About
The Hockey Museum in Woking is the national collection dedicated to the history of field hockey, a sport with a genuinely long British pedigree and a global following that its museum status rarely reflects in the wider public imagination. Founded to gather and preserve the material history of the game before it was lost - kit, trophies, photographs, programmes and personal collections from players, clubs and national associations - the museum tells the story of hockey's development from its codification in nineteenth-century England through to its status today as one of the most widely played team sports in the world, particularly across the Indian subcontinent, Europe, Australia and Africa.
The collection covers both the men's and women's game, a distinction that matters historically because the two developed largely separate governing structures and competitive traditions for much of the twentieth century before eventually converging under unified national and international bodies. Displays trace Great Britain and England's Olympic hockey history, including gold medal-winning teams, alongside the domestic club and county game that has sustained hockey as a grassroots sport across Britain for well over a century. International material reflects hockey's status as a genuinely global game, with particular strength in the sport's deep roots in India and Pakistan, where it has historically ranked among the most popular sports in the country.
The museum occupies premises on Woking's High Street, run by a small dedicated team who open the collection to the public on a limited weekly schedule, supplemented by appointment-based access on other days for researchers, students and hockey enthusiasts wanting more focused time with specific parts of the archive. This modest, part-time opening reflects the museum's origins as a labour of love by people within the hockey community rather than a large, professionally staffed institution, and gives visits a personal, knowledgeable character that a bigger sports museum might struggle to match.
For sports history enthusiasts, and particularly for hockey players and followers of the game, the museum offers a rare opportunity to see the material culture of a sport that is enormously popular worldwide but chronically under-represented in mainstream sporting heritage, all within a modest but carefully curated collection in the heart of Surrey.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- Visit on a Tuesday or Wednesday - regular walk-in opening is limited to these two days.
- Contact the museum in advance to arrange a visit on other days by appointment.
- Combine your visit with The Lightbox, Woking's museum and gallery, a short walk away.
- Hockey players and coaches will find the equipment history displays particularly interesting.
- Allow around an hour to see the collection at a comfortable pace.
- The museum is close to Woking railway station, making it an easy stop if travelling by train.
- Ask the volunteer stewards about specific players or clubs - many have deep personal knowledge of the sport's history.
Highlights
Great Britain and England's Olympic Hockey History
The museum's Olympic displays trace Great Britain and England's history in hockey at the Games, including medal-winning teams and the kit, photographs and memorabilia associated with them, giving visitors a sense of the sport's competitive achievements at the highest international level.
Hockey has been an Olympic sport for men since 1908 and for women since 1980, and the museum's Olympic material charts this history through both the men's and women's game, reflecting the sport's long but often under-recognised place in British Olympic success. Hockey's Olympic medals rarely receive the same media attention as those from higher-profile sports, making the museum's dedicated display an important corrective for the sport's own history.
The Codification of Modern Hockey
Displays on the sport's origins document how field hockey was codified into its modern form in nineteenth-century England, standardising rules and equipment from older, more informal stick-and-ball games played across Britain and elsewhere for centuries before. This early material situates hockey alongside football, rugby and cricket as one of the sports whose modern rules were formalised by Victorian Britain and then exported around the world through trade, empire and sporting exchange, becoming one of the most widely played team sports globally.
Early rulebooks and equipment on display show just how different the codified Victorian game looked and played compared with hockey today.
The Women's Game
The museum devotes significant space to the history of women's hockey, which developed its own largely separate governing structures and competitive traditions for much of the twentieth century before eventual unification with the men's game under shared national and international bodies.
Kit, trophies and photographs document the growth of women's club, county and international hockey through decades when women's sport more broadly received far less institutional support and recognition than it does today, making this collection a genuinely significant record of women's sporting history.
Hockey in India and Pakistan
International displays reflect hockey's deep historical roots in India and Pakistan, where the sport has ranked among the most popular in the country and produced some of the game's most dominant international teams across the twentieth century. This material situates British hockey history within a genuinely global sporting story, showing how a game codified in Victorian England became, through colonial-era diffusion and enthusiastic local adoption, one of South Asia's most beloved sports.
Collections
The Hockey Museum's collection is Britain's principal archive of field hockey history, covering the sport's Victorian codification, its development as an Olympic sport for both men and women, and its status as one of the world's most widely played team games, with particular strength in material relating to India and Pakistan's hockey traditions.
Kit, trophies, photographs, programmes and personal collections donated by players, coaches and officials document both the elite international and Olympic game and the grassroots club and county hockey that has sustained the sport in Britain for well over a century. The museum's holdings reflect its origins as a community-built archive within the hockey world rather than a large, professionally staffed national sports museum.
Great Britain at the Olympics
Medal-winning teams and Olympic memorabilia from men's and women's hockey history.
The Women's Game
The development of women's club, county and international hockey through the twentieth century.
Themes
Time Periods
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.