The Hockey Museum

15/10/2026

HOCKEY OR JAVELIN?

In 1975, Pru Carter faced an extraordinary sporting choice.

Play hockey for England at the World Championship in Edinburgh — or throw the javelin for Great Britain against the Soviet Union at Crystal Palace.

She went to Edinburgh.

But the really interesting part of Pru’s story is that she never actually wanted to choose just one sport.

Pru became a British javelin champion, represented England and Great Britain in athletics and also became an England hockey international.

A 1975 Sportsworld interview reflected on whether she might have achieved even more had she concentrated on one discipline.

Pru knew that.

She simply preferred to “fit in everything.”

She also spoke about there being “less rivalry in hockey” than in athletics — a fascinating glimpse into what attracted her to the team environment.

Her story has resurfaced thanks to the School Athletics Archive, which is documenting competitors from the English Schools Athletics Championships who later achieved in other sports.

And Pru was not alone.

So far, the hockey players identified include:
Ellie Rayer
Katie Dodd
Julia Robertson
Lily Owsley
Maddie Hinch
Martha Taylor
Pru Carter
Sue Holwell

All competed at the English Schools Athletics Championships before going on to international hockey.

And there is one particularly interesting thing about that list: every name identified so far is female. There must be more.

So we need your help.

Did you compete at the English Schools Athletics Championships before going on to play international hockey? Or do you know someone who did?

Tell us in the comments or get in touch with The Hockey Museum.

09/10/2026

BORN IN THE USA — 61 YEARS AGO TODAY

On 9 October 1965, a group of women walked onto a grass hockey pitch at Kent Place School in New Jersey and made British hockey history.

They were the Great Britain & Ireland Touring Team — 15 players representing England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, accompanied by one manager.

No coach.
No physio.
No modern support team.

The players largely financed the trip themselves and, before travelling to America, had never played together as a team. Then came the USA.

USA 1–5 Great Britain.

That match is now recognised as the first official women’s international played by Great Britain. And it was only one part of an extraordinary American tour. The team went on to play 24 matches, travelling across the country and staying with families and colleges along the way.

The surviving photographs, letters, newspaper cuttings, luggage tags and tour documents now preserved by The Hockey Museum help bring that journey back to life. But over time, the historical significance of those matches became obscured.

Decades later, research by volunteers at The Hockey Museum helped piece the evidence back together and restore these pioneering women to their rightful place at the beginning of the GB women’s international story.

And in 2021, that recognition became tangible when surviving members of the 1965 team — and families representing those no longer with us — were finally presented with their Great Britain honours caps. That is one of the things a sporting museum can do. Not simply preserve photographs, objects and records — but use them to recover people, stories and achievements that might otherwise disappear from history.

61 years later, their story still matters.

Did you know that the first GB women’s international was played in America?
And do you recognise anyone in these photographs, remember one of the players, or have a family connection to the 1965 touring team?

We would love to hear from you.
Read the full story:
The Story of the First GB Women’s Matches: Born in the USA
https://hockeymuseum.org/born-in-the-usa/
From a grass pitch in New Jersey to every GB woman who has worn the shirt since — this is where the story began.

30/09/2026

Remembering Tim Lawson (1943-2026)

The hockey community is mourning the loss of Timothy Maben Lawson, a Scottish international and Great Britain Olympian who passed away on 13 September 2026 aged 82. Tim Lawson earned 33 caps for Scotland and 26 for Great Britain, representing GB at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, where he scored in the opening match against Argentina.

A talented forward, he helped Scotland become Home Nations champions in 1967, their first title in 40 years, and enjoyed a distinguished club career with Tulse Hill Hockey Club and Marden Russets Hockey Club. Away from hockey, he built a successful career in dentistry and remained deeply connected to the sport throughout his life.

Widowed in 2017, Tim is survived by his sons, Tony and Jeremy, along with his grandchildren.

Read more: https://hockeymuseum.org/tim-lawson-1943-2026

Great Britain Hockey | Scottish Hockey | Scottish Hockey Heritage

29/09/2026

Hockey Shorts 🏑🩳 - https://mailchi.mp/f6d1bc1055eb/hockey-shorts
Sign up to receive our Hockey Shorts emails of historical short stories and museum activity 👉 https://linktr.ee/thehockeymuseum

📓Uncover a lost chapter of working women’s hockey
📷Explore hockey’s digital frontier at the 1998 World Cup
👏🏼Congratulate our doctoral student, Emmy Sale, on her prestigious postgraduate prize
🏑Celebrate Olympian Robin Lindsay’s hockey legacy

26/09/2026

CAN HOCKEY HELP US FIND THE ORIGINAL ENGLISH CUP?

For the past few weeks we have been following the story opened by Jane Miller’s 1934–35 winner’s medal.

But the medal has left us with one final mystery.

Where is the trophy itself?

The English Cup was presented to the English Ladies Hockey Leagues Association in 1934.

Leyland Motors became its first winners.

When the Association was later dissolved, surviving research indicates that the trophy passed to the Lancashire Central League.

It was renamed the Lishman Cup, commemorating John Lishman, an important figure in the development of women’s league hockey.

A photograph from the 1963–64 season appears to show the original English Cup being presented at Leyland Motors Social Club under its new identity.

The competition continued.

But eventually the original trophy appears to have been replaced because it was showing its age.

And this is where the trail currently ends.

The whereabouts of the original English Cup are unknown.

So we would like the hockey community to help us.

Perhaps you played for the Lishman Cup.

Perhaps a parent or grandparent did.

Perhaps there is a photograph in a clubhouse archive.

Perhaps someone remembers where the old trophy was kept.

Perhaps it is still out there.

If you have any information, photographs, programmes or memories connected with the English Cup or Lishman Cup, please contact The Hockey Museum.

The smallest clue may matter.

Jane Miller’s story began when one family asked us about a medal.

Perhaps another family can help us finish the story of the Cup.

CAN HOCKEY FIND IT?

Please share this post with anyone connected to women’s hockey in Lancashire, particularly former players and clubs with links to the Lancashire Central Women’s Hockey League.



Images: courtesy of the Lancaster family / The Hockey Museum. Research by Mark Evans. Additional archive image reproduced via Playing Pasts.

24/09/2026

The story didn’t end with Jane’s medal.

When Joanne Chadwick began looking through the material her family had preserved from her grandmother Jane Miller’s life, another remarkable item emerged.

A scrapbook.

Joanne believes it begins around 1932 and continues until approximately 1965.

Its pages contain newspaper cuttings, photographs and material relating to Lancashire hockey, local teams and some England hockey.

That makes the scrapbook much more than a family album.

It is evidence.

It may contain information about matches, clubs and players that exists nowhere else.

It may help answer some of the questions we already have about Jane.

And it may tell us about other women whose hockey stories have largely disappeared from the historical record.

Joanne and her family have now offered to donate the scrapbook and photographs to The Hockey Museum.

This is an important part of what museums do.

Objects arrive with stories.

Families bring memories.

Researchers establish context.

Collections preserve the evidence.

And then new generations can ask new questions.

There is also a wonderful final connection between Jane’s world and hockey today.

Her great-grandson now plays for Leyland & Chorley Hockey Club and represents Lancashire.

Joanne’s reaction?

“Must be in the blood.”

More than ninety years after Jane’s English Cup medal was awarded, her family’s connection with Lancashire hockey continues.

The medal survived.

The scrapbook survived.

And the hockey story is still being played.

But Jane’s medal has also left us with one final mystery.

What happened to the trophy she helped Leyland Motors win?

NEXT: PART 6 — Can Hockey Find the Missing Cup?

22/09/2026

Was Jane Miller one of Leyland Motors’ goalscorers?

This is where Jane’s story becomes a genuine historical investigation.

Hockey Museum volunteer Mark Evans searched contemporary newspapers for reports from Leyland Motors’ 1934–35 season.

In the first round of the new English Cup, Leyland Motors travelled to Clifton Junction to play Manchester LMS Railway.

Leyland won 7–1.

The newspaper report records a player named:

J. Millar

scoring four goals.

Then another report appeared.

Leyland Motors played the famous Dick Kerr’s team at Ashton Park in the second round.

Leyland won 4–2.

And according to the newspaper, the first goal was scored by:

J. Miller.

Mark’s research suggests that this may be Joanne Chadwick’s grandmother, Jane Miller.

But there is an important word in that sentence:

may.

We have not yet found enough evidence to state conclusively that J. Miller or J. Millar in these reports is Jane.

And that is exactly the sort of distinction museum research needs to preserve.

We could remove the uncertainty and create a neater story.

But it would no longer be an accurate one.

So for now:

Was Jane one of Leyland Motors’ goalscorers during their historic first English Cup campaign?

Possibly.

But not yet proven.

The investigation continues.

And there may be another source of evidence.

Jane’s family has preserved a scrapbook containing decades of hockey material.

Could something inside it provide the missing link?

NEXT: PART 5 — The Story Comes Home

And if anyone has team sheets, programmes, photographs or family records relating to Leyland Motors women’s hockey during 1934–35, please get in touch with The Hockey Museum.

Your evidence could help answer the question.



Image: The Lancashire Daily Post, via British Newspaper Archive. Research courtesy of Mark Evans, The Hockey Museum.

20/09/2026

1934. A new cup. A first champion.

To understand Jane Miller’s medal, we have to understand a remarkable period in women’s hockey.

The All England Women’s Hockey Association had been formed in 1895 and was the established governing body for the women’s game.

It did not support teams playing in leagues and cup competitions.

But elsewhere, particularly in the North West of England, women were already organising and playing league hockey.

By the early 1930s there were leagues associated with places including Manchester, Stockport, Liverpool, Lancashire Central, Bury, Leigh, Wigan and Rochdale.

Then, in 1932, a new body was formed.

The English Ladies Hockey Leagues Association — ELHLA.

Its development reflected a strong competitive hockey culture that already existed within these leagues.

In 1934 businessman Frederick Corlett Johnson donated a trophy for a new annual knockout competition.

It became known as:

THE ENGLISH CUP

Teams from affiliated leagues entered.

And the first winners were Leyland Motors.

They defeated Liverpool Olympic 3–1.

So when Joanne Chadwick showed The Hockey Museum her grandmother Jane Miller’s medal bearing the inscription:

1934–35

WINNERS

LEYLAND MOTORS

its significance became much clearer.

Jane’s family had preserved something connected to the very first staging of the English Cup.

But then Mark Evans began finding contemporary newspaper reports.

And one name kept appearing.

J. Miller.

Or sometimes:

J. Millar.

Could that be Jane?

NEXT: PART 4 — Was Jane one of the goalscorers?

The historical research confirms the ELHLA’s formation, the donation of the trophy and Leyland Motors as inaugural champions.

19/09/2026

Remembering the late Fred Brindley: Leek HC, Wombourne HC, Slough HC, The Phantoms HC, Civil Service, Staffordshire County and the Midlands.

https://hockeymuseum.org/john-fred-brindley-1937-2026

25.09.1937–31.08.2026 John Frederick Brindley, better known as Fred in hockey circles, passed away on 31 August 2026. His working life was spent in the Court Service, which he joined at the age of 17. He stayed in the Service for 47 years, eventually finishing as Under Secretary of State in the Lo...

18/09/2026

“Hockey was life.”

Those three words from Jane Miller’s family tell us something a league table never could.

Hockey mattered enormously to her.

Before her marriage she was Jane Halsall. Later she became Jane Miller.

But there is another interesting detail in her story.

Jane didn’t work for Leyland Motors.

So why was she playing hockey for them?

Research into the club’s history gives us the answer.

Many of the women who represented Leyland Motors were not employees of the company.

Instead, players could pay a small affiliation fee to join the team.

Leyland Motors supported the club by providing much of its equipment and shirts, and works transport could sometimes be used for away fixtures.

The club also benefited from what was regarded as one of the best hockey grounds in the North of England, maintained by paid ground staff.

There is even a wonderfully human detail in the surviving history.

At half-time it was apparently someone’s responsibility to leave the pitch and start the bath water running.

It is a small detail — but it suddenly makes that world feel much closer.

These women were building teams, travelling to matches and playing serious competitive hockey.

And Leyland Motors became one of the strongest teams in the Lancashire Central Women’s Hockey League.

Then, in 1934, an entirely new competition appeared.

The English Cup.

And Leyland Motors were about to make history.

NEXT: PART 3 — The First English Cup

Do you remember family members playing for works teams, railway teams, factory teams or company sports clubs?

We would love to hear their stories.

The ground, bath, affiliation and equipment details are recorded in the surviving history of Leyland Motors Hockey Club.



Image sharpened by AI.