Victorian children didn’t have computers or television so they played lots of games. Board games such as Snakes and Ladders, Ludo and Draughts were popular indoor games. Outdoors, Victorian children played with toys like hoops, marbles and skipping ropes, with friends in the street, or in the school playground. They played chasing games such as Tag, Blind Man’s Bluff, and played catch with balls. If they didn’t have a proper ball, they made them from old rags, and made bats from pieces of wood.
Some of the games that were popular in Victorian times are still played in playgrounds today.
The toys children played with in Victorian times often depended on how wealthy their family was. Children from rich families played with rocking horses, train sets, doll’s houses and toy soldiers, whereas children from poor families tended to play with home-made toys such as peg dolls, spinning tops and skipping ropes.
Here below is a set of lovely photos from
Mitch Young that shows portraits of children with their toys from the mid-19th century.
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| Three sisters and a doll |
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| Blondie and his toy horse |
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| Boy goes for a ride |
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| Boy holding a toy horn |
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| Boy on wooden horse |
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| Boy with his toy horn |
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| Boy with stuffed squirrel toy and concertina |
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| Boy with toy horn by plumb |
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| Boy with wooden rolling hoop toy |
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| Brother and sister posed with their toys |
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| Child on a large rocking horse |
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| Child with rolling hoop toy and stick |
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| Girl and her doll |
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| Girl and her doll |
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| Girl and her doll |
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| Girl holding her Izannah Walker doll |
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| Girl holding stuffed poodle dog toy |
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| Girl in blue dress holding china head doll |
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| Kids day out |
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| Little girl and collection of dolls |
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| Little girl and her dolly |
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| Little girl holding a very large doll |
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| Little girl holds a large Queen Ann doll |
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| Little girl in a great hat riding a rocking horse side saddle |
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| Little girl in a off shoulder green dress holding her doll |
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| Little girl posed with her dolly |
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| Little girl with big shoes and a big doll posed by books |
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| Little girl with her doll in a great period cradle |
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| Mother, daughter and her doll |
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| Sisters with doll |
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| Sweet little girl holding her doll |
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| Sweet little girl in her off shoulder dress holding her china head doll |
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| Sweet little girl proudly holds her doll and purse |
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| Three siblings posed with their toys |
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| Two girls posed with a now rare blond china head doll |
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| Two little girls holding a doll and purse |
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| Two sisters in matching dresses holding thier dolls |
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| Two sisters in matching dressing |
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| Young boy in new shoes and toy |
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| Young man holding his toy |
The kids back then all looked sullen and wormy..
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