How study of local cricket opens the pages of real history...
A key adviser to Yorkshire County Cricket Club Archives' Committee in the buildup to the establishment of a purpose-built museum at Headingley is Dr Peter Davies, right, history tutor at Huddersfield University. We are pleased to present an inaugural article specially written by Dr Davies for this website.
THE HISTORY GAME
Like going to heaven without dying
This has been my answer when people have asked me how I would sum up the experience of the last two years - leading a special £350,000 project about the history and heritage of cricket in Calderdale and Kirklees.
I work in the Department of History at the University of Huddersfield, and until 2004 I had contented myself with teaching and researching French history, my specialist area.
At work I taught about the French Revolution, Napoleon, the Franco-Prussian War and the German Occupation of France.
When I wasn't at work I played cricket, watched cricket, and enjoyed reading and writing about cricket. It had never crossed my mind that cricket &ndash my great love &ndash could be turned into an authentic, legitimate subject for academic inquiry.
Then I got injured. Instead of playing league cricket on a Saturday afternoon I started to wander round local grounds - some that I'd played on, some that were totally new to me. I had always known that cricket was a fundamentally important aspect of society and the local community, but my travels served to reinforce this fact - and also encouraged me to write about what I had seen.
I penned a couple of short books about the places I had been, the people I had seen &ndash one about the cricket clubs and grounds of Halifax and Calderdale, the other about Huddersfield and Kirklees. Then a colleague at the university suggested that I apply for some funding to turn my idle jottings into a full-blown heritage project involving cricket researchers, photographers, artists and cartographers.
I applied to the Heritage Lottery Fund for some money. The fund usually sponsor projects about churches, canals, bridges and listed buildings &ndash aspects of what you might call traditional heritage.
Sport was a new area for them, but after a little persuasion they came to accept what I already knew to be a fact: that in most Yorkshire villages the local cricket club was as important to the social fabric as the pub, school or church. In my biased opinion it was actually far more important!
I was lucky enough to receive a grant of £43,400, and I also received an in-kind contribution of £7,000 from my employers, the University of Huddersfield. The project I had established had a clear objective: to explore and celebrate the cricketing heritage of Kirklees and Calderdale, focusing in particular on the 100-plus league clubs and grounds in the area. It was the ultimate partnership - between myself at the university and local libraries, museums, cricket clubs and leagues.
Over the last two years we have had a wonderful time. We have researched and designed over 100 exhibitions about the history of local clubs - staged at public venues such as libraries, pubs, leisure centres, post offices, supermarkets, and even a police station!
Throughout Rob Light, right, research assistant, and myself, project leader, have been assisted by a fantastic team of paid experts and wholehearted volunteers.
We have established cricket archives in Halifax and Huddersfield libraries - which will include an oral history 'bank' of cricket reminiscences - and an electronic archive on our website, ckcricketheritage.org.uk
Other objectives were met, too: we employed "community" photographers and artists to depict local cricket landscapes, and we now sell a range of cricket notelets and prints.
We have designed a series of cricket heritage trails for walkers, produced a variety of project-related publications, and managed to publicise our work in the local and national media. We even established an evening course at the university about the history of local cricket - a world first!
The project is ongoing, and we have lots of plans. Already we have learned so much about cricket and its inter-relationship with local communities. Cricket is a fundamental part of the local cultural tradition. Yet often the heritage of grounds and the societies that shape them is neglected.
Clubs in Calderdale and Kirklees act as a focal-point for community life. It is not just that local men play for senior teams - but children turn out for junior teams, women often help on the social side, and many elderly people take on administrative roles.
It has changed my view of what history - real history - is all about. Once upon a time I thought it was about kings and queens, popes and presidents, high-level politics and economics. Now I realise it's about people and places at a local level, about pleasures and pastimes that keep people occupied and entertained when they are not at work.
For too long historians have dismissed sport and leisure as serious academic subjects. Our job has been to reconstruct the history of cricket at a local level in Calderdale and Kirklees, and we feel that we have plugged a gap that needed filling.
Cricket, just like other sports, needs its historians. There is a vital and fascinating story that needs to be told - about the development of clubs and the centrality of the game to local village communities.
For more information contact Dr Peter Davies on 01484-472405 or via p.j.davies@hud.ac.uk Check out the project website, ckcricketheritage.org.uk
Proud heritage: cricket memorabilia on display at the Tolson Museum, Huddersfield.