In 2019 The Hockey Museum (THM) has played a significant part in a collaborative project created by the subject-specialist network Sporting Heritage and the Army Museums Ogilby Trust (AMOT), a charity working to support Army museums in the UK. The project, which is titled Sporting Heritage and the Armed Forces is funded by the Arts Council and runs until April 2020, consists of three separate work strands relating to military sporting collections:

1. Have a specialist visit THM to digitise our paper archive and photography materials that have a military focus.
2. Have a consultant work with THM on its volunteering programme to:
   • Review and improve THM’s volunteer management practices using the new AMOT toolkit, including finalising the Volunteer Handbook, induction procedure, general volunteer HR etc.
   • Recruit new volunteers to assist the Curator with his Hockey’s Military Stories research project.
3. Funding for THM to partner with military museums to create a touring exhibition on military hockey.

The digitisation work in now complete and the material can now be more easily used and shared by THM. The consultancy work around our volunteering practices is ongoing but close to conclusion and will impact positively on our existing volunteers as well as on any newly enticed volunteers. The campaign for volunteers to assist with Hockey’s Military Stories also continues – email Curator This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if that piques your interest.

The exhibition is complete and has already been displayed at the GB Pro League matches at Twickenham Stoop and on Remembrance Sunday in THM’s hometown of Woking. Military Hockey: A Force for Good focuses on the long tradition of hockey being played in the British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. It delves into the positive aspects of hockey in the Armed Forces such as physical fitness, mental wellbeing and teamwork, and covers centuries of conflict, peacetime pursuits and prominent hockey personnel. The exhibition can be displayed anywhere from museums to hockey club houses. If you are interested in hosting it, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

1. New Chair

It is with great pleasure that we have been able to attract John Wilmott to be the next permanent Chair. John will be known to many through his Southgate and 1986 World Cup days involvement. He brings not only hockey passion and knowledge, but business and charity chairing experience.

John will take up the reins as Chair on 1 April 2020; in the meantime, he will be appointed a Trustee and attend meetings in December and March as well as getting to know the ins and out of the museum.

2. NLHF Resilient Heritage Project

Late last year we succeeded in our application with the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF; previously Heritage Lottery Fund) for a grant to pay for consultants to work with us to undertake a Resilience Project. We had previously talked to the NLHF about grant applications and they said two things: we must understand our (existing and potential) audiences better and also undertake a Resilience Project if we were to stand a chance of successful major grant applications in future.

The project work began in the spring and recently concluded. Three strands of work were undertaken:

Audience Research And Development Priorities

Analysis and research of our various audiences was carried out: the general hockey player, hockey clubs, the Woking community and international hockey NGBs . Interviews (online and at the FIH PRO League) and focus groups were undertaken where practical and conclusions drawn.

One key conclusion is that we need to develop our audience reach, including a much stronger social media presence working with our key funder and partner, England Hockey, to build our online audience capacity. England Hockey have over 100,000 Facebook followers and tens of thousands of Twitter and Instagram users. Feeding in regular stories (particularly those built around major events and anniversaries e.g. Tokyo Olympics) will help England Hockey with engaging the hockey community, but also build our contact base which should feed through to more ‘Friends’ of the museum, more donations and more volunteers. In time it should also result in more physical visits to the museum. This work is already in hand.

The next key priority is to build stronger relationships with hockey clubs in the immediate area and those that wish to celebrate major anniversaries. This work should result in more volunteers recruited to the museum cause and in time a small income stream (for helping clubs research their histories). Links to the Woking community will be focused on after our move to our permanent premises – see below. Our work with international NGBs continues in a low-key way but has been hampered by the temporary suspension of our grant stream from the FIH due to their financial difficulties – also see below.

A further key recommendation was to explore the potential for a mobile exhibition facility.

Income Generation Work

Analysis of our various income streams and brainstorming about building existing streams and generating new ones was undertaken. Our principle regular income streams are England Hockey’s grant, the FIH’s (suspended) grant, one-off donations, the Friends of THM scheme, and other smaller streams.

Various ideas were explored and comparisons with other similar museums carried out and conclusions drawn. Our partnership with England Hockey will be strengthened, clarity on the ongoing relationship with the FIH is being sought, focus on one-off donations will continue and the Friends scheme will be re-launched in 2021 once we have established ourselves in our new premises; we still need more Friends to sign up to our scheme so please consider doing so. A major conclusion though, was that we should be regularly applying for grants and ensuring we build in full cost recovery into such applications which will help underpin core running costs of the museum. A priority list of which grants to apply for has been drawn up.

Governance Work

The third and final work stream was to review all our governance processes and documents and recommend which ones need to be reviewed and improved and which ones we needed to add. This was a helpful piece of work and the priorities will be tackled slowly and steadily over the next few years.

In addition to all this, a visioning day and subsequent strategy days updated our Vision, Mission and strategic objectives for the next five years. These are currently being tidied up and summarised and will be presented to interested volunteers later this year or early in the new year. One of the key objectives will for the museum to become ‘digital by default’ by 2024.

3. The International Hockey Federation (FIH)

I mentioned above the issue with our grant suspension. This is nothing to do with us as a museum; the FIH has been extremely pleased with the work we have been doing. The issue is that the FIH has severe financial problems and they decided that they had no choice but to suspend our grant for 2020, unfortunately with very little notice. Clarity is being sought as to whether this is likely to be reinstated beyond 2020. If they do not reinstate our grant stream then we will have to reprioritise our own work programmes.

4. New Premises

We are still hoping to move to more spacious premises in Woking though the exact date for such a move and the terms of any lease are as yet unclear. It is now likely to be 2021 before this move takes place. This is, in some ways, perhaps a good thing as it will enable us to start implementing many strands of the Resilience Project work throughout 2020.

Philip Kimberley, Acting Chair THM Board
December 2019

The Board of Trustees are delighted to announce that John Willmott is to be appointed Chair of The Hockey Museum (THM), effective 1 April 2020.

In the interim, John will join as a Trustee in order to gain knowledge and experience of the museum’s affairs, and will attend upcoming trustee meetings in December and March.

He will also use this period to meet as many trustees, staff and volunteers as possible before taking up his position.

John will be known to many in the hockey world, in particular for having been:

• Both a past Chair and President of Southgate Hockey Club
• A director of the 1986 Hockey World Cup; and
• Organiser of many touring teams/events and festivals.

He has significant business experience in the construction industry and is currently involved in a number of charities and local organisations as Chair.

Philip Kimberley will continue to act as Chair until John takes up his appointment and the Board would like to thank him for stepping in following Katie’s Dodd’s resignation in July.

THM Trustees, 11 November 2019

The Hockey Museum (THM) is seeking a new Chair with Katie Dodd having recently stepped down following 7 years in the role.

To view the role specification and for details on how to apply, please click the PDF icon to the right. Applications should be submitted by Monday 30 September 2019.

The Board of The Hockey Museum (THM) is sad to announce that Katie Dodd has decided to step down from her role as Chair after a distinguished period at the helm.

Katie has been Chair for seven years and has seen the museum substantially grow both its collections and its contacts with the world of hockey. Since it was formed as a Charitable Trust in July 2012, under Katie’s guidance THM has:

• moved into more spacious premises with the prospect of a permanent home in 2020
• brought in permanent staff
• installed MODES collections software to manage its rapidly growing collections
• gained Arts Council Accreditation
• held very successful exhibitions at major hockey tournaments, must notably at the Women’s World Cup where 10,000 visitors attended
• gained a large Resilient Heritage grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund
• built formal partnerships with both England Hockey and the International Hockey Federation
• introduced a Friends and donations scheme
• built a more stable income stream
• overseen an increase in our volunteer team
• strengthened the Trustee Board

The process for advertising for a new Chair will be started after the summer holidays have finished. In the interim, the Board has asked Philip Kimberley (previously Chair England Hockey and a current Trustee) to act as interim Chair over the next six months or so pending the appointment of a permanent new Chair.

The Board wishes to express its sincere and profound thanks to her for all her amazing work and her leadership over the last seven years. We are delighted that she has agreed to stay on as a volunteer so that she can continue to bring her passion and commitment to building hockey’s heritage.

The Trustee Board
July 2019

The Hockey Museum is saddened by news of the death of respected hockey umpire and administrator Pam Parker. To read her full obituary and the obituaries of other shining lights of the game, please visit our obiruaries section here.

The Hockey Museum received great news just before Christmas; we had been named as a recipient of the FIH President's Award in recognition of the Museum’s “Exceptional contribution to the legacy of our sport”.

The splendid, bejeweled and gold-coloured chain was presented at the FIH Congress in Delhi in November. England Hockey President Sue Bodycomb (above, left) accepted the award on behalf of THM and last month she was able to 'bring the award home' by presenting it to Museum Chair Katie Dodd (above, right) at the Hockey Writers' Club Luncheon in London. On receipt of the award, Katie said:

“THM was honoured and delighted to have been recognised in this way by the President of the FIH. This award will undoubtedly help to raise the profile of the Museum and the importance of ensuring that the history and heritage of hockey is preserved and celebrated for the benefit of the wider hockey family.”

Photo credit: Pnjphotography

George Routley

The Routley family recently contacted THM asking for information about their great grandfather, George Routley, who they had heard might have played for England in the 1920s.

THM’s Archivist Marcus Wardle searched through the international match records and hockey magazines held in Library and he was able to confirm that Routley was awarded six caps playing in goal for England between 1922 and 1923. There were several references to his selection in the official International Selection Committee book, in match reports from the hockey magazines of the day, and even a profile of Routley published in Hockey World.

International Selection Committee book for England, March 1922

The family were delighted with the information and have been able to identify a cloth badge that they still possess as the embroidered ‘England rose’ badge George is wearing in the photos.

Photograph of George Routley from Hockey World magazine and the rose cloth badge owned by his family.

Elementary, My Dear Holly!

We recently received an enquiry through our friends at Surrey History Centre asking for information about Hindhead Hockey Club. A researcher had contacted them enquiring about the existence of Hindhead Hockey Club following the discovery of a letter from Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle stating how unfortunately he was “quite unable to be of any use to Hindhead Hockey Club”.

The letter from Arthur Conan Doyle, discovered on an online auction site in 2018.

No one at the museum had heard of Hindhead Hockey Club prior to this and so the game was afoot – could we find a record of the club? We know that Arthur Conan Doyle lived in Hazlemere prior to the World War 1, so our Curatorial Assistant, Holly, trawled the Hockey Association handbooks for the relevant years, searched our archive for references as well as our club history folders, but to no avail. We could find no reference to a club in the Hindhead area.

We do know that there is a Hazlemere Hockey Club which formed in the 1940s, and it is possible the clubs could have merged, but any record of this has alluded us. So, we are calling on our own Baker Street Regulars, the ‘Hockey Family’: please get in touch if you have any knowledge of Hindhead Hockey Club.

The Hockey Museum (THM) is delighted to announce that it has been awarded a Resilient Heritage grant by the Heritage Lottery Fund. We are now issuing tenders for the various aspects of its work.

Download the press release by clicking the PDF icon to the right.

Shooting for the Goal: Ensuring a sustainable future for The Hockey Museum will focus on reviewing the future sustainability of THM which is now in need of new permanent premises. With this major development in front of us and our recent move to CIO status, it is an opportune time for the Board and key volunteers to develop skills and undertake training as well as to work with professionals to improve our forward-planning, explore options and delve into the feasibility of the final, preferred future path.

To this end, the project will deliver the following key areas and the tender documents for each are below:

Governance Review

Business Planning

Audience Development

Skills Building & Training

Should you have any queries or questions, please contact Shane, THM Assistant Curator through our contact form.