On his recent visit to THM, Geoff Hinder (Trustee of the National Badminton Museum) saw images of Victorian lady hockey players and wondered how they managed to run around with all those layers of material – maybe they used a skirt-lifter? He described it as a brass clip on a cord used by Victorian ladies to hold up their dresses while taking part in ‘exercise’ and that the National Badminton Museum (NBM) had an example of one being used in badminton matches – see the article on their website.
What is it? – National Badminton Museum
Badminton Museum seeks to net Museum Accreditation with Woking visit | The Hockey Museum
The use of skirt lifters began in the mid-1800s. They were usually made of brass and were often ornate. Numerous adverts in the various ladies’ magazines of the time were aimed at the ‘active lady’ to help her avoid getting her layers of petticoat and dress material muddy. Most references to skirt lifters concerned the occasional raising of skirts in muddy areas while out walking, but we did then come across evidence of the items being used in games of tennis and badminton, so why not hockey? Looking at the graphic of a ladies’ hockey match from 1894, you do have to wonder how they managed not to get tangled up in their skirts and petticoats.
A Ladies’ Hockey Club at Play, c.1894. Engraving after an artwork by Lucien Davis.
In our research we discovered numerous metal skirt lifters currently on sale on the internet. Most seem to have their origins in the second half of the 19th century and appear to be a definite fashion statement with a wide variety of designs, some very ornate. We contacted Carole Walker, who published a book entitled A History and Guide to Collecting Ladies’ Victorian Skirt Lifters. She was able to tell us about a rare silver skirt-lifter that had been used in ladies’ tennis that sold at auction for £3,200 – see article on the record skirt lifter from the Antiques Trade Gazette.
Carole was fascinated by our quest to find a link between these items and their use in hockey but while she was not able to find any references to a definitive link, she did find one advert from 1902 for a ‘skirt holder’, a clip that attaches the skirt to the ankle, that said that it could be used for “… tennis or hockey”.
From the July 1902 issue of Cycling. Advert from the British Newspaper Archives.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, changes in fashion and the recognition of the dangers of running in long garments would have removed the need for the use of items such as skirt lifters. In the The Hockey Annual, published in 1901 by The Ladies’ Field, the first chapter is devoted to what to wear. It states that the skirt should be six inches from the ground, as specified by the All England Women’s Hockey Association (AEWHA). It also mentions “under-garments”, saying that “petticoats should not be worn, for however short, they are impossible and even dangerous to run in.”
So, while we found no direct evidence of these lovely items being used by Victorian hockey players, that they were used in other sports of the time makes it possible that they could have had some use.
Does anybody out there have any more information on the use of skirt lifters in hockey?
