival this year. Images courtesy of Anne Tate Photography.

Volunteers and staff from The Hockey Museum pose for a photograph in the Media Centre of the All England Lawn Tennis Club.

On Thursday 13 April a group of volunteers from The Hockey Museum (THM) enjoyed the privilege of visiting the All England Lawn Tennis Club at Wimbledon including a visit to its Museum. The day was made more challenging by a signalling meltdown at Waterloo train station. This caused detours and some emergency travel plans – the last time we organise a trip on the 13th of anything! – but the majority of the group made it more or less on time and were rewarded by a glorious spring day.

The visit, arranged by our curatorial team, was a combination of a fact-finding, professional outreach visit with the added pleasure of a grounds tour and a look behind the scenes of the workings of their museum. The tour included visits to both Centre Court, Number One Court, Murray Mound – or is it Henman Hill? – and a rare opportunity to visit the Wimbledon Championships’ Media Centre.

Outside and inside Wimbledon's Centre Court during our tour of the All England Lawn Tennis Club grounds.

THM Curator Shane Smith commented:

“This was a rewarding day. A great professional recognition for The Hockey Museum from a fellow leader in the sports heritage community, but also an exciting and thought-provoking day out for our hard-working volunteers. The day was highly enjoyable and a great team building opportunity, but we also gained key insights into Wimbledon’s collection and archive management work.”

The Wimbledon archive includes the earliest wooden rackets, tennis clothing, tennis balls and all sorts of lawn tennis-related material from the game’s earliest, formative years. Access to their archive gave our group an opportunity to see close at hand how rare tennis artefacts were stored, catalogued and preserved as part of the game’s heritage. This reinforced the diligent, painstaking work that THM’s volunteers undertake with our own collection material, ably overseen by Collections Officer, Carli-Lyn Vermani.

A most enjoyable and professionally rewarding day out that will live long in the memory. Our thanks to the Lawn Tennis Museum team for hosting us so well.

The Hockey Museum group were excellently hosted by staff from the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum's curatorial and learning teams.

Click for the full size poster.

This Easter holiday, The Hockey Museum (THM) has partnered with Woking Library on an animal trail and craft activity as part of the nationwide initiative The Wild Escape. Between 1 & 15 April children aged 7-11 can find four animals that have 'escaped' from THM’s collection hidden around Woking Library. As children search for these animals they will learn about their symbolism and relevance to hockey as well as how we can protect these animals in the wild. Children can make their own origami version of each animal to ‘release’ back into the wild (no littering please).

THM is taking part in The Wild Escape within our local habitat of Surrey. Participating museums will conclude their Get Wild About Surrey event on Earth Day, 22 April, with a display of their projects at Haslemere Museum.

THM's excellent contribution to The Wild Escape has been fashioned by volunteer Elysia Morgan with support from THM's curatorial staff.

Not in Surrey?

You too can get wild at home with The Hockey Museum's origami activity pack inspired by the animals in our cloth badge collection. Download the pack by clicking the PDF icon.

The Wild Escape invites museums and schools across the nation to take part in a celebration of UK wildlife. If you do not live in Surrey, then be sure to look out for activities at museums near you this Easter.

The Wild Escape is made possible by lead support from Arts Council England’s National Lottery Project Grants, with additional support from Art Fund and a group of generous individuals and trusts.