National Archives to reveal athletic secrets in Sports, Games and the Olympics

When the Royal Albert Hall opened in 1871, its Royal Charter held no specification for sporting events.

More than 30 years later, though, the world’s first indoor marathon was held there. Within a decade, the hallowed concert stage was hosting boxing matches, having previously accommodated gymnastics, fencing, wrestling and tug-of-war shows.

The macho men and ladies who cavorted around Westminster’s swankiest 19th century entertainment venue are about to have their somewhat secret story blown open as part of a huge National Archives campaign.

Dusting off vaults across the country to tell tales from 200 years of British athletic exertion, Sports, Games and the Olympics will include glimpses of the Games on their previous visits to London in 1908 and 1948.

If you’ve ever fancied cheese-rolling, gurning, table skittles or a spot of five-stones (“an ancient game of skill involving throwing and catching small clay, plastic or metal jacks”, apparently), the Forgotten Sporting Heroes and Archives Olimpicks project, down in Gloucestershire, should satisfy your every anachronistic need with considerably more charm than your average gaming console.

In Wales, the Conwy Archive Service is revealing how a forerunner to the Olympics was actually held at Llandudno in 1866, complete with feasts of lanterns and mile steeplechases.

And down in the picturesque south-west, the Cornwall Record Office is telling the unlikely tale behind the first captain of the Mexico football team coming from Cornwall.

In fact, there are enough exhibitions and events to rival the number of Olympians arriving in Blighty this summer, from interviews with medal-winning 1988 Paralympian Beverley Gull, honoured in Barking and Dagenham, to insights into Sporting Life in Jewish Manchester at the city’s Jewish Museum.

There’s also a look at four of East Lothian’s finest, including motor-sidecar racer Jock Taylor and pedestrian racing great Robert Carlisle.

• Visit www.archiveawareness.com for full listings.

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