Community Grant Events 2023

Celebrating Community in Sport #NSHD2023

Each year we run a Community Grant fund to help organisations fund activities to celebrate National Sporting Heritage Day. This year we were particularly interested in hearing from community and grassroots sports organisations and groups who can help promote this year’s theme of celebrating community in sport.

The following events and activities were successfully funded through the 2023 National Sporting Heritage Day Community Grant programme

Vert De Gris Arts, Halifax

Richard Dunn around 1974

Vert De Gris Arts are hosting a special film screening and celebratory event on 30 Sept that brings together generations of boxers/family members, past and present as part of the Halifax Stars project. “We feel that National Sporting Heritage Day gives us the perfect opportunity to celebrate both the legacy of boxing in the town of Halifax, but also to celebrate and champion the work that is done by local clubs working in the area right now.”

Armitt Library and Museum Centre, Ambleside

Grasmere ©The Armitt Trust

The Armitt and their community partners are planning an exhibition and associated programme of events for 2024 called “The Joy of Running on the Fells”. It will focus on promoting the history of fell running, particularly in Cumbria, and sharing the stories of some of the sporting greats, as well as more contemporary accounts from people today. On National Sporting Heritage Day, they will release a promotional video which will be targeted towards generating interest and engagement ahead of the scheduled exhibition and events programme in 2024.

Find out more: https://www.armitt.com/ Twitter @ArmittMuseum

Bristol Rovers History Group

The History Group will use their grant to support its Annual History Day for the supporters and local community that celebrates the history of Bristol Rovers Football Club. The event will also look to celebrate the upcoming 50th anniversary of the club’s promotion in 1974. The group will display memorabilia and offer the public the opportunity to meet players of the past, and share their own memories to be captured by the group.

National Sporting Heritage Day also coincides with Bristol Rovers fixture at Peterborough, and the history group will be in attendance to talk history with fans of the home club, while further raising awareness of the group, it’s memorabilia, and their extensive online archive with the travelling fans of Bristol Rovers.

Find out more:  http://bristolroversmemorabilia.weebly.com/

Disability Sport Wales, Cardiff

Women in Rugby League, Pontefract

1996 GB squad receiving honours and heritage numbers

Currently, former Great Britain players are engaged with ‘Meet the Lionesses’ events that run alongside our pop-up exhibitions around the UK, but we want to engage the England players to do the same. The first steps towards this goal is to empower former players, and show that the legacy they built are the stepping stones for future generations. We will start this by digitally recording their stories, and then plan to submit their collections to the Women’s Rugby League archive, currently housed at Heritage Quay.

CrossFit ISCA, Exeter

CrossFit community at One & All Games

The CrossFit gym will be celebrating one year since it was saved from closure by it’s local community in Exeter, by hosting a CrossFit competition and community event on National Sporting Heritage Day. CrossFit ISCA will use the event to create a video and gallery showcasing the sport, the diversity and importance of their community, and capturing the story of the gym, to inspire others to get involved.

Find out more:  https://crossfitisca.co.uk/ Instagram @crossfitisca

Ballymoney Museum, NI

Dance community, Ballymoney Town Hall, Jan 1963

This year Ballymoney Museum is celebrating National Sporting Heritage Day on 30^th September with a display on the history of dances at Ballymoney Town Hall. The display will showcase a selection of objects from our collection, including tickets, invitations and posters relating to charity balls, tea dances and dancing festivals held within the venue, and which were at the heart of the social life in our communities.

Coinciding with this display will be a Tea Dance on Tuesday 3^rd October, 2-4pm at Ballymoney Town Hall were Senior Citizens can come and further waltz down memory lane.

Find out more: Facebook Causeway Coast and Glens Museum Services / @BallymoneyMuseum

Rugby Art Gallery and Museum, Warwickshire

2023 marks the 200th year of Rugby Football, born in the small market town of Rugby in 1823. To mark this historical landmark, and as a time capsule of what Rugby means to our communities in 2023, Rugby Art Gallery and Museum will make a commemorative film featuring members of local Rugby Clubs in the borough. We will encourage the sharing of photographs and ephemera of their own family connections to the sport, as well as stories of their sporting community.

The film will launch on a screen in the foyer of Rugby Art Gallery and Museum on Saturday 30th September to mark National Sporting Heritage Day and stay for two weeks. This will coincide with an exhibition celebrating the bicentenary by Rugby School, and the launch of our new Exhibition ’50 Objects of Rugby’ on Saturday 7th October. The film will also be shared online and feature on the Rugby Art Gallery and Museum website.

Find out more: https://www.ragm.co.uk/ Twitter @RugbyGallery

Merthyr Town FC, Merthyr Tydfil

As part of Methyr Town’s celebrations of their time in the football league, the club will host a series of heritage activities, and an exhibition to engage schools, reminding them of the unique history of Penydarren Park as a football stadium, and it’s place in the community.

Working with Active Merthyr (LA) and local primary schools, the club will create a display of programmes, photographs, press reports and film, to be shared in the week of National Sporting Heritage Day, and as part of a special community day at Penydarren Park. Schools will also be invited to take part in a football tournament during the week culminating in a final to be played on the Penydarren Park pitch itself.

Find out more: Twitter @MerthyrTownFC /@MTFC_Community

As part of our Community Grant programme for National Sporting Heritage Day this year we were also able to offer Digitisation and Collections Management support alongside funding through our Gold Sponsors, Microform: Digitisation Projects