The Museum has been given four large collections of hockey films which have been recorded on film reels. Rowena Shepherd, the Museum volunteer leading in this work, commented:

“At the moment we really only know their titles. They are a mixture of films of hockey events and matches such as the Folkestone Festival in 1953, and very short instructive films showing how to perform a range of hockey skills.

“The physical condition of the films is not known, but we are assuming that they will be so fragile that watching them using a conventional projector might break or otherwise destroy them. We are therefore looking to get them digitised and have been working with specialists, Mark Rance and David Cordery who have digitised some fragments of our collection. The results so far are fascinating, giving a tantalizing glimpse of their content. We would love to get our entire collection digitised so that we can share our old films with others, but we will have to wait until we have sufficient funds.”

The short sections that have been digitized will be available to view at the Museum Stand at the London Investec Cup this week, 9-13 July.

Katie Dodd, 8 July 2014