 |
| Action photo of Ireland vs England women, the first ever women's international hockey match in 1896. |
2 March 2021 is the 125th anniversary of the first ever women’s international hockey match in 1896, between Ireland and England. Ireland beat England 2-0.
The game took place on the Alexandra College ground in Milltown, Dublin, at 3.30pm, in front of a crowd of about 2,000 people. M Obre and D Johnson scored for the hosts.
To put things into context, this match took place less than fifteen years after the formation of the first hockey club at Teddington and only one year after the first men’s international match. Perhaps more importantly, social opinion at the time considered women’s hockey, indeed women’s sport, to be unladylike! Contrast that with today when some one hundred nations are playing women’s hockey internationally.
This was certainly not an impromptu event as the invitation to England had been issued the previous year. Indeed, it was the Irish who formed the first women’s national association, the Irish Ladies Hockey Union in 1894. Ireland has much to be proud of internationally; they won both of the first ever international hockey matches, men’s and women’s.
The history books show that this game was almost the second in history because a match did take place in Brighton on the 10 April 1895, one year earlier. Although it was publicised as an ‘international’ it was soon downgraded to ‘another match of interest’. This was because the Irish team, although very competent, were in fact the Alexandra College team from Dublin, not a national team. Additionally, England had yet to form their national association so the England team had no official status. As such, the match at Milltown, Dublin on the 2 March 1896 becomes the first ‘true’ international women’s match.
How The Match Was Reported At The Time
The reports of this notable 1896 encounter follow, albeit by male reporters!
The Irish Independent:
“There was little to choose between the teams, and though the combination of the Irish ladies was better than that of their opponents, and they had somewhat the better of the opening period, the English ladies pressed quite as much in the second half, and with better shooting they might have equalised.”
The Irish Times:
“When the teams took up their positions they made a pretty scene, the English players wearing red skirts and white bodices and caps, while their opponents were arrayed in green blouses and dresses of a similar but deeper hue, and as the colours mingled and co-mingled during the course of the match, the spectacle was quite animating, not to say charming.”
The Daily Express:
“After the bully-off, lreland got down to the English line, and there was close work for a few minutes until the visitors brought the ball to centre along their left wing. Ireland returned to the pressure and Miss Johnson [disproved; correction: Obre] got a run to the circle where, after some scrummaging, she shot the first goal for Ireland a few minutes from the start.”
Ireland went on to score a second goal before half time.
“The visitors set about reducing the opponents' advantage in determined style and, with the backs feeding the front division well, the latter made matters pretty warm for the Irish defence. Miss Martin in goal was equal to all the calls made upon her resources however and, after the Irish had conceded a corner of which nothing came, a penalty free gave them a much-needed relief.
“The English ladies attacked hotly and Miss Martin only Just managed to stop a fast shot sent … in the nick of time. A couple of corners gave England no material advantage and, after some give and take play, the Irish forwards, whose placing of the ball at this period was very good, gradually worked their way into the visitors' circle. Miss Bell had an ineffectual shot at goal, following which Miss Robson raised the siege and the remainder of the play took place at midfield. Ireland thus won a meritorious victory, albeit they were hardly two scores the better side.”
The Two Teams From The First Women's International Match
 |
|
 |
| Ireland women's team, 2 March 1896 | England women's team, 2 March 1896 |
The sides lined up as follows:
Ireland: Miss Louisa Martin (captain, Alexandra College); Miss Shaw (Donnybrook), Miss E Sealy (Dundrum); Miss I Boyd (Merton), Miss EA Obre (Merton), Miss A Boyd (Merton); Miss F Henshaw (Alexandra College), Miss D Johnson (Alexandra College), Miss M Obre (Merton), Miss Frances Martin (Alexandra College), Miss A Bell (Donnybrook).
England: Miss Ethel M Robson (Blackheath); Miss Winifred M Langrishe (possibly Langridge; Columbine), Miss A Carver (Brighton); Miss A Bouchier (possibly Bourchier; Bedford), Miss Emily G Johnson (captain, East Molesey), Miss Emily Tatham (East Molesey); Miss J Retallack (Bournemouth), Miss Brook (Bournemouth), Mrs Mary D’Oyley (East Molesey), Miss M Andrews (East Molesey), Miss M Mellor (Brighton)
By Mike Smith and Dr Jo Halpin
 |
| Sutton Hoo excavation, 1939. Still from film made by Harold John Phillips. Public domain. |
In a recent article (click here) we covered the links that exist between the Netflix blockbuster film The Dig and our sport of hockey. Following that piece, we received news of a further hockey connection.
If you have seen the film you will recall that Edith Pretty’s nephew became involved as the photographer of the excavations. During the film he signed up for the Royal Air Force, became a dashing young flyer and had a romantic liaison with Lily James’s character. Well, all of that was significant artistic licence, although with WW2 just about to start it did offer an interesting story line.
In reality the significant photographs of the excavations at the site were taken by two lady schoolteachers from Putney High School who were holidaying in the area, originally intending to photograph Saxon remains in Suffolk churches. When they heard of the Sutton Hoo excavation, they visited the site and offered their services. The two ladies in question were Mercie Lack and Barbara Wagstaff, who was the PE teacher and hockey mistress at the prestigious girls’ school in Putney. Barbara had learned her hockey at Cheltenham Ladies College and went on to train at Dartford College of Physical Education where she was the hockey goalkeeper.
These two ladies were at Sutton Hoo for most of August 1939 and their request to take photographs was an amazing bit of luck. They took 447 photographs, 45 colour transparencies and two reels of Agfa colour film, thereby creating a unique photographic record of perhaps Britain’s greatest archaeological dig. This photographic collection now resides in the British Museum.
 |
| Excavation of the Sutton Hoo ship burial, 1939. Photograph by Barbara Wagstaff; © The Trustees of the British Museum |
by Dr Jo Halpin.
 |
| Portrait of Edith Pretty by Dutch artist Cor Visser. © National Trust / Robin Pattinson |
Edith Pretty is famous for unearthing an Anglo-Saxon burial ship on her land at Sutton Hoo, near Woodbridge, Suffolk, in 1939 – an event that has now been made into a film, The Dig, starring Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes.
But dig a little deeper into her life and you find plenty of connections to hockey, including to the formation of the All England Women’s Hockey Association (AEWHA).
The daughter of wealthy Manchester industrialist Robert Dempster, Edith and her older sister Elizabeth were enrolled at Wimbledon House School, Brighton, in 1894, when Edith was 11 years old. The school (later known as Roedean) was considered radical for the time because of its wide-ranging sports programme for girls, with pupils encouraged to take part in hockey, tennis and cricket, as well as running, swimming, gymnastics, fencing and dancing.
Young Edith – "a promising, if unspectacular, sportswoman" (Skelcher & Durrant, 2006) – took full advantage, playing hockey for the school’s 3rd XI and her house XI, for which she was vice-captain. She also captained her house cricket and drilling teams, was a competent gymnast, and a member of the tennis club.
The teacher in charge of drill and games at the school was Christabel Lawrence, one of the five women who met in a coffee shop in Brighton on 10 April 1895 to set up the AEWHA. Lawrence would become the first honorary secretary and treasurer of the association, and Wimbledon House School a founding member.
The idea for an English governing body had come about after a tour to Ireland by Newnham College, Cambridge, during the Christmas holiday of 1894/95. In the run-up to the meeting in Brighton, Irish side Alexandra College were on a return tour to England, and their itinerary included a game against Wimbledon House School.
Although Edith is unlikely to have been in the team, it is highly likely that she and her fellow pupils watched the match – which the school won 1-0!
They would probably also have been encouraged to attend the pseudo international match that took place in Brighton immediately before the tea-shop meeting, between the Irish tourists and a hurriedly assembled English representative side – a game that ended 0-0.
So, Edith’s first year at Wimbledon House coincided with the school’s central role in the formation of the AEWHA – and it brought her into contact with her future husband’s family.
She became firm friends with Mildred Pretty, one of nine children of Ipswich-based corset manufacturer William Pretty, whose factory was a major employer in the town from the mid-1800s. Edith met Mildred’s brother Frank while still in Brighton, and the couple eventually married in 1926.
The Prettys were prominent on the early 20th-century Suffolk sporting scene. Frank and his half-brother Ernest were members of Ipswich men’s hockey club, founded in 1899, but also played for men’s and mixed teams based out of the family’s large home, Goldrood House.
Other family members who turned out for Goldrood’s mixed XI were: Hilda and Elsie (Frank and Ernest’s sisters); Margaret (aunt) and her husband Russell Paul; Reginald (cousin); and Mabel Pretty (sister-in-law).
Hilda, Elsie, Margaret, Mabel and Mildred also played for Ipswich Ladies, while Margaret and Mildred were selected for the Suffolk county team.
Margaret also got involved in the administration of the sport, serving as president of the Suffolk Women’s Hockey Association and on the council of the East Anglian Ladies Hockey Association.
With such active future in-laws, it is unlikely that Edith, who travelled extensively after leaving Wimbledon House School in 1899, gave up playing hockey and other sports altogether. Evidence of her involvement has yet to be found, however – although I’m Pretty sure it must be out there!
*The Dig was released on Netflix on 29 January.
Sources: Mary Skelcher & Chris Durrant, Edith Pretty: from socialite to Sutton Hoo (Leiston Press, Leiston, 2006); Jo Halpin, ‘Will you walk into our parlour?’: The rise of leagues and their impact on the governance of women’s hockey in England 1895-1939 (PhD thesis, May 2019); East Anglian Daily Times; Suffolk & Essex Free Press; The Social Review.
 |
 |
|
|
The Anglo-Saxon Sutton Hoo helmet bears a passing resemblance to the early hockey facemasks of the 1980s. |
||
Sutton Hoo at the British Museum
Discover more about the Suttton Hoo treasures with online content from the British Museum. Click here for an overview of their collection, including a virtual tour of the gallery, and here for a 15-minute podcast discussion with the Curator [10:24 - 25:53].
 |
|
Sutton Hoo Gold Shoulder Clasp. |
In 1900 there were just twenty clubs from the North affiliated to the Hockey Association (HA) causing some historians have been misled as to the game’s popularity outside of the home counties. In most northern towns and cities at this time hockey playing was increasingly popular.
For example: in Hull the Sports Editor of the Hull Daily Mail wrote in 1902:
“Now that hockey has become firmly established in Hull and East Riding, the question has been mooted as to the advisability of forming a league or some form of competition. Seeing that there are some twenty clubs in the neighbourhood of Hull, many leading players are inclined to the belief that a competition could be run on a sound basis.”
The next day a letter appeared from a ”hockeyite” pointing out the HA’s ban on all cups and competitions.
Hockey’s popularity in Hull was such that the Morison Advertising Agency was publishing annually from 1902 The Hull & District Hockey Register which contained the rules of the game and the fixtures lists and officers of all the local clubs. The register sold for 2d and by 1905 3d.
Unfortunately to date, we have yet to find a surviving copy. Can anyone help in our pursuit?
James Ormandy
28.01.2021
 |
| Cover of the Sticks Club Handbook, 1910 |
A fascinating item recently came into The Hockey Museum’s possession which threw an amusing light on a social activity in London hockey circles in the early years of the last century.
It was the history of an exclusive gentlemen’s hockey club whose Latin motto of "Aut vino aut ludo invicti" might give some indication of the club's founding intentions: Never defeated by wine or in a game.
The Sticks Club originated in a meeting of a dozen hockey players at the Russell Hotel in London on 21 March 1907. Two of them – Stanley Shoveller and Eric Green – would represent England at the London Olympic Games a year later where they earned gold medals. Shoveller won gold again 12 years later at the Antwerp Olympics.
Almost a year later, on 10 March 1908, six of the original dozen, including Shoveller, met at Hatchett’s Restaurant in Piccadilly when a resolution was passed to found the Sticks Club “for the purposes of mutual recreation at hockey matches and dinners and other necessities of civilisation [...] The health of the new club was drunk with much enthusiasm in Scotch ale, this being recommended by Mr Shoveller as a sound training beverage.”
Their first match was to be played on 11 April 1908 vs Folkestone, followed by a meeting at the Royal Pavilion Hotel in Folkestone to approve the Club’s rules and regulations. Four other gentlemen, including 1908 Olympians Gerald Logan and Percy Rees, were asked to attend as the first Ordinary Members, taking the membership to 25, seven of whom played for Hampstead HC. This number was the limit laid down in the Club’s rules.
When a vacancy occurred, a bizarre method of election was carried out. Namely:
“Candidates for electing must take their stand in a hockey goal, in the presence of at least four Original Members or Members, who shall each be entitled to one free hit at goal. Each time a goal is scored the Candidate shall stand drinks round [presumably buy a round - ed] at the next general meeting; if no goals are scored the Candidate shall certainly not be elected. In the event of a goal not being available the Candidate shall undergo such other initiation either on the field, or in, upon or at such licensed premises as the majority of the original members and Members present shall decide.”
The secret nature of the Club was to be maintained by another rule:
“Neither the rules or regulations of the Club or the names of the Members or Officers shall on account whatever be disclosed to anyone who is not a Member.”
Click the PDF icon to the right to view the full Sticks Club handbook including membership list and complete rules.
The Jean Arnold collection was donated to The Hockey Museum (THM) during lockdown and is now helping to uncover more of the once-hidden history of women’s league hockey.
 |
Jean Arnold |
Jean Arnold, a well-known figure in Liverpool hockey circles, has donated a large number of items relating to the Liverpool Ladies’ Hockey League. Among this collection is The Lord Mayor’s Cup.
 |
The Lord Mayor’s Cup, Jean Arnold Collection. |
The Lord Mayor’s Cup was presented to the League by Burton Eills, the Lord Mayor of Liverpool, in 1919. It was presented to the League Champions. This must be one of the oldest women’s hockey league cups still in existence.
The Cup is engraved with the following:
The Lord Mayor’s Cup
Presented by
BURTON EILLS, ESQ., JP
Lord Mayor of Liverpool
1919-1920
To the Liverpool County
Ladies' Hockey League
(affiliated to the AEWHA)
Division 1
The engraving confirms that in the 1919-1920 season, the League was affiliated to the All England Women’s Hockey Association (AEWHA), which since 1895 was the ruling body of women’s hockey in England. The AEWHA was not in favour of league hockey; however, after the First World War, the number of clubs affiliated to the AEWHA was in decline and the leagues were growing in popularity.
Some of the early leagues, such as the Liverpool League, joined the AEWHA after the war, boosting the AEWHA numbers, but the relationship was always a difficult one and some leagues did not stay long. The Liverpool League left in 1928 and eventually joined the English Ladies’ Hockey Leagues Association (ELHLA), an alternative body set up in 1932 to look after the interests of the Leagues. One of the founders of the new Association was John Lishman, the founder of the Liverpool Ladies’ Hockey League.
 |
 |
|
Mark Evans with the items donated by Jean Arnold. He is holding The Lord Mayor’s Cup and the Liverpool Ladies’ Challenge Shield. |
Liverpool Ladies’ Hockey League 1961-62 Handbook showing the League was founded in 1918. |
|
The Hockey Museum (THM) has recently acquired a set of blazer buttons that once adorned the England blazer of George Hardy. These buttons, emblazoned (ahem) with the HA logo of the Hockey Association, presumably made their way to Hardy’s fellow England player, Captain John Yate Robinson who passed them down through the Robinson family line. The buttons were donated to the museum by Robinson's great nephew.
Quite how or why the buttons passed from Hardy to Robinson is lost in the fog of time. Whilst our Great Britain match records are now complete, the England records are not finalised and have yet to be fully researched and cross-referenced. What records we do have show that Hardy played only one game for England, against France on 18 April 1908 in Paris. Robinson didn’t play in that game but did play against Scotland two weeks earlier in Edinburgh and then subsequently, after Hardy’s sole England appearance, in the London Olympic Games in October 1908 (winning gold). Hardy played for Brooklands, Cheshire and the North; Robinson for Oxford University and the South. Despite never having been in the same England side together (as best we know), somehow these buttons passed from Hardy to the descendants of John Yate Robinson; and what happened to his blazer?
A mystery then, but an intriguing one. The buttons, which innocuously spell out HA-HA-HA, appear to delight in their ambiguity, mocking our efforts to establish absolute provenance. The brass cheek of it.
Shane Smith
04.09.2020
On 14 April 1935 (not 1938 as stated on this British Pathé YouTube clip), Germany women played England women in Berlin. The result was 6-4 victory for England. An unexpected tour given the precarious political situation in Europe.
The England team line up: Eileen Arnold (GK), Mary Knott (Cptn), Marjorie Collins, Phyl Carlebach, Ruth Maddox, Rebecca Blaxland, Angela Pilley, Hilary Redman, Christina Goodman, Marjorie Pollard, Rosemary Marriott.
One of the umpires was LM Scott (England); the other was presumably German, but we do not yet know her name.
We believe that England forward Angela Pilley was something of a principled, social justice campaigner and the family tale has it that she upset the All England Women's Hockey Association (AEWHA) by refusing to give the Nazi salute whilst running out between two lines of Hitler Youth. This would've been totally contrary to her beliefs and she is alleged to have made an anti-Nazi statement to the press afterwards. After this tour, which also included a match against the Netherlands in Haarlem, she was not officially selected for England again.
Reports of other England games in 1935 mention Angela as a fast and effective forward. She was clearly in her prime. An editorial in Hockey Field magazine in 1936 notes that, “Mrs Pilley does not even appear in the reserves list this year – surely the biggest surprise of all. According to reports from the territorial matches, Mrs Pilley has been up to form and lost none of her speed and initiative.”
Was Angela Pilley dropped for her political stance? We have yet to uncover concrete evidence of a statement to the German or English press, nor for that matter a reason given for her omission in the AEWHA minutes. We can see that none of the England team give the Nazi salute in the British Pathé video, but the national anthems (as shown) would've been after the runout (which isn’t). Were the England team made to salute, and did they? How did Pilley react?
Whatever the truth – and we may yet discover it – was there ever a time when selection didn’t surprise somebody?
Germany Women vs England Women, 14.04.1935
The Hockey Museum recently received a Winchester HC fixture card for the 2017-2018 season.
This came as a bit of a surprise as we knew that many (most?) clubs no longer produce such a publication. With the availability of information on the internet and social media they have become virtually redundant and the new GDPR personal data rules make it more difficult to provide contact details.
Historically, fixture cards provide a wealth of knowledge, not just about the club in question but who they played against. From this and other data we have determined that some 8,000 clubs have existed in England since the first in 1891 – that is both men's and women's. We are avidly trying to collect these fixture cards as they provide a significant insight into the make-up of hockey through the years. If you have any, please send them to us.
Mike Smith, 25 October 2018
Mike Smith, Curator of THM (left) discusses the
Old Creightonians HC archive with Simon Lawton-Smith (right).
At The Hockey Museum (THM) we receive at least one collection each week, but not many have a twist in the story like this one.
A recent visit by Simon Lawton-Smith brought us the club records of the Old Creightonians HC, a very active club in Middlesex for over fifty years. Originally the ‘Old Boys’ of Kilburn Grammar School, when the school closed and they ran out of ‘Old Boys’ to solely sustain player numbers – a not uncommon scenario – they changed the name to simply Creightonians HC. Although now disbanded, the club lives on with regular social and golfing gatherings. With their records lodged with THM, however, the name will live on in annals of hockey.
The twist in the story came whilst showing Simon around the Museum. We mentioned our 1908 Olympic gold medal to which he responded, “My family has one of those!” Simon’s grandfather, Herbert Smith, was in the gold medal-winning side of 1908, not for hockey but for football. Like us at THM, the family keep the medal in a safe but what a wonderful twist that 110 years on the stories of these two successes should come together.
Mike Smith, 28 August 2018
Over the past couple of years, a considerable amount of material, including a large collection of trophies, has come to THM from Cannock HC. It was rescued from the former National Hockey Stadium in Milton Keynes by Laurie Alcock, affectionately known as 'Mr Cannock'. Had Laurie not saved it, the cabinets and artefacts would have been lost to hockey but the Museum now has both.
We are still working our way through cataloguing the trophies but the accompanying photos show two of the gems that we have found.
 |
 |
One (above, left) was presented to The Hockey Association in 1962 by the Indian Air Force hockey team on the occasion of their visit to the UK. We know that at least one more of these exists with the Royal Navy Hockey Association and we suspect that the Army and the RAF also received one during the visit. If you have any information on this trip do please contact Mike (through our contact form) to let us know.
The other trophy (above, right) was presented to The Hockey Association on the occasion of its 50th Anniversary in 1936 by the Dutch Hockey Association. It is a quite beautiful windmill with full sails all made from silver. Sadly, it was very battered and the moving parts didn’t survive! We approached a well-known hockey enthusiast and former Great Britain women’s Manager, Chris Pickett, for help. Chris owns Pickett and Pursers, the renowned jewellers in Petersfield and they have kindly restored it to its former glory. Thank you, Chris, for saving one of our finest possessions.
Mike Smith, July 2018
Sharing Heritage: THM Completes Its Oral History Project Funded By HLF
THM Oral Histories Lead, Evelyn Somerville interviews Howard Davies. Image credit: Mike Smith The Hockey Museum was one of the first groups in the UK to receive a Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) Sharing Heritage grant for an exciting project to collect Oral Histories from past players, umpires, officials and administrators....
Merry Christmas From The Hockey Museum - It's Newsletter Vol.10
In a year when the Great Britain women’s hockey made history by winning the Olympic Gold Medal, 2016 has also been another very successful and exciting year at The Hockey Museum. We took on our first paid staff, organised two very successful exhibitions at The Olympic Hockey Venue and the...
THM Seeks Webmaster, GSOH, DTE, PDA
The Hockey Museum is seeking a volunteer Webmaster to develop and oversee its website and advise on web and IT progress generally. Interested parties should have a working knowledge of PHP language and MySQL. Experience of Content Management Systems (The Hockey Museum uses Joomla) would be ideal but not essential....
THM Job Vacancy: Collections Management Officer
The Hockey Museum, Woking, Surrey.Collections Management OfficerAverage 3 days a week - flexibleExpected remuneration: c. £20k pro rataFixed term 1 year, with potential to extend. Freelancers welcome to apply. The Hockey Museum is a relatively new Museum having opened in late 2011. It achieved charitable status later that year and...
Volunteers' Day 2016
The second annual Volunteers' Day was held at the Hockey Museum on the afternoon of Wednesday 26 October 2016, with around 25 people in attendance including special guest Peter Savage, long time hockey photographer and journalist, his wife Stella and family members. Curator Mike Smith opened proceedings and Chair of...
THM Seeks Partner In An AHRC Collaborative PhD
As part of the Sport in Museums Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) consortium, The Hockey Museum (THM) has been given the opportunity to submit an application for a fully-funded PhD studentship from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) starting in the 2017/18 academic year. This PhD will be jointly supervised...
100 Year Milestone for Des Simon
David Balbirnie with Des Simon and his family at his 100th year birthday celebrations. On Tuesday 20 September 2016 Des Simon, a Past President of the former Irish Hockey Union and Hockey Ireland Honorary Life Member, celebrated his 100th birthday. Des, a long standing member of Cliftonville Hockey Club, has...
The Hockey Museum Calendar For 2017
The Hockey Museum (THM) has launched a limited-edition calendar for 2017. It covers 16 months (September 2016 to December 2017) so that if fully incorporates the hockey season – and you can start using it right away! Featuring a stylish and clean aesthetic in-keeping with THM’s branding, the calendar is illustrated with...
GB & England Hockey Announce New Performance Director
Following a worldwide search, Great Britain and England Hockey is delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Ed Barney PhD as Performance Director. Dr Barney's track record of maximising performance, talent identification and strategic thinking made him the outstanding candidate for the role. With international experience in hockey, cricket and...
Danish Discoveries Pose Intriguing Questions
I thought I might share a recent happening you just as an example of some of the work and occurrences at The Hockey Museum. It never ceases to amaze me how the happenings continue to happen! Recently we received a contact from a player in Denmark who is interested in...
Olympic Gold Medalist Helen Richardson-Walsh Donates To THM
After visiting the Museum in April to help its Communications Lead Lynne Morgan with her research on the total number of Great Britain capped female hockey players, GB & England International and four times Olympian, Helen Richardson-Walsh kindly agreed to lend the Museum her bronze medal from the London 2012...
THM Supplies Old Rules For ELHC Anniversary Match
Recently, The Hockey Museum (THM) had an enquiry from East London Hockey Club. They have been celebrating their 25th anniversary this summer and as part of the celebrations wanted to put on a match played to the rules of their inaugural 1990/91 season. ELHC contacted THM to request the rules...
Olympic Hockey Exhibition At Surrey History Centre
Members of THM and SHC teams pose with Olympian John Peake and decedants of Olympian Gerald Logan. 2016 is an exciting Olympic year with the Games taking place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 5 to 21 August 2016 and the Paralympics in September. To celebrate, The Hockey Museum (THM)...
Let Us Explain About Our Shane
The Hockey Museum is delighted to announce its second professional appointment. Shane Smith has been appointed as Curatorial Assistant on a one-year contract and begins today. He joined the Museum in October 2013 as Volunteer Curator of Art and later as Digital Content Editor of the website. His wide ranging skills...
Reel-y Good News: THM Wins HLF Support To Digitise Films
The Hockey Museum has been awarded a grant of £15,300 by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to enable it to digitise its collection of nearly 100 old hockey films dating back to the 1930s. This project will preserve the films and also make them available for viewing by a wide range...
Bollywood And Hockey
Alia Bhatt at premiere of 'Udta Punjab'. The recently released Bollywood movie Udta Punjab has something special for the hockey lovers. The movie, which focuses on the drug abuse problem in the Indian state of Punjab, has hockey as a major influence with actor Alia Bhatt playing a role of a...
A Boost For THM's Worldwide Hockey Heritage Study
Katie Dodd addresses the FIH reception during the Champions Trophy; credit: Jon Rye. The Hockey Museum (THM) was delighted to welcome Leandro Negre, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) President, to its reception to promote the current Worldwide Scoping Study, held in THM exhibition marquee during the Women’s Champions Trophy. The...
When Alice Met Helen
Alice Hannan, aged 10 from The Holy Family Catholic Primary School in Surrey, met Great Britain star Helen Richardson-Walsh on Tuesday. Alice, the winner of The Hockey Museum's (THM) Art of Hockey competition, was presented with art materials, a signed copy of her winning artwork and a signed miniature hockey...
The Hockey Museum At The Champions Trophy In Olympic Park, London
We are now into the second week of the Men’s and Women’s Champions Trophy Events at the Lee Valley Hockey & Tennis Centre in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and The Hockey Museum (THM) marquee and exhibition have again been a great attraction for many of the spectators who braved...
Feast Your Eyes On Newsletter Vol.8
Our latest newsletter is now available to download. Catch up on all the latest going ons at The Hockey Museum by following this link. You'll also discover an archive of all previous newsletters. Shane Smith, 20 June 2016
HRH Queen Elizabeth's Birthday Honour For Pat Rowley
Pat Rowley; credit: Dil Bahra Pat Rowley, one of our co-founder Trustees, has been awarded the British Empire Medal for Services to Hockey in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List published on 11 June 2016. One of the most senior hockey writers in the world, Pat has been involved in hockey...
Winners Announced For The Art Of Hockey Competition
With just eight weeks to go before the Rio 2016 Olympic Games begin, the winning piece of artwork has been chosen from a bumper batch of entries in The Hockey Museum’s Art of Hockey competition. The competition, supported by The National Hockey Foundation, invited children to design their own piece...
What Can You Tell Us About Hockey’s Worldwide Heritage?
This is an exciting time for hockey’s international heritage. Over the past five years, The Hockey Museum (THM) has established itself as the lead organisation to support hockey heritage in the UK. The museum is now working with the International Hockey Federation (FIH) to expand this work worldwide. The aim...
Less Than One Month To Enter The Art Of Hockey Competition
Primary schools have less than one month until The Hockey Museum’s Art of Hockey competition closes. The Hockey Museum’s Art of Hockey competition, supported by The National Hockey Foundation, is open to primary schools across the United Kingdom. Children are invited to design their own piece of two-dimensional artwork about...
A Marathon Effort
Financing the setting up and the running of our museum has been a very interesting exercise over the past five years. The money came initially and mainly from our Volunteers and Friends, without whom there would never have been The Hockey Museum. More latterly our endeavours have been rewarded by...
Irish Olympic Silver Medal: Oh No It Isn’t!
In January we thought that we had found one of the 'Holy Grail' items of hockey when it was reported from Dublin that one of the 1908 Olympic Silver Medals had been discovered. We only had a small photo to go on but, as Ireland took the silver medal in...
Centenarian Still Going Strong
Former Royal Navy hockey player Admiral Dick Wildish has celebrated his 101st birthday. He played in the Inter Services hockey matches in 1939 and again in 1946 and is currently the longest serving Vice President of the Royal Navy Hockey Association (RNHA), having been elected in 1970. During WW2 he...
Situations Vacant
The Hockey Museum (THM) is a volunteer-led organisation and our fifty volunteers are responsible for everything that the museum achieves. Yet, as more people hear about THM and our reputation grows, there is more to be done. Not everything happens at the Museum itself in Woking. Whilst we are actively...
The Art Of Hockey: THM Launches Primary School Art Competition
This week, The Hockey Museum (THM) launches a UK-wide competition for primary schools, with the winning design being displayed at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The Hockey Museum's Art of Hockey competition, supported by The National Hockey Foundation, is open to primary schools across the United Kingdom. Children are invited...
Gavin Featherstone Joins THM Team
Well-known and well-travelled hockey coach and author Gavin Featherstone has joined The Hockey Museum volunteers team as the principle reviewer for our new website feature page Book Reviews. We hope to review at least one book per month and we have quite a backlog. Perhaps surprisingly to some there are...
Feast Your Eyes On Newsletter Vol.7
Our latest newsletter is now available to download. Catch up on all the latest going ons at The Hockey Museum by following this link. You'll also discover an archive of all previous newsletters. Shane Smith, 4 February 2016
The Irishman Cometh: David Balbirnie Visits THM
Last week The Hockey Museum (THM) had the pleasure of welcoming David Balbirnie, the Museum's International Hockey Federation (FIH) nominated Trustee, to our Woking home. The appointment of Irishman Mr Balbirnie, the former European Hockey Federation Hon. General Secretary, to THM Board Of Trustees is a sign of the Museum's increasingly...
The Hockey Writers' Club Lunch 2016 And The Commemorative Pennant
At the annual Hockey Writers' Club Lunch on 20 January 2016, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) President, Leandro Negre, made his customary, 'The State of Hockey' address to a room packed with hockey media, candidates for the Hockey Writers' annual awards and hockey enthusiasts and supporters. It is always a...
THM Announces Study To Scope Hockey’s Worldwide Heritage
The Hockey Museum (THM) is delighted to announce that it has awarded the contract to scope hockey's worldwide heritage to the Justine Reilly Consultancy (JRC). The team will be headed up by Dr Justine Reilly, who has 15 years experience of managing large multi-partner heritage programmes and extensive experience of...
The Hockey Museum Launches First Ever Calendar
The Hockey Museum (THM) has launched a limited-edition calendar for 2016. Featuring a stylish and clean aesthetic in-keeping with THM’s branding, the calendar is illustrated with highlights from the Museum’s varied and ever-expanding collection of artefacts and archives from across the centuries, as well as notable dates throughout the year...
Irish Silver Medal Discovered
At the 1908 London Olympics, six nations participated in what was the first Olympic hockey competition. The gold medal was won by England who beat Ireland 8-1 in the final. We have seen several of the gold medals and indeed we have one in our collection at The Hockey Museum....
An Enquiry To Cap It All
Interest in The Hockey Museum is partly reflected in the ever increasing number of enquiries that we receive. Hockey is a very wide ranging subject and so are the questions. Invariably we find at least part of the answer but one recent question has us stumped. The photograph to the...
Our Partners
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |