Hot cockles, handball and hide-and-seek

Nicholas Orme highlights some of the most popular children's pastimes in Tudor England - from ball games to blind man's buff - and explores their place in wider society

- Nicholas Orme

It was fashionable, about 60 years ago, to say that childhood was a recent invention. In the past, it was argued, children's lives were nasty, brutish and, often, short, deprived of the loving care and self-expression of modern times. That theory ignored what people in previous centuries actually thought - and wrote about children.

Human life in Tudor England was seen as a series of stages - the "seven ages of man", famously summed up by Shakespeare in As You Like It. Each age had its own character, and that of childhood - the ages of seven to 14 - was playfulness. "I am called Childhood," says a boy, in the words of Thomas More in the 1490s. "In play is all my mind, to cast a quoit, a throwing stick, and a ball... If only I could burn all my schoolbooks," he continues, "then might I lead my life always in play."

Tudor parents and educators did not, of course, approve of unrestricted play. Children had to learn good behaviour, religious duties and the skills needed for adult life. Some critics wanted to direct children's play, or even to prevent it, but play persisted nonetheless.

Children invented their own playthings. Some toys were mass-produced, to be sold in shops and at fairs. Spare time, on Sundays and the many holidays, was spent in social games. Every open space was used for activities such as running, chasing and ball games including tennis and football.

Tiny Tudors 
Young children enjoyed playing with dolls-representations of themselves in miniature