Heritage Quay
Heritage Quay is the official archive for the University of Huddersfield, acting as the guardian of the archives of other organisations, families and individuals dating back over 200 years.
Our collections
The collections houses both the Rugby League Archive and England Netball archive.
The rugby league collections offer a fascinating insight into British social history from the late 19th century to the present day and are an invaluable resource for charting the international impact of rugby league throughout the 20th century.
The RL archives provide an unmatched history of the sport through unique documents such as minute books, player registers and correspondence. There are also large numbers of match programmes, photographs and tickets; as well as shirts, caps, medals and balls. Additionally there is a reference library of published histories relating to rugby league teams, players, and the sport as a whole.
The archive also celebrates the game of Netball from 1897 to the present day
Its origins and development can be traced by visitors to Heritage Quay.
There is a large collection of documents, pictures, videos and memorabilia covering the history of “women’s basketball” – as it was originally known – from 1897 to the present day, including recent highlights such as the exploits of the England team, which vanquished Australia to win Gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Based on American basketball, netball was created in England in 1897 at the Bergman-Österberg Physical Training College for Women, in Dartford. By 1900, the rules had been published and the game soon spread across the British Empire.
The All England Net Ball Association was founded in 1926 and in 2016 the modern body England Netball was awarded a grant by the Heritage Lottery Fund to mark the sport’s 90th anniversary by creating an archive.
One of the most publicly accessible and advanced facilities in the sector, Heritage Quay has become an even more attractive to sports historians and enthusiasts by homing the extensive England Netball Heritage Archive, which is fully catalogued online.
The exhibition space in Heritage Quay is open seven days a week for fifty weeks of the year, excluding public holidays. Researchers wishing to consult original documents can identify material by emailing archives@hud.ac.uk and should make an appointment to view these in the dedicated search room. The search room is open Monday-Tuesday 9.30am-5pm, one Tuesday evening per month and one Saturday morning per month.
