Hatters’ Heritage –  by Roger Wash

What’s the formal status of your heritage group? 

We are a registered charity – a Charitable Incorporated Organisation

Which groups are involved? (Supporters Trust / Individuals / Club / local museum / HLF etc) 

We, the Trustees, are a group of individuals who came together following an appeal made on the club’s social media sites for supporters to come on board to form a ‘historical society’ to preserve the history and heritage of the Hatters.  I have been a collector, gatherer and custodian of memorabilia for many years (club historian for 35) and wanted to make sure it was preserved for future generations and also available for viewing.  With this in mind we applied for and received a substantial Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant to enable us to have a state of the art website built for us. 

How did you get started? 

Kenilworth Road is 115 years old and does not have the facilities to have any sort of museum – the proposed new stadium at Power Court will have a museum but that will probably be four years hence.  In the interim it was decided to digitise everything in our possession and design a website to showcase the club’s rich history.

We have a willing army of volunteers and the Trustees all have different skill sets.  As part of the HLF grant we needed to show inclusivity and have organised some highly successful ‘roadshows’ around the county where we can display memorabilia and encourage supporters to come in and talk about and share their own prized treasures.  These conversations and photos have been recorded.

We have purchased from the grant much recording and digitising equipment and have made a start at interviewing old players, officials and supporters in order that their memories can be preserved on the website.

How much stuff have you got? 

We are fortunate at the club to have minute books going back to formation in 1885, team books back to Victorian times, thousands of photos, complete sets of home programmes back to 1934 and many before, all away programmes since the war and many before, handbooks back to 1898.  I reckon we have at least 35,000 items to digitise over time.

How do you store your stuff? 

Various places!  We have recently taken on a large storage unit to keep bulk items and have ensured that we will have adequate archive space at the new ground.

How do you make it available for public view? 

Difficult at present, hence our new website.

What’s the best / most unusual memorabilia find? 

We have recently been loaned two 1959 FA Cup final shirts and medals.  We have various international caps, medals and shirts.

What piece of advice would you offer people trying to set up a group like yours? 

It goes without saying that all proposed committee members/trustees should be passionate about preserving the club’s heritage.  If a website is to be set up, make sure that the design firm appointed can physically see what it is you are hoping to digitise to prevent issues over website capacity later.  It also helps if the website designers are football fans!

Thanks to Roger Wash of Hatters’ Heritage