DORSET’S proud sporting traditions are being celebrated at a new exhibition in Dorchester.

Our Sporting Life is the latest major exhibition to come to Dorset County Museum and will celebrate the county’s thriving sports communities, local heroes and forgotten sporting legends.

A touring bicycle dating back over 100 years and football boots from the Second World War are among the items on show.

The display, which opened this week, is divided into themes of land, sea and sky with exhibits covering sports such as fishing and open-water swimming to paragliding.

The exhibition also tells a number of personal stories, many of which celebrate the less well-known figures who have played a major role in the county’s sporting past and present.

Learning and interpretation manager at the museum Pippa Brindley and her team spent weeks gathering information and interesting objects from various clubs and individuals within a 26.2-mile radius of Dorchester to prepare for the exhibition.

She said: “It’s about all those stories that people know about Dorset and putting objects to those.

“It’s also about celebrating those unsung heroes and people you just wouldn’t hear about otherwise.”

Running alongside the exhibition, which received funding from Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund as part of the Cultural Olympiad, will be a series of activities for families to get involved in and inspire people to take up sport.

There will soon be table tennis, Subbuteo and other games set up by the displays and there will be a series of activity days running from Wednesday, July 25.

Museum director Jon Murden said that, with the Olympic sailing events coming to Weymouth and Portland this summer, it was the perfect time to hold the exhibition.

He said: “It seems like a good time to have a celebration of the county’s sporting history while we are in the international spotlight with the arrival of the Olympic Games.

“It’s nice to feature some of the unsung heroes out there in the community, who do a tremendous amount of work to keep sporting traditions in Dorset going as well as being able to celebrate the famous names and superstars that come from the county.”

The exhibition runs until Saturday, September 15.