Two big news items
We’re pleased to report two big pieces of news on the wider ‘saving’ agenda, each worth a separate item on the blog: the Sporting Heritage Toolkit and the Sheffield Library initiative.
The Sporting Heritage Toolkit
Geoff and Roger attended the webinar launch of the Sporting Heritage Toolkit on 9 November. This has been a while in development and well worth the wait, even if there are a couple more sections to come. It’s a massively comprehensive ‘How To’ resource / manual for anyone looking to set up a “heritage group” as we know many TGS readers are.
Access to the toolkit is open and free HERE. For football heritage enthusiasts setting off on this path we’d offer three quick pointers:
- Instead of ‘Saved from the skip’ in this issue we’d suggest starting with the Collections at Risk section HERE
- If you are looking to start a group there is strong advice to decide early on whether you take an archive or museum approach (essentially 2D or 3D). There are different ways of recording what you have and ultimately they lead to different forms of accreditation which is helpful if you ever seek funding
- One key issue at the outset is people: having enough people, with the right assets, to drive your heritage group. There isn’t yet a section in the toolkit on volunteers and staffing but there will be by the New Year.
So well done to Sporting Heritage on creating this one-stop advice centre and well done to Sport England for supporting it financially.
The ‘Sheffield Football Library‘
As regular readers of the TGS blog will know, we’ve been agitating for some time for some kind of national football library, both as a formal repository for valuable printed material and as a publicly accessible resource for researchers and scholars.
In a series of meetings over the past year TGS has sought to inspire and encourage the actualisation of that idea in Sheffield Central Library where the germ was already planted. In a quiet and low-key way we’re delighted to say it’s happening. There is a space and the beginnings of a collection of locally, nationally and internationally important material.
We ourselves have donated material, as have others locally. The library is in the process of acquiring a high-quality digital scanner which will enable it to take in on loan and digitise valuable material. By the time the women’s Euros takes place in Sheffield next summer this as yet unnamed resource is hoped to be up and running.
If you’re interested in donating or loaning then please take a look at the Collections policy TGS has sketched out HERE. For a kick-off from TGS Geoff has donated his almost complete collection of When Saturday Comes magazines – just missing are issues 1-12, 25, 69, 70, 88, 123, 125, 231, 277, 282 and 330. We’ll try and find the rest.
All in all, this is great news for the cause.
News from The Great Save Australia
Greg Warner emails to say progress is being made Down Under with his Grassroots Football project. He now has board approval for a Great Save type initiative which will tie in perfectly with the 140th anniversary of the first iteration of the New South Wales English Football Association – and which is now the NSW FA.
Stepping stones from the past
Among the items that The Great Save considers worth preserving (click HERE for the TGS taxonomy) are club publications. As well as yielding contemporary information, sometimes one finds historical features that can take us much further back – in this case 100 years.
The September 1988 edition of Watford’s magazine ‘The Supporter’ carries an interview with 80-year-old Jack Herbert. His memories of Watford’s 1921/22 team bring to life beautifully the players shown on the Pinnace cigarette cards of the day.
‘Skilly Williams was really marvellous in goal. He would dive at the feet of oncoming forwards. He was so brave and unorthodox. Joe Johnson at right back was a good neat player but could not kick the ball too far. He was in direct contrast to Ginger Horsman who was a real hard man; crude in fact. There was George Toone, who played so many games for Watford. He was very hard in the tackle and had that never-say-die spirit. Strain was centre-half. He was a rough and ready player. Wilf Carter was a neat player who liked to keep the ball down but was very gentlemanly. He would rather lose the ball than mix it with the opposition. Wallington was fast and direct. I enjoyed watching him because he could make things happen.’
In a similar vein old newspapers can almost randomly throw up insights into older club history that was not even reported at the time, particularly through obituary notices. From a scrapbook of local press cuttings Roger caught sight of a ‘behind the scenes’ article written in 1928 by the former Reading FC secretary Harry Matthews about some controversial events that took place in 1895 that enabled him to update the latest edition of ‘The Lost Years of Reading FC’. This was down to pure chance, a keen eye, serendipity and most crucially the preservation of the scrapbook.
Database of club historians
TGS is part way on producing a directory of club historians and club-based heritage resources. We’ve had a decent but so far incomplete response and we’d be grateful for more additions via our easy-to-fill form that’s downloadable HERE.
We’d like to share this database with all those that have contributed to creating it but, for GDPR reasons, we do need contributors’ express permission to share contact details.
And finally …
We’re very happy to take feedback, reader contributions and additional information through any of these three channels: via the Comments section below, by email to thegreatsave@btinternet.com or via Twitter @TheGreatSave1
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