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Royal Ascot Hockey Club's Royal Stewart tartan skirt, produced and sold by Len Smith's. From The Hockey Museum's collection. |
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Following on from mention of Len Smith’s Sportswear Ltd. in a recent article about the introduction of VAT in 1971, several volunteers at The Hockey Museum (THM) reflected lovingly on the era in the 1960s and ‘70s when players who wanted to look good on the school or club hockey pitch would head to – or place mail orders from – the Len Smith’s shop in the centre of Twickenham. Such memories are, of course, subjective with other kit suppliers eliciting similar rose-tinted reflections, though Len Smith’s seems to be remembered particularly fondly. It was particularly renowned for its hockey skirts because they stocked a wide variety of colours, styles and fabrics. The S5 style of ‘wrap-around pleated skirt with a flat panel at the front and a button fastening’ was a particular favourite.
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| Advert for a S5 skirt, from the reverse of the 1980 Wembley programme. |
When we were researching our book The Magic of Wembley (published in 2018 - buy it here), one of our researchers went to visit the old Len Smith’s shop looking for Wembley memories. Len Smith’s was a regular match sponsor and provider of kit to an impressive list of visiting international teams. Sadly, we found that Len, who had set up and run the company since 1956, had retired in 2008. The retailer had joined with Stevenson’s, a school wear specialist, that now gave its name to all the shop signage. The shopfront was still instantly recognisable and inside it remained stocked with hockey and other sportswear. When we spoke to the current staff, they remembered the previous owner and the 60-year tradition of the Len Smith’s brand, but we were shocked to learn that they had only recently disposed of all the old stock – sadly, we were too late to save items for the museum.
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| The store front of Len's Smith's in Twickenham. From the small archive collection received from Len Smith in 2014. |
Len Smith’s may have been based in Twickenham, but we understand their appeal was nationwide and even international. Do you have any stories of obtaining Len Smith’s kit from further afield? Let us know.
Len’s Memories
We did manage to get in touch with Len, now living in retirement in Hampshire. He was still the larger-than-life character who was always there to greet you when you visited the Twickenham store. He had lots of stories from his time running the shop including working with many of the women’s national governing bodies and famous players from the men’s and women’s international hockey scene.
One of Len’s Wembley memories was from 1970, the year that the annual England women's international fixture had to move to The White City Stadium when the Wembley turf was waterlogged. England women were playing Australia and the last-minute change of venue made arrangements somewhat chaotic for teams, officials and spectators alike. Len recalled that he had to deliver a set of green socks to the Australian team for this match but, with the traffic around the stadium being gridlocked, he ended up running through the crowds with all the boxes only to find that the security guards wouldn’t let him in. Eventually a message got through to the Australian manager and she came out to have the boxes passed through the gates to her! The Australian team then went out and ‘played their socks off’ to come away with a creditable 1-1 draw.
Although Len admitted he had not kept much by way of memorabilia from his days running the shop, he did donate several interesting items to THM including catalogues, photographs and newspaper cuttings. One particularly fascinating item was the original artwork for the first All England Women’s Hockey Association (AEWHA) cloth badge designed for the England tracksuit. When team tracksuits were first introduced in 1967, the players had asked for something different from the ‘three roses’ badge that went on the shirt and blazer. The England goalkeeper, Beryl Marsh, a talented artist, produced the artwork that Len then used to manufacture the badge. The artwork was submitted to Len on a Tuesday and he produced the badges in time for the international match that Saturday.
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| The England women's cloth badge created to emblazon the team tracksuits and the original artwork by Beryl Marsh dated 1 March 1967. | ||
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| England women sport the team tracksuit and badge in Cardiff in 1972. |
Where next for our clothing collection?
Since opening in 2011, THM has acquired a wide range of men’s and women’s original hockey kit and replica clothing. The collection spans from the late-19th century to the modern day. These would have been initially quarantined (to protect the rest of the collection from any bugs that may have snuck in amongst the fabric) and then carefully packed and preserved by Judith, our lead volunteer for textiles, who is very ably assisted by Shirley who makes our padded hangers.
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| Part of the clothing collection stored at The Hockey Museum's Woking home. |
Looking through our textiles collection, clothing catalogues, adverts in various magazines, and the many team photos we hold at THM, it is fascinating to see how much the outfits have changed over 150 years of modern hockey, particularly for women. It is not only the changes in fashion that are marked, but also the development of fabrics and designs.
THM is working to acquire funding for a research project around the development of hockey clothing, so if you have any unusual items or an interest in this work please get in touch.
