Playmakers On Tour: Horbury Sports Specialists at Wakefield Museum

Wakefield Museum is taking the Playmakers collection on tour to a venue near you.

Playmakers tells the fascinating story of how a saddlers apprentice from Horbury created one of the world’s leading sports brands. For nearly 100 years the factory in Horbury near Wakefield, firstly as William Sykes Ltd, and later under the Slazenger and Dunlop names, created a wide range of beautifully crafted sporting goods used in World Cups, FA Cups, Ashes tests, Challenge Cups and Wimbledon finals.

Four beautifully crafted sports objects are now on display in:

Featherstone Sports Complex - 1966 World Cup Football
Normanton Leisure - 1930s boxing gloves
Sun Lane Leisure - 1920s tennis racket
Horbury Library - 1960 Challenge Cup match ball won by Wakefield trinity against Hull

Plus a display of many more sporting goods in Wakefield Museum

So the next time you go for a swim or sweat it out in the gym give yourselves five minutes to reflect on the brilliant crafts people of Horbury who made the equipment that made the sporting legends.