Sometimes, to add a level of excitement, children played this game over a muddy puddle or a small stream to make losing even more disappointing. Many of the games we have added to this list are still played in playgrounds today.
We would love to know which games you or your children enjoy, so leave us a comment below letting us know which games you recognise. Contact us. Victorian Playground Games for Children News.
Previous Next. View Larger Image. The Whip and Top One of the most popular Victorian playground games, Whip and Top involved spinning a top by wrapping string around the top and giving the stick a pull. Jumping Rope A playground game still very much enjoyed by children in the 21st century, jumping rope has been around for decades.
Hoop and Stick One of the most simplistic Victorian playground games, Hoop and Stick requires exactly what the name suggests, just a hoop and a stick. Yo-Yos Another popular playground game that is enjoyed by children even today is the yo-yo. Diablo Making a big comeback in playgrounds today, the Diablo was a popular toy in the Victorian era also.
Skittles The Victorian version of what we know of today as bowling, skittles could be played both indoors and outdoors. Football A common playground game, football has been played for years and was also enjoyed by many children during the Victorian era.
Follow the Leader One of the oldest games in the book, follow the leader was played in playgrounds throughout the Victorian period.
Deer Stalker This game was often played indoors around a table, but it worked just as well being played outside. Kick the Can Variations of this game are still played today and enjoyed by children in playgrounds all around the world. Games Among the games played with the hoops, besides simply trundling them which is a matter of driving them forward while keeping them upright, are hoop races, as well as games of dexterity.
After running all the gates the openings are made smaller by one inch and the player trundling the hoop runs the course again. The process repeats until he strikes the side of a gate, then he and the turnpike keeper switch places.
Only those hoops which fall as a result of a strike by another hoop are counted out. Europe In Europe children are known to have played the game as early as the 15th century.
By the late 18th century boys driving hoops in the London streets had become a nuisance, according to Joseph Strutt — The fuss over boys playing with hoops reached halfway around the globe. Not only schoolboys, but even graduate students at Cambridge enjoyed trundling hoops after their lectures.
The practice, however, was brought to an end sometime before , by means of a statute that forbade Masters of Arts to roll hoops or play marbles. By the early 19th century the game was already part of the standard physical education of girls, together with jumping rope and dumbbells. Girls from four to fourteen could be seen by the hundreds, trundling their hoops across the grass in the London parks. In the midth century bent ash was favoured as material for making wooden hoops.
In some locations hoops with spokes and bells were available in stores but not popular with boys. A great number of widely separated Native American peoples played an ancient target-shooting version of hoop rolling currently known as chunkey.
Though the forms of the game exhibited great variation, generally certain elements were present, namely a prepared terrain over which a disc or hoop was rolled at high speed, at which spears were thrown. The game when played by adults was often associated with gambling and often very valuable prizes, such as horses, exchanged hands.
The game has been played by tribes such as the Arapaho, the Omaha, the Pawnee and many others. Since hoop and stick involves spear throwing it is thought to predate the introduction of the bow and arrow that took place around BC. Perhaps most notable and relevant to the antebellum and Civil War period is the chant which is known today as "The Pateroller Song" "pateroller" is a term derived from the word "patrollers", a reference to the men who patrolled the highways and byways in search of runaway slaves , a song which slaves began long before the War Between the States began, and one that continues to this day through the hopscotch and jump-rope chant.
Hopscotch Game: Our Hopscotch game comes with sidewalk chalk, 5 pucks and directions for traditional hopscotch games by Historical Folk Toys.
It is reported that Roman children made their own smaller courts to imitate the soldiers. The children developed a scoring system for their games, and hopscotch was born and spread throughout Europe. The word "hop scotch" literally came from hopping the long road to Glasgow, Scotland. Various cultures have developed their own games with different courts and rules. Other words for hopscotch are: "marelles" France , "templehupfen" Germany , "hinkelbaan" The Netherlands , "ekaria dukaria" India , "pico" Vietnam , and "rayuela" Argentina.
Most hopscotch games are played with a "puck" or "potsey. The courts can be drawn with chalk on a concrete surface or with a stick on a bare spot of level ground.
Generally, hopscotch games are played by tossing the puck into a drawn section and hopping in a specific way through the court and back. There are rules against stepping on a line, missing a square, or losing your balance and touching the court with a hand.
The first person to complete the course is the winner. Today, we think of Hopscotch as a children's game, particularly for girls. This book was considered "A popular encyclopedia of the sports and pastimes of youth.
Maria Child, published in Hopscotch was considered a boy's game, as depicted by five boys playing the game in the illustration "Scotch Hoppers" from "Juvenile Games for the Four Seasons. In early America the game was known as five-stones or jack-stones.
As time went on, one of the stones The Jack was replaced by a wooden ball, then rubber ball. The other stones were replaced by small pointed metal pieces reminiscent of the original animal knucklebones. We have cast 10 jacks in lead-free pewter and packaged them with 1 wooden ball and 1 rubber ball in a cloth pouch.
It comes with a hang tag that provides a history of the game and rules for play. The pouch comes in a variety of colors. Game of Knucklebones: Knucklebones was similar to today's game of Jacks. The bones could also be used for game of chance, by marking the flat surface with numbers from 1 to 4. We have packaged 5 synthetic knucklebones, closely resembling the original animal bones, in a poly bag along with one wooden ball, and a history and instruction sheet.
Described in Scientific American as a "simple toy - very illusive in action", the Jacob's Ladder still confounds us with its seemingly inexplicable motion. Our Jacob's Ladder is constructed of 6 solid wood segments attached with colorful grosgrain ribbon.
Each toy is individually packaged with instructions for some tricks to add to the mystery by Historical Folk Toys. Among the Puritans and Separatists and indeed among the Protestant sects up through the mid- to late nineteenth century, few toys were acceptable for amusement on the Sabbath, as the Sabbath was set aside for the exclusive purpose of worshipping God and reflecting upon His grace and mercies on that one day in seven.
Most Protestant denominations were Sabbatarian then. The "Sunday Blue Laws" that were in place in most states even into the end of the 's throughout the country bear witness to the prevalence of that formerly-held conviction. Its construction was somewhat along the lines of a ladder, reminiscent then of Jacob's ladder from the Old Testament. Marbles Item Last Updated: Tuesday, Aug EDT Marble games have been played in all parts of the world with all kinds of playing pieces for more than two thousand years.
Children in colonial America played with marbles made of stone or clay, while glass marbles were highly prized among children's playthings in the 19th century. Enclosure games, hole games and conquering games are all traditional marble games that are still familiar today.
Glass Marbles: This game of Marbles contains traditional glass target marbles 30 and shooters 2 of assorted crystal rainbow and cats-eye colors. Each marble game is packaged in a cloth pouch, with a hang tag that provides a history of marbles and instructions and rules of play. Clay Marbles: Our clay marbles are made to represent those that are so often found in historic area excavations. These old style marbles are not perfectly round nor are they totally consistent in size and so are perfect imitations of the original handmade clay marbles.
Our Game of Clay Marbles contains 10 target marbles and 2 shooters, all made of red-brown non-toxic clay. The word "marble" was not used to represent the round toy ball made from various stones until in England. It was then that marble stone was being used for the toy and was being imported from Germany.
Before this time, the English adopted the Dutch word "knikkers" for marbles. The word "knikker" was used by New York City children well into the 19th century. The earliest marbles were made of flint, stone, and baked clay. For centuries afterward, marbles were made of stone and sometimes real marble. Glass marbles were made in Venice, Italy, and later, around , china and crockery marbles were introduced. A glassblower invented a tool called the "marble scissors" in that allowed a larger production of glass marbles.
Clay marbles began being produced in large quantities around During the s, the first machines to manufacture glass marbles were introduced. Martin F. Christensen invented the revolutionary glass marble-making machine in , and his glass marble company produced over a million marbles each month. Horace Hill founded a company named the Akro Agate Company and moved it from Akron, Ohio, to Clarksburg, West Virginia, because natural gas and sand were more abundant in that area.
By , the Akro Agate Company was the largest marble producer in the world. Berry Pink of the Marble King Company helped promote local and national marbles tournaments in America during the s and s. Jeff Carskadden and Richard Gartley are recognized mibologists who have published the most scholarly works to date on the subject of toy marbles.
Their research shows nine marble games that can be found on 17th- and 18th-century Dutch wall tiles. Marble games can be divided into two types: the games in which a player tries to knock his opponent's marbles with his own and win the marbles , and the games in which a player tries to hit a target or roll the opponent's marble through a hoop or into a hole.
There are specific ways to play marbles and to hold what is called the "shooter marble," which is a larger than the regular playing marbles. One method of shooting is called "knuckling"; and another way is called "fulking. Marble terminology: Shooter -- taw Alleys -- marbles once made of alabaster Flints -- marble that look like flint Cloudies -- marbles that look cloudy Marbles are definitely a part of America's heritage. They have been a popular American game from Colonial times to the present.
Norman Rockwell painted a wonderful picture called "Marbles Champ," which features a little girl winning the marbles of two forlorn boys. If you are interested in marbles, you can visit the Marble Museum in Yreka, California or online at www. The game board consists of a flat, square board into which 24 holes have been drilled, all following a progressively larger pattern of three squares of eight holes which form three holes to a side. Two differently colored pins are used twelve for each player.
The object of the game is place your pins in such a way as to form a straight line of three of the same-color pins, while preventing your opponent from doing the same. The game was played in America as early as the mid's, and continued to enjoy popularity through the time of the War Between the States.
It is one of many forms of bowling games played in Europe since the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans. In colonial America men and women of all ages enjoyed the popular pastime of ninepins. For more information regarding Nine-Poins and Bowling Games, see the " Historical Background " below the shopping cart. Tabletop CF Ninepins Game This set of tabletop ninepins, meant for playing indoors, has been developed from accounts and pint sources provided by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and has been produced with their permission.
Out solid wood ninepins stand 5" tall. They are packaged with 2 solid wood 2" balls in a box printed with history and instructions for play. Tabletop HFT Ninepins Game Our set of Nine Pins with cloth bag is a tabletop version of the traditional bowling game which can be played on any tabletop surface. A quality, heavy-plain muslin bag with draw stings is included for storage of the set along with history and game rules by Historical Folk Toys.
Great fun for children and adults alike. Indoor bowling began in German monasteries. The peasants who attended church always carried their big clubs called "kegels" with them. When they attended religious services, the monks had the peasants place their kegels at the end of a long narrow hallway. In order to be absolved of sin, the peasant would have to roll a round rock and knock down their club, which represented the Devil.
If they missed, they would have to mend their ways and repent. The monks eventually made a fun game of this activity. The word "kegling" is still used today for bowling and "keglers" for bowlers.
Eventually, rolling stones at kegels lost its religious significance and the wealthy adopted this game as a favorite pastime. Martin Luther, who translated the Bible into German during the 16th-century, was one such bowling enthusiast who encouraged a uniform set of rules. The game was officially called Kegelspiel or Nine-pins. The earliest Virginia colonists loved the game so much it interfered with their work.
After Captain James Smith returned to Jamestown, bowling was declared illegal and punishable by up to three weeks in the stocks! During the early s, Nine Pins was such a favorite game that it was played in many basements and back rooms of taverns.
Heavy gambling and betting were associated with the game and soon it was outlawed. People, however, still enjoyed playing this game. So, to get around the new law, they added another pin and "ten pin bowling" was born.
By , the American Bowling Congress was formed and they established official rules and regulations. Tabletop games rose in popularity when playing on the floor of pubs and taverns was no longer feasible.
Special tables were made for games such as Skittles, Carom, and Crokinole. The table game of Bagatelle from the French word meaning "a trifle" or "small thing" was also a popular game in the 19th century. By , Bagatelle evolved into the pinball machine.
Fun Fact: By the 14th century, bowling was such a favorite gambling activity that King Edward III banned the game so it would not interfere with archery practice. The game of Pick-Up Sticks was originally known as Jackstraws. The game was introduced to the early settlers in America by the Indians.
Jackstraws is the same game we all learned as Pick-Up Sticks when we were children. Rules and variations differed from area to area, but most had these rules in common: The game is played with sticks or splinters, usually between 15 and 20, of about the same length. They were often dyed different colors, a custom dating from the s. The sticks were held above the ground at a distance at least equal to the length of the longest stick or splinter in the bunch.
They were then released, falling to the ground and overlapping each other. A variation required that 1 stick of a different color or marking to distinguish it from the others would be placed in the bunch.
The person who had just dropped the sticks began the game, removing one stick at a time and working through the pile to remove all of the sticks without causing any of the other sticks to move. The object of the game was to accumulate more sticks from the pile than the other players removed. In the event that any stick other than the one being removed was moved at all, that player forfeited his or her turn to the next person.
At the end of the game, the player with the most sticks won. These exclusive sticks are made with smooth-tapered, round tips. The Wooden Pick-Up Sticks package includes: 20 wood pickup sticks, a cloth drawstring bag, game rules, scoring system, and a concise history by Historical Folk Toys. Currently Unavailable, waiting for testing required by the government for toys. There are 41 sticks, packaged in a wooden box with a sliding lid. Instructions and history are included by Historical Folk Toys.
One, two, buckle my shoe, Three, four, shut the door, Five, six, pick up sticks, Seven, eight, lay them straight, Nine, ten, a big fat hen. Before the Mikado version of pick-up sticks appeared in America, this game had spread from China to Korea and Japan. Native Americans played this game with straws of wheat and taught it to the early English settlers in the American colonies.
This became a popular parlor game for young people during the Colonial and Victorian eras and is still enjoyed by children today. Canadians refer to this game as "Spilikins," which is the name used by the British. A drawing of a set of intricately carved ivory spellicans different spelling is featured in R. If you wish to make your own mini set of pick-up sticks, use 31 round toothpicks and paint different colored stripes on them to represent different points.
Make one stick a solid color or with just one stripe to represent the Mikado or "emperor stick. Keep score on paper and have some old-fashioned fun. The next time you play pick-up sticks, you will know that you are having fun just as children in ancient times did. It is a skill game that is similar to horseshoes. Quoits was a popular parlor game. Update the quantity if you want more than 1. Peter Brown, president of the National Quoits Association, believes that the Greeks passed quoits to the Romans as a weapon of war.
His theory continues with the thought that the Romans brought the game to Britain. He even suggests that the origins of the game go back to the Minoan Empire circa B. Quoits was made illegal in by Sporting Regulations, but by the 15th century, it had become a favorite organized sport in English pubs and taverns. The first official rules for the game of quoits were printed in the April, , edition of The Field in northern England.
The National Quoits Association was formed in Sward Quoits is played with a clay square to which the stake or hob is set in, but it can become muddy and difficult to maintain. Many people happily adapt this game and its rules for backyard play with the hob or stake set in the grass. Quoits was played during the American Revolutionary War by both British and Continental soldiers to pass the time.
When using the stick careful guiding touches were required to the right and the left of the hoop from time to time to keep it in a straight course; but with the hook, the hoop was guided in any direction without any apparent change of manipulation.
The hoop would be started by a gentle stroke from the straight part of the hook; the hook was then pressed on to the hoop more than half-way down to the ground, the pressure being applied more or less gently, according to the speed required. It was then found that without removing the hook the hoop could be kept trundling at any desired pace.
Moreover, by the slightest possible turn or twist of the wrist, the hoop could be guided into any desired direction. With the hook, the sharpest of corners or the smallest of circles were made without any risk of overturning the hoop; such feats could never be attained by the stick. Ingenuity devised many descriptions of hoop games. In the s, it was not unusual to see young boys rolling hoops through city streets — causing havoc to the horse and buggy traffic.
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