The Hockey Museum is pleased to have played a central role in assisting Fleet & Ewshot Hockey Club to celebrate their centenary this year. The club is based in the north of Hampshire and was formed in 2007 by the merger of Fleet Hockey Club (established 1926) and Ewshot Hockey Club (established 1976). A vibrant and inclusive club, F&EHC promotes competitive and social hockey offering five men’s league teams, four women’s league teams, occasional men’s and women’s masters and mixed teams, and junior hockey teams and ‘minis’ from under 8s to under 18s.

Although the Club had managed to bring together some historical information from long-standing current and former members, it was somewhat patchy and The Hockey Museum was approached to enable a more complete picture of the club’s history to be compiled. This was achieved through accessing physical archives and interrogating online resources of digitised collection materials, which provided key missing details. A centenary history booklet (a welcome new addition to THM’s library) and display materials were produced. The Hockey Museum also loaned several heritage items to the club to showcase the history of the game more generally, which were used alongside the club’s own materials at a series end of season centenary events held in April 2026. These formed an impressive display at the clubhouse which was widely admired by those attending.

The club also borrowed 22 old-fashioned hockey sticks from THM’s ‘handling collection’ and enjoyed an exhibition match of walking hockey using the old equipment. These are items surplus from the Museum’s permanent collection which are used to bring hockey’s history to life in more tactile ways.

A number of club members began volunteering at the Museum as part of the centenary project and, being relatively local to THM in Woking and having enjoyed being part of THM’s volunteer family, they hope to continue volunteering on a regular basis.

The club expressed its grateful thanks to Shane Smith, Rebecca Burton and Marcus Wardle at The Hockey Museum for making this possible.

Curator and Museum Manager, Shane, said:

“It was a real pleasure to support Fleet & Ewshot Hockey Club with their centenary research and display ambitions. With their volunteers’ drive and a little guidance from us, they were able to realise an informative and engaging pop-up exhibition, which was used over consecutive weekends to showcase their club history and heritage alongside wider hockey objects and narratives of the time. It all came together superbly well – congratulations to Fleet & Ewshot!

 

The Hockey Museum welcomes approaches from clubs interested in celebrating their unique, fascinating histories. We are working on resources designed to help hockey clubs identify, preserve and use their past for the benefit and enjoyment of their present and future. Watch this space; and in the meantime, reach out to us if you’d like to discuss a project idea specific to your club or to help us to shape these important resources.”

Read a brief history of Fleet & Ewshot HC courtesy of a series of short articles on their club website: Fleet & Ewshot HC, the First 100 Years – A Brief History

Three pop-up banners were created by club member James Edwards for Fleet & Ewshot Hockey Club’s centenary events: one for Fleet HC’s history, one for Ewshot HC’s history, and one covering the period since the two clubs merged.

Fixture cards, trophies, photographs and kit where brought together from current and former members.

Display created for Fleet & Ewshot Hockey Club’s centenary events in April 2026. The Hockey Museum loaned several heritage items to the club to showcase the history of the game more generally, which were used alongside the club’s own materials.