Title
Victorian Play
Description
Compilation of recordings containing memories of the games played as a child during the Victorian and Edwardian era, from the East Midlands Oral History Archive.
Source
East Midlands Oral History Archive
Rights
You may use this item in accordance with the license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/
Language
English
Duration
7 minuets 41 seconds
Transcription
Interviewer: what sort of games did you play as a child, with your brothers and sisters?
Margaret: ooh – Battledoor and Shuttlecock – in the spring, that was a spring game and skipping, that was all year round. Skipping – Whip and Top, played with the boys, marbles, cigarette cards flicking to the side [??] on the pavement we used to flick cigarette cards. Do you know anything about that? You know the sort of cigarette cards?
Interviewer: No no – tell me more
Margaret: arr well – you sort of knelt down in the gutter and flicked the – flicked the cards through, you know to get another one on top of it – on top of the cigarette card, so you got a pile and then you had all those cards for yourself, you see and err it was quite an art – sort of flicking the – it was a boys game really but we joined in with the – with the boys being a mixed family we sort of played all the boys games
Interviewer: did the girls mix in generally or do you think you were unusual in that respect?
Margaret: ooh yes it was quite normal, to sort of do that – all the children round about used to play – some people you don’t get on well with, but mostly you got on with most of the children. There were all – you know there used to be a lot of children about then.
Arthur: and at Easter out comes a whip and tops for 8d, was a stick with hole in it with a leather lace used to get your – your top, window breakers and carrots – carrot tops and you used to go right down the street on one side and go across the road and come back up the other, keep hitting the top all the while spinning – Aye it was some good games then. Sidney: ooh talking about games, we used to play marbles – in the top of the main sewer – the casting – casting in the middle of the road, always in the middle of the road. It had slots like that in the casting and – you had four marbles – and your opponent had four marbles and you threw the eight marbles into the chock.
Interviewer: which was the hole in the casting of the sewer
Sidney: yes – all those that went in the chock and stayed in – it was quite deep, you’ll see them about now still – and all those in the chock where yours. Then there was another game – crack in the slabs – paving slabs on the pavement. You used to put six marbles there and your opponent put six in a line, and then you shot a marble – all those you knocked off that line, where yours and the same applied to the cigarette cards. You skimmed those along the pavement and if yours covered his.
Sidney: then another nice game we used to play which the Americans now make millions, and that is rounders. We used to have a soft ball – the grating in the street was your mot – and your opponent, threw the soft ball to you, and you hit it with your hand and then he had to retrieve it. In the meantime you ran from down right, down right, down right, down right and back home and that’s how you scored for that.
Sidney: then there was a very rough game, we used to play called Releso [??] and this Releso, several of you used to be one side of the street and your opponents the other, at the word – at the word go you – caught hold of each other and dragged him or his clothing – to your side of the street. And another one called weaker – Weak Horses – you put your hands on the window sill of a house and your head down and all your opponents used to jump on your back to see how many [laughs] how many people you could hold [laughs] till you went down – ooh yes that was very good.
Sidney: do you know tic tac? You had a piece of broomstick that length – you also had a piece of broomstick that length sharpened at both ends. You also made a mark in the quarry on the floor – with your tic tac, and your opponent threw the tic tac on there if it – if you got on it – if he got on it you only got two strokes. If it went outside the mot you had four strokes – so you hit the tic tac so – and then swiped it, and then you said to him – twelve, twenty-four and so on and he had to do it between the mot and your tic tac in that prescribed amount of steps – that was tic tac.
Sidney: and then Rounders, Lerky – Lerky was – putting the salmon tin on the said casting and one boy was on, and he had to close his eyes and one of the gang ran out and threw the tin away – and then he got to put it back on the mot and then – whilst it was on the mot he got to find you and your pals, but in the meantime if he found you and one popped out of an entry and – kicked it off again, he got to replace it – very frustrating.
Margaret: ooh – Battledoor and Shuttlecock – in the spring, that was a spring game and skipping, that was all year round. Skipping – Whip and Top, played with the boys, marbles, cigarette cards flicking to the side [??] on the pavement we used to flick cigarette cards. Do you know anything about that? You know the sort of cigarette cards?
Interviewer: No no – tell me more
Margaret: arr well – you sort of knelt down in the gutter and flicked the – flicked the cards through, you know to get another one on top of it – on top of the cigarette card, so you got a pile and then you had all those cards for yourself, you see and err it was quite an art – sort of flicking the – it was a boys game really but we joined in with the – with the boys being a mixed family we sort of played all the boys games
Interviewer: did the girls mix in generally or do you think you were unusual in that respect?
Margaret: ooh yes it was quite normal, to sort of do that – all the children round about used to play – some people you don’t get on well with, but mostly you got on with most of the children. There were all – you know there used to be a lot of children about then.
Arthur: and at Easter out comes a whip and tops for 8d, was a stick with hole in it with a leather lace used to get your – your top, window breakers and carrots – carrot tops and you used to go right down the street on one side and go across the road and come back up the other, keep hitting the top all the while spinning – Aye it was some good games then. Sidney: ooh talking about games, we used to play marbles – in the top of the main sewer – the casting – casting in the middle of the road, always in the middle of the road. It had slots like that in the casting and – you had four marbles – and your opponent had four marbles and you threw the eight marbles into the chock.
Interviewer: which was the hole in the casting of the sewer
Sidney: yes – all those that went in the chock and stayed in – it was quite deep, you’ll see them about now still – and all those in the chock where yours. Then there was another game – crack in the slabs – paving slabs on the pavement. You used to put six marbles there and your opponent put six in a line, and then you shot a marble – all those you knocked off that line, where yours and the same applied to the cigarette cards. You skimmed those along the pavement and if yours covered his.
Sidney: then another nice game we used to play which the Americans now make millions, and that is rounders. We used to have a soft ball – the grating in the street was your mot – and your opponent, threw the soft ball to you, and you hit it with your hand and then he had to retrieve it. In the meantime you ran from down right, down right, down right, down right and back home and that’s how you scored for that.
Sidney: then there was a very rough game, we used to play called Releso [??] and this Releso, several of you used to be one side of the street and your opponents the other, at the word – at the word go you – caught hold of each other and dragged him or his clothing – to your side of the street. And another one called weaker – Weak Horses – you put your hands on the window sill of a house and your head down and all your opponents used to jump on your back to see how many [laughs] how many people you could hold [laughs] till you went down – ooh yes that was very good.
Sidney: do you know tic tac? You had a piece of broomstick that length – you also had a piece of broomstick that length sharpened at both ends. You also made a mark in the quarry on the floor – with your tic tac, and your opponent threw the tic tac on there if it – if you got on it – if he got on it you only got two strokes. If it went outside the mot you had four strokes – so you hit the tic tac so – and then swiped it, and then you said to him – twelve, twenty-four and so on and he had to do it between the mot and your tic tac in that prescribed amount of steps – that was tic tac.
Sidney: and then Rounders, Lerky – Lerky was – putting the salmon tin on the said casting and one boy was on, and he had to close his eyes and one of the gang ran out and threw the tin away – and then he got to put it back on the mot and then – whilst it was on the mot he got to find you and your pals, but in the meantime if he found you and one popped out of an entry and – kicked it off again, he got to replace it – very frustrating.
Interviewer
Money, A; Newitt, Ned;
Interviewee
Whitaker, Margaret Ellen; Boyall, Arthur; Coleman, Sidney;
Feedback