Established in 2012, the National Museum of Roller Derby (NMRD) is the UK’s first permanent collection of ephemera and memorabilia relating to the sport of Women’s Flat Track Roller Derby. In 2016, to celebrate our new permanent home in Glasgow Women’s Library’s new Bridgeton HQ, we bring you an ‘Object of the Month’ from our ever expanding collections.
We want your old team shirts, flyers, zines and other paraphernalia to illustrate the remarkable development of the sport in the UK. Keep an eye on the Facebook page for future announcements on how to donate items to the Museum.
*Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown restrictions access to the collection, and consequently digitisation of the collection, is limited. Therefore, Object of the Month will become Programme of the Month as these objects are already digitised online*
MARCH 2021
March brings with it a spring forward in time and (fingers crossed!) a spring back to normality.
This bout programme for Daylight Slayings: a double header (NRG Canny Belters v Glasgow Maiden Grrders and NRG Whippin’ Hinnies v Furness Firecrackers) dated SAturday 24th MArch 2012, shows yet again the roller derby sports world great sense of humour and fantastic use of puns.
Born from skating races and marathons in the 1930-40s, the male and female contestants started to push and block one another. At the time this was against the rules, but the spectators loved it. Thus, new rules were introduced, and roller derby as we know it today was born.
In response to the increasing brutality of the sport, players wear helmets, knee and elbow pads, and wrist guards to help minimise injury. However, players show off their track rash and bruises proudly and it has become such a huge part of the roller derby sporting culture, which is now predominantly female led.
However, many still suffer serious injuries. We also have a t-shirt in our NMRD collection (unfortunately it has not been digitised yet) which is inscribed for a fundraising event to help U.S.A. player, Tequila Mockingbird, in her recovery after a serious injury.
