Darwin's slippery claim he invented ice hockey in Shrewsbury

North American hockey players always been taught the sport was first played in Montreal in the 1870s.

But letters from Darwin reveal him talking about playing the game on an iced-over pond at Shrewsbury School way back in 1825.

The revelation is a severe dent to the Canadian price, but provides Shropshire with another claim to fame.

The letter casts serious doubt on generally accepted Canadian claims that ice hockey was invented in the country and that the first proper match was played in Montreal in 1875.

Darwin's letter was sent to his then 13-year-old son William, who was boarding at Shrewsbury School at the time, on March 1, 1853.

The evolutionary theorist had himself attended the school as a boarder between 1818 and 1825 himself, and it is thought his reference to enjoying "hockey on the ice" relates to this time.

If that is the case, ice hockey would have been played in Britain at least 50 years earlier than the first officially recognised match in Canada, where is it now a national sport and general obsession.

The claim will come as something of a blow to Canadians, who are taught to play the game almost as soon as they learn to walk.

Jean-Patrice Martel, a member of the Society for International Hockey Research, poured fuel of the fire by claiming the early 1820s was around the time that a game recognisable as ice hockey started.

"We expect a lot of people won't believe it and some will have much difficulty in believing it," he said.

Despite potentially breaking Canadian hearts with his claims, Mr Martel gave them at least something to hold on to by suggesting the ice hockey played in Britain in the early 1800s would have been a "slow, primitive sport" compared to the high-energy, high-impact game we know and love today.

He added: "We wouldn't want to say Canada has no claim at all to the game – that's not true.. Canada took the game, sped it up and made it better. Canada really made the game its own and hockey is truly a Canadian game now."

The Darwin letter appears in a new book French Canadian Martel wrote alongside two Swedish colleagues, medical doctor Carl Giden and sports writer Patrick Houda.

Titled On the Origins of Hockey in a deliberate nod to Darwin's seminal work On the Origins of Species, the trio also found an entry in the Lincolnshire Chronicle dated February 16, 1838 that backs up claims the ice hockey was being played in Britain in the first half of the 19th century.

The entry reads: "On Saturday last, an amusing scene took place on a splendid sheet of ice which covered Croxby Pond.

"A large party from the neighbouring residence of Geo. Alington, Esq., of Swinhop House, drove up in sledges to the pond.

"The ladies were drawn upon the ice in traineau, while the gentlemen performed various feats upon their skates: after going through several quadrilles, reels and playing a warmly contested game at hockey, the party partook of a cold collation, and again stepping into their sledges, glided swiftly away."

Reacting to the claims made in the book, Toronto newspaper The National Post called the idea of ice hockey being invented in Britain a "puck-shattering thought", adding it is "sure to rankle Canadian hockey patriots".

Dismay and disappointment for Canadians

Dismay and disappointment – that was the reaction of ice hockey fans to the claim that the sport was invented by Shropshire's most famous son.

The Toronto-based National Post newspaper this week described the claim as a "puck-shattering thought" that was "sure to rankle Canadian hockey patriots".

But it added that the sport's English origins were being made "comprehensively and crushingly clear". Shayna Conn, 35, originally from Ottawa but now living in Glasgow, said early precursors of hockey might have been played in England, but insisted the real game was from Canada.

"This sounds like a hoax," she said. "I cannot see Charles Darwin as an original player of hockey. I don't believe that England created hockey . . . Go Canada!"

Matthew Gourlie, an ice hockey reporter in Canada, says the story has caused a stir.

He said: "You can trace the modern game to Montreal in 1875. But there's a town in Nova Scotia called Windsor that also lays a claim. There is also some belief that the indigenous people in Canada played it.

"If Shropshire is the true birthplace of hockey, then I guess Canada has a debt to Charles Darwin and Shropshire for helping create our nation and our national identity. Personally that revelation wouldn't wound my national pride. The English gave football to the world and without rugby we wouldn't have our version of football. Their roots doesn't diminish how much people love those two sports.

"As long as you don't start beating us in hockey, I think our pride in the sports won't be too badly damaged."