Children discovered how their 19th century counterparts made their own fun when they visited Rouse Hill House and Farm today.
Participants played jacks, pick-up-sticks and noughts and crosses during the ‘‘Imagine that! Toys, games and fun’’ workshop held at the property, which was home to six generations of the Rouse family.
They also put on a puppet show with paper dolls and peg dolls, rode hobby horses, skipped and used skittles, which are wooden pins about half the size of tenpin bowls, decorated with Victorian-era stripes of paint.
Visitor interpretation officer Karina Wright said the old-fashioned games could be just as engaging for a young audience.
She said the program’s name reflected the ‘‘Victorian ethos of needing to use your imagination’’ in play.
‘‘Also the lower class kids needed to use their own imagination to even find toys to play with from their day-to-day life,’’ she said.
‘‘They didn’t have access to the expensive dolls and toys that children like Kathleen Rouse had.’’
Workshop participants also caught a glimpse of rarely seen items in the property’s collection such as doll shoes belonging to Kathleen, a fourth-generation Rouse.
She was known to have created a rich imaginary world for her dolls to inhabit as a young girl.
