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 reception had been organised to allow visitors to the Champions Trophy event, many from around the world, to meet up and share a common interest and hear first-hand about the current heritage study being undertaken by THM.

Katie Dodd, the Chair of THM Trustees, welcomed visitors to the gathering and explained that this study, supported by the FIH, was looking to draw together information and knowledge about existing hockey collections from around the world, identify all those with knowledge of hockey’s fascinating heritage and development, with the aim of better preserving and sharing this information. The work will also inform a programme of research that will enable THM to produce an authoritative history of hockey by 2024, the year of the FIH Centenary. Leandro Negre gave his very public support to the work (right; credit: Steve McCarthy) and encouraged everyone to spread the word and get people from all continents to contribute.

The assembled group were given a fascinating insight of some of the current work of the Museum by the Curator, Mike Smith (left; credit: Steve McCarthy) and then Carol Osborne, one of the Heritage Consultants running the Study, spoke enthusiastically about her first experiences of working with the hockey community. Carol, an experienced sports heritage academic based at Leeds Carnegie University, has been amazed by the supportive nature of the hockey family, not just in the UK, but from around the world, and has been delighted how many people had already completed the on-line survey questionnaire and had given such positive feedback on the importance of the work being done. There were still gaps in the responses so she encouraged everyone to spread the word to get more people to complete the survey.

If you have something you can tell us about hockey’s heritage, please complete our online survey and encourage others to do the same.

Katie Dodd, 27 June 2016.