Children should be seen… part 1

The children of Victorian York are beginning to emerge from soils at Hungate.

Objects which clearly belonged to children have been found in York Archaeological Trust's excavations at Hungate. Marbles are not uncommon, and finds include both the simple clay ones and the later, flashier, glass ones. More rare, however, are the coloured, ribbed clay cubes associated with a game known as 'alley gobs' or 'alley stones', a form of the ever-popular street game better known as 'jacks'. One of our volunteers, Jean Oliver, recognised that an odd green glazed object which was perplexing us was part of this game, described to her by her father.

The cubes were thrown upwards from the palm of the hand; the object being to catch as many as possible on the back of the hand. The game is described in some detail in a book called London Street Games, first published in 1916 by Norman Douglas (available online). A supplier of traditional toys (www.toypost.co.uk) provided the replicas which can still be bought by anyone wishing to try their luck.