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Nursery

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Room objects

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Noah’s Ark

In some houses, it was the only toy children were allowed to play with on Sundays since it is about a bible story. There could be up to 400 animals (two of each animal) to play with.

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Abacus

An abacus was used to help children with their maths and is a type of old-fashioned calculator. Victorian children would use the abacus to learn the ‘four rules’ of mathematics: addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. An abacus would have had a wooden frame with coloured beads that children would slide along a wire to do the calculation.

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Rocking Horse

This was a favourite Victorian toy made for boys and girls. It was usually made of wood with real horsehair for the tail and often brightly coloured.

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Porcelain doll

The head and shoulders of the doll were often made from wax or china whilst their bodies were stuffed with calico (a type of cotton) or wood. We are unsure of this. Sometimes the dolls were made to look like grown ups wearing beautiful gowns of satin, taffeta or lace.

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Sampler

Victorian girls would practice their sewing skills by embroidering letters of the alphabet, text or pictures onto a canvas with a fancy border. They often embroidered their name and age at the bottom.

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Map of the World

Apart from the 3 ‘R’s (reading, writing and arithmetic), a Governess would also teach children History and Geography. A map of the world was useful as it could show children large areas of the world under the control of the British Empire.

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Writing slate & slate pencil

Because paper was very expensive, young children mostly learnt to write on slates which were similar to chalk boards. They could be written on with other sharpened pieces of slate known as slate pencils. Writing slates could be re-used by wiping them with a sponge.

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