This book has its origins in a series of seminars funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council between 2006 and 2008. The fundamental aim of the project was to bring together groups of academics and practitioners from history, museum and heritage studies, and related fields. Previous contact across these disciplines had been minimal, though there was common ground awaiting exploration and development. Essentially, all participants had an interest in sport and in the public representation of it in particular. In the absence of an existing joint forum for the sharing of experiences, the AHRC project – ‘Sport, History, and Heritage: an investigation into the public representation of sport’ – was designed to create just such a multidisciplinary meeting place: a crossroads for knowledge exchange that would point ways forward for this field of study and at the same time influence museum and heritage practice.

From the outset of the project it was generally agreed among participants that sport had become an integral part of British culture and an important aspect of life in a globalised world. Ideologically, sport was seen to convey powerful messages, contributing to the shaping of an understanding of society and the identities by which people defined themselves. A significant part of this process had to do with history and a sense of the past: what we might describe as the phenomenon of ‘sports heritage’ (Wood 2005).