The Hockey Museum

23/06/2026

100 years young: inspirational hockey centenarian Marjorie Daniel receives England honours cap

When England's oldest living England international Marjorie Daniel turned 100 on 19 May, she wasn’t just expecting to receive a telegram from the King, she was also looking forward to being presented with her England honours cap, 74 years after she made her international hockey debut. Marjorie was presented her special cap at her home in Bury St Edmunds. The presentation was made by former England player Pru Carter (née French), a friend of the family. They shared their memories of playing at Wembley and participating in International Federation of Women’s Hockey Associations (IFWHA) world tournaments 22 years apart, Marjorie in 1953 at Folkstone and Pru in 1975 at Edinburgh.

Read about Marjorie's life in hockey and enjoy footage of her Wembley appearance, as well as a write up of her England cap presentation on her 💯 birthday! 👇❤️🏑

Happy birthday, Marjorie from everyone at The Hockey Museum‼️🎂

https://hockeymuseum.org/100-marjorie-daniel-england-cap

England Hockey

23/06/2026

📷 Illustration of the match between the Mops and Tails.

📚 Mops Versus Tails. Book written and illustrated by Kathleen Ainslie in 1907 📚

“And after all it was a drawn game. Nobody to blame- everybody played splendidly- and oh, the mud! And oh! The torn dresses! And a bruise or two call for attention-“

This children’s book captures the chaos, competitiveness and comradery of girls’ hockey. The illustrations are also a valuable source for hockey clothing in the Edwardian era. At a time when women wore ankle-length skirts, it was socially acceptable for girls to wear shorter skirts. As girls reached their late teens, skirts gradually lengthened as they reached womanhood. The schoolgirls’ hockey uniforms were distinct from their school clothes as they wore coloured skirts with knickerbockers underneath, striped blouses, neck scarves, and hockey boots.

19/06/2026

During next week’s FIH Pro League event in London, India face Pakistan in one of hockey’s fiercest rivalries. It will be 70 years since the two teams first met on a hockey pitch – a 1-0 Indian victory in the final of the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games. In the decades since, the two sides have faced each other a further 182 times. Ahead of their latest matches, we have dug into our records to uncover the fascinating, sometimes unexpected statistics behind a historic rivalry like no other.

https://hockeymuseum.org/india-vs-pakistan-hockeys-greatest-rivalry

International Hockey Federation (FIH) | Pakistan Hockey Federation | Hockey India | England Hockey

18/06/2026

📷 Women’s Hockey, October 1935, front page

🏑130 Years Since Women Changed the Rules of the Game (part 2) 👗🩳

The length of the hockey skirt has been central to the uniform rule since 1899. The first skirt rule asked players to wear skirts “at least 6 inches from the ground, all round” and by 1909 it increased to 8 inches.

By the mid-twentieth century, women hockey players were allowed to wear skirts, tunics or divided skirts, and only the goalkeeper was allowed to wear trousers. Skirts had to be no more than no more than 4 ½ inches off the ground when the player kneels and in no case longer than 14 inches the ground all round. Whereas tunics and divided skirts were allowed to be not less than 1 and not more than 4 ½ inches off the ground when the player kneels. The AEWHA also regulated that long or three-quarter length stockings must be worn with skirts or divided skirts and long stockings must be worn with tunics.

Ultimately, the uniform was decided by the club in-line with these complex rules! It was not until the 2022 International Hockey Federation (FIH) uniform rule change that allowed players to individually choose to wear shorts, skort or skirts.

16/06/2026

More on this story coming soon... 💯🧢

Marjorie Daniel found out she was selected for England Hockey women in 1952 listening to the radio at her in-laws house.

16/06/2026

📷 Wimbledon Ladies’ Hockey Club, 1889-1890 season

130 Years Since Women Changed the Rules of the Game (part 1) 🏑👒

Sailor hats like these are often associated with early women’s hockey uniforms. However, when the All-England Women’s Hockey Association (AEHWA) was founded in April 1895, they adopted the existing men’s rules. By January 1896 they added begun to tweak them and added “no hatpins may be worn” to the uniform rule. This reduced the wearing of hats with clubs wearing alternatives such as cricket caps or tam-o’-shanters during play.

This was clearly not enough because in April 1897 the AEWHA Council debated banning sailor hats completely but Miss Johnson, captain of the All-England team, argued that she had played for 8 years and not known an accident to occur. The first attempt to ban hard-brimmed hats lost and only passed in 1898. By the turn of the twentieth century, women’s hockey had banned headwear deemed dangerous to wear during play and the wearing of hats gradually declined with only four clubs noting hats in their club colours by 1914.

In their attention to dangerous accessories, the AEWHA later banned players from wearing metal brooches for the 1951-52 season.

12/06/2026

⭐️ David Hockney draws visitors to Woking ⭐️

News of British artist David Hockney’s death yesterday reminds us of one of our more unusual visits back in 2021. A visitor stood in our exhibition hall looking confused. Upon approaching him, our curator learned that he had travelled to Woking to what he thought was a Hockney museum not a hockey museum … and all the way from Hull in Yorkshire too! 🤯🎨🏑

Still, he spent a good while taking in all the hockey history and even signed our guest book to document his mistake! Glad he saw the funny side … it must’ve been an expensive train ticket! 🤩🚂🎟️

11/06/2026

📷 Scotland women’s hockey team at IFWHA 1975

Scotland’s re-designed tunics👗

By the late 1960s, most international women’s hockey teams had adopted pleated gym skirts. Scotland, however, modernised the traditional tunic instead.

In 1969, Len Smith’s Sportswear designed a new tunic for the Scottish Women’s Hockey Team featuring a v-neckline, fitted waist and shorter flared skirt worn with purple knee-high socks and white long-sleeved blouses. The new-style tunic remained part of the Scottish national team’s uniform until 1979, making Scotland one of the last teams to wear a tunic at international level. They went to the World Championship in Vancouver 1979 with their new uniform of purple skirts with three-quarter length purple socks and white short sleeved blouses.

A 1930s Scottish tunic survives in the National Museums of Scotland collection, but an example of this later redesigned tunic has not been located. Do you know if one has survived? We would love to hear from you!

Scottish Hockey Heritage Scottish Hockey

09/06/2026

📷 Photograph of the Pilgrims’ Ladies Hockey Club, c1907

It’s a hockey skirt with pockets ‼️👗

Pilgrims’ Ladies Hockey Club in Kent had visible patch pockets on their hockey skirts. At a time when women wore a blouse and tie with their long woollen skirt, these pockets introduced a practical feature to the club’s uniforms.

The pockets vary in size, buttons and neatness across the club members, suggesting the skirts may have been homemade using a paper pattern or some skirts made at different ladies’ tailors. The pockets helped players carry small items such as tickets, keys and money as they travelled to matches and navigated a lack of changing facilities.

The Pilgrims’ founder, Frances Heron Maxwell, was involved in the Rational Dress Society which campaigned for women’s dress to provide more comfort and convenience at the turn of the twentieth century.

Paying attention to details in photographs of women’s hockey teams reveals how women made small changes to hockey clothing to make them more convenient whilst not departing visibly from the accepted dress of the time.

09/06/2026

Racking needed ... can you help? 🙏📦🗃️

The Hockey Museum has been fortunate to acquire premises locally to create a small off-site collection store. We are seeking Dexion-style racking (like is shown below) to maximise the storage space now available to us. If you know of any racking that the Museum might acquire to support the safe storage of our fantastic heritage collection, we would love to hear from you. Collection can be arranged if transport to Woking is not possible.

Email [email protected] or direct message us to discuss.

Thank you!