Extra Time & International Women’s Day 2023

Did you know that Lowestoft Ladies football team – known as the Waves – won the FA Cup in 1982 – only the 12th final to take place after the FA lifted their ban on women playing football?

Or that, as well as producing munitions at Garretts factory in Leiston during WWI, women also played a full part in sporting activities – including the football team?

Our latest intergenerational project – Extra Time – will use archive materials together with personal experiences to explore Suffolk’s rich sporting heritage.

School children and care home residents will team up to share their own footballing stories, whilst artist-led community workshops will celebrate stories of jumpers for goal posts and oranges at half time.

Extra Time is generously funded through the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Lowestoft Rising and the Association for Suffolk Museums. It kicks off this summer, and runs until October 2025.

Members of Leiston Long Shop Women’s Football Team: As well as working on the factory floor making munitions, women took part in sporting activities organised at Garretts of Leiston, including football.