This style of feature appears regularly in many publications and websites. Because hockey was blessed with excellent magazines for both the women’s and men’s games throughout the 20th century we are able to pick up on statistics and news from half a century ago.
The same cannot be said of a century ago as that was WW1. However, when we do come across information from that dreadful period we will publish occasional pieces on "Hockey 100 Years Ago".
The end of season and mid-summer editions of both the women's and men's magazines had a great deal of coverage of the Easter Hockey Festivals. These wonderful sporting and social events are not completely gone from today's hockey calendar but they are a shadow of what they used to be. An article in Hockey News entitled "Do These Moves Sound The Knell Of Easter Festivals?" was perhaps somewhat prophetic:
"I wonder how long it will be before we shall find it necessary to revise our thoughts about Easter Festivals in general, and also about the future of invitation clubs in particular. There seems no doubt that there will always be a demand for 'playing-for-fun' festivals. At the same time, it seems highly likely that official hockey will encroach, and that we shall see the day when, for example, the Folkestone Festival will be devoted to County Under-23 teams, or even County teams come to that."
The reports from just a handful of festivals listed hundreds of clubs and teams that used to journey to dozens of Easter Festivals throughout the British Isles. It is probable that in this post WW2 era a thousand teams took part in the revelry and rivalry of these great events. The Ramsgate women's festival on its own had 51 teams in attendance. All this would mean that over 10,000 hockey players would be filling up the hotels and boarding houses of Britain's seaside resorts. Such was the popularity of these events that most festivals had waiting lists of teams who wanted to attend. It was not just Easter though because in the month following, the Thanet End of Season Festival and the Isle of Man Festival both regularly attracted over 100 teams each.
Happy days!?
You Are Gold, Always Believe In Your Seoul
October 2018 saw the thirtieth anniversary of Great Britain (GB) men’s gold medal success in the Seoul Olympics, beating West Germany 3-1 in the final. Who can forget commentator Barry Davies’s immortal line: “Where were the Germans? But frankly, who cares?” To mark the occasion, a match was held at...
THM At The Women's Hockey World Cup 2018
In July 2018 THM put on its most successful exhibition to date in the Fan Zone at the Vitality Hockey Women’s World Cup in London. The exhibition was in a large marquee and comprised six sections, each characterised by a key word reflecting the work of THM and...
Season's Greetings!
So, we come to the end of another amazing year at The Hockey Museum.We’ve been in our new home at 13 High Street in Woking town centre for just over a year and from those early days when the whole collection arrived back from storage in 700+ boxes, we progressed...
A New Piece Of Hockey Art
The Mayor and Mayoress of Worthing, clutching the Penguin HCmascots at the inauguration of the glass panel on Worthing Pier. The emergence of a piece of art relating to hockey is a pretty rare occurrence. We have a good and growing collection of art at The Hockey Museum, but the...
National Sporting Heritage Day 2018 At The Hockey Museum
Come visit The Hockey Museum in Woking, Surrey on Sunday 30th of September 2018 between 10:00 and 16:00 to celebrate National Sporting Heritage Day. The Hockey Museum will be showing Olympic gold medals won by Great Britain teams. Former England and Great Britain players will be attending throughout the...
"The Hockey Museum First XI" Exhibition
A sneak peek of one particularly colourful corner of the exhibition. Following our recent move to new and larger premises in central Woking, THM has put on its first, in-house exhibition: The Hockey Museum First XI. Today, hockey teams can field up of sixteen players (and eighteen in World Events): one...
The Magic Of Wembley: The Hockey Museum Launches Its First Book
The magic of Wembley is the first publication from The Hockey Museum. It tells the story of how a Saturday in March saw thousands of schoolgirls and hockey supporters enjoy an annual day out to the famous stadium, to see England playing regular visitors such as Scotland, Ireland and Wales...
Apply Now For Hockey PhD
The Hockey Museum (THM) and The University of Wolverhampton are delighted to announce that the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) have approved funding for a collaborative PhD post to be jointly supervised by The University of Wolverhampton and THM. This award is part of the Sporting Heritage consortia initiative led...
THM Is Officially ACE
The Hockey Museum (THM) is celebrating after the announcement that Arts Council England has awarded it Full Museum Accreditation. Accreditation is granted by the Arts Council England (ACE) to museums that meet the stringent requirements imposed by their Accreditation Standard. It enables museums to assess their current performance,...
Indian Summer For Bluebell Railway
It has recently been brought to our attention that the latest edition (January 2018) of Bluebell News, the publication documenting the happenings on the Bluebell Railway, featured an interesting hockey story. On 27 August 2017, the Railway's Sheffield Park station was taken over for filming by the cast and crew of "Bollywood...
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