Sporting Heritage CIC

Andrea Bishop, Richard Morris, Sarah Wyatt with the Sporting Heritage Award

Our exhibition 'Racing Pride: Celebrating the LGBTQ+ Community in Motorsport' has won the category of ‘Celebrating LGBTQ Sporting Heritage’ at the Sporting Heritage 2025 Awards: nationalmotormuseum.org.uk/news/racing-...

#SHAwards2025 @racingpride.com @sportingheritage.bsky.social

New display at St Fagans celebrates Welsh women in sport A new display celebrating the achievements of Welsh sportswomen has opened in the Life is…gallery at St Fagans National Museum of History. This display has been created in partnership with Women’s Arc...

A new display celebrating the achievements of Welsh sportswomen has opened in the Life is…gallery at St Fagans National Museum of History

Sources:

EFL: The first-ever Christmas Day League fixture

FourFourTwo: What happened to football on Christmas Day?

Sky Sports: Christmas Day football – the history

Dixie Dean Hotel Blog: Football on Christmas Day

Christmas Day fixtures continued for many decades, with the final English professional match played in 1959 (Blackpool vs Blackburn Rovers), closing an iconic chapter of the game’s festive past. Got a festive sporting history story to share? We’d love to hear it. #sportingpast #sportingheritage

Despite its popularity, Christmas Day football was controversial for some, and the FA made participation voluntary. A number of players chose not to appear for religious reasons, adding another layer of social history to the tradition.

Holiday transport was still running at the time, so thousands of fans could easily travel to matches, and Christmas Day fixtures soon became a regular part of the league calendar. For decades, teams often played the same opponent on Christmas Day and Boxing Day to keep travel equal and manageable.

Did you know the first Football League match ever played on Christmas Day took place on 25 December 1889? It was a Division One fixture between Preston North End and Aston Villa at Deepdale, marking the beginning of what would become a long-standing festive football tradition.

Sporting Heritage Bringing together the UK's sports collections and the people who care for them

Through training, mentoring, and our digital hub of podcasts and resources, volunteers and professionals are learning, connecting, and delivering with confidence. Discover more about what we do as a Sporting Heritage organisation: tinyurl.com/2y28b5wk

Strengthening skills, networks, and confidence across the sporting heritage sector 💪
With National Lottery Heritage Fund support, we’ve strengthened the skills, networks & confidence of those working to protect the UK’s sporting heritage.

👏 Please join us in congratulating Leeds Library and the dedicated Voices of Fans volunteer team.

Their dedication has been central to selecting objects, shaping narratives, and, crucially, making football fanzine material accessible to a broader audience. Acting as passionate grassroots advocates, they’ve helped the public understand the cultural and historical significance of fanzines.

Volunteers Chris, Martyn, Paul, Pete, Rob, and Steve have contributed extensively to Leeds Library's heritage work, both through the Voices of Fans project and as wider heritage volunteers.

Please join us in thanking them for their dedication and impact. ✨Recognising Sporting Heritage Volunteers Award goes to: Leeds Library for the Voices of Fans Project

This year, we were overwhelmed by the incredible activity taking place across the UK, celebrating, sharing, and protecting sporting heritage. The quality of nominations was staggeringly high, and we wish we could offer an award to everyone.

Sporting Heritage Bringing together the UK's sports collections and the people who care for them

Together, we’re keeping sporting stories alive in every corner of the UK.

Thank you to National Lottery players for making it possible.

Discover more about the work we do as a Sporting Heritage organisation: tinyurl.com/2y28b5wk

Each grant helps preserve sporting memories for future generations, sparks local pride, and builds confidence for those new to heritage funding.

With The National Lottery Heritage Fund's support, we’ve been able to back 40+ grassroots sporting heritage projects helping local clubs, archives and community groups protect and share their stories. #SportingHeritage #HeritageFund #SportingStories

A powerful celebration of sporting triumph, humanity, and cultural impact.
👏 Congratulations to Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum.

Part of the commemorations has been a specific piece of interpretation, a 1970s red telephone box, formerly in public use within the All-England Club Grounds, which the museum team have transformed so that people can hear oral histories from those who knew Arthur and were inspired by his life.

This year, the museum has been celebrating Arthur Ashe's historic win across the Wimbledon site, in publications and digitally.

50 years ago, in 1975, Arthur Ashe (1943-93) became the first Black Gentlemen’s Singles Champion at Wimbledon, as he defied the predictions of most experts and the bookmakers to beat defending Champion and fellow-American Jimmy Connors.

Thank you to everyone supporting sporting heritage across the UK. We're proud to start spotlighting the winners of the 2025 Sporting Heritage Awards. Celebrating Black Sporting Heritage Award Winner: @WimbledonMuseum, Arthur Ashe Exhibition

Collections at risk If you suspect your collection may be at risk now or in the near future, use these tools to assess the risk and take action to protect your heritage.

🔗 Explore ideas, inspiration, and practical guidance: tinyurl.com/yx4px5w9

#CommunityHeritage #SportingHeritage #CollectionsInAction

To reinterpretation of displays to shape what is collected. There are many good examples from across the heritage, volunteer & sporting sectors which can inspire and inform your plans.

The heritage sector has a history of engaging and working with communities; what has changed more recently is the depth of this engagement, with a focus on collaboration that is more participatory and extending across more aspects of the work of an organisation, from policy and planning...

Are you using your sporting heritage collection to connect and inspire? A well-managed collection isn't just something to protect, it's something to share, activate and celebrate. Your community, whether defined by geography, shared interests, or a common purpose, can be part of that journey.

Sporting Heritage Bringing together the UK's sports collections and the people who care for them

We’re supporting projects and delivering training to help:

🔵 Capture and document stories

🔵 Preserve records and artefacts

🔵 Highlight underrepresented sporting stories

🔵 Inspire through events and exhibitions

Discover more: tinyurl.com/2y28b5wk

From historic kits & medals to oral histories, photographs & folklore, these collections capture who we are, reflecting social attitudes, class, gender, race & community identity through sport. By protecting them, we’re preserving the cultural DNA of our communities.

Protecting the nation’s sporting stories 🏆With support from @HeritageFundUK and National Lottery players, we’ve been safeguarding sporting collections at risk while championing the stories, objects and memories that might otherwise be lost. #sportingheritage #heritagefund

Spotlights for each category winner and highly commended project will follow soon. For now, thank you to everyone who works tirelessly to preserve and protect the UK’s sporting heritage 🏆 #SHAwards #Sportinghertiage #yoursportingstories