FIH Foundation
In July 2015, the The Hockey Museum (THM) and the International Hockey Federation Foundation for the Promotion and Development of Hockey (FIH Foundation) signed an agreement (a Memorandum of Understanding) that formalised the collaboration between them to work together to preserve hockey’s heritage. The FIH Foundation is the charitable arm of the FIH, world hockey’s governing body, and it works to support the development and spread of hockey worldwide. The key aims for the partnership are:
- To provide opportunities to increase the visibility of the sport and to effectively celebrate the achievements and progress of hockey;
- To preserve an accurate story of hockey and provide access to authoritative historical archives and statistical data;
- To preserve and make available historical information and materials for use in a wide variety of ways e.g. for educational purposes and enquiries from hockey fans; and
- To work towards creating an international hockey museum and archives.
The Museum’s first task under this new partnership will be to review the current position worldwide in relation to the collection, cataloguing, preservation and display of hockey’s heritage with a view to developing a collaborative approach to ensuring that more of our sport’s fascinating heritage is saved and made available to the wider hockey family and beyond. The work, to be lead by an academic, will also set the framework for an exciting project to research, collate and publish an authoritative history of hockey ahead of the FIH Centenary in 2024. Click here to visit the FIH website.
England Hockey
England Hockey (EH), the national governing body for Hockey in England, supports The Hockey Museum through the provision of two Trustees to THM Board, the payment of an annual donation to assist with the running of the Museum and also gives support for the staging of Museum displays at major EH/Great Britain run international events. Click here to visit the England Hockey website.
Heritage Lottery Fund
The National Lottery invests money through the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to help people across the UK explore, enjoy and protect the heritage they care about: from the archaeology under our feet to the historic parks and buildings we love; from precious memories and collections to rare wildlife. THM has been financially supported by HLF for the following projects, the details of are revealed by clicking through to their respective pages:
Click here to visit the HLF website; @heritagelottery.
Woking Borough Council
The Hockey Museum came to Woking in 2011 at the invitation of Woking Borough Council (WBC). The idea was to put on a display for the up-coming London Olympics. This was achieved in premises in Butts Road. WBC could also see the value in having a national sports museum in their town. In 2014 the premises that we had made our home had to be demolished and we moved to an even better home in Poole Road. WBC’s faith in us is being repaid as our collection and archives develop at an amazing pace and Woking has become an important and well known name in the hockey world. Click here to visit the Woking Borough Council website.
University Of Bath Library
The University of Bath has been in collaboration with England Hockey since 2005 when it agreed to house and catalogue the All England Women’s Hockey Association (AEWHA) collection of archives and assorted hockey records. This partnership then expanded to include The Hockey Museum after it was established in 2011. The collection exists to preserve, maintain and make available a record of the beginnings and early development of organised hockey played by women in the UK. The Collection covers the period from the AEWHA’s inception in 1895 to 1996. Although the business and activities of the AEWHA form the main focus of the collection, a wide range of more personal material relating to prominent or influential individual players is also included. The Collection remains the property of The Hockey Museum but the Library Archivist, Lizzie Richmond has recorded and catalogued all the items and made them available for further enquiry and research. If you would like to find out more about The AEWHA collection please visit the website (the AEWHA collection is now searchable online).
Mercian Sports Company
To an extent, Mercian Sports was a hockey museum through the 1980s and '90s. Its Managing Director, Mike Smith, was an avid collector of anything 'hockey'. He built up a large library, an art collection, a stamp collection, and with his connection with equipment, many boxes of sticks, balls and protective equipment. Many students, directed by the All England Women's Hockey Association and the Hockey Association, were directed to its Woking offices to satisfy their studies. When the first museum displays opened at the National Hockey Stadium in Milton Keynes they were 'serviced' from Woking. When hockey vacated Milton Keynes it did seem to be the end for a hockey museum but, being the 'squirrel' that he is, Mike Smith had as much material as possible boxed up and moved to his warehouse at Mercian in Woking. There it languished until 2011 when contact with Woking Borough Council was made. It is probable that, without the support, in many ways, of Mercian Sports there would not have been anything left with which to re-establish a museum in 2011. Click here to visit the Mercian website.
Arts and Humanities Research Council
The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funds world-class, independent researchers in a wide range of subjects: ancient history, modern dance, archaeology, digital content, philosophy, English literature, design, the creative and performing arts, and much more. This financial year the AHRC will spend approximately £98m to fund research and postgraduate training in collaboration with a number of partners. The quality and range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK. For further information on the AHRC, please visit the AHRC website.
AHRC is funding a collaborative, 3.5-year PhD post to be jointly supervised by THM and the University of Wolverhampton starting in late 2017. Discover more about the PhD project here.
