"They sway’d about upon a rocking horse,

and thought it Pegasus"

(John Keats - Sleep and Poetry)

Christmas time is a time for toys - teddy bears, toy trains and cars, dolls, bicycles, Barbie Dolls, Furbees, Tele-Tubbies, Ninja turtles (or whatever is currently in vogue). Toys come and go, as does fashion, but some old favourites have remained down the years. In my home town of Southport, there was and still is, a Victorian shopping arcade just off Lord street. In it was a wonderful toy shop - a veritable Aladdin’s cave! At the back of the window was the toy I would have dearly loved to possess. Sadly, it was way beyond my parents’ means, and for some reason, Santa Claus never responded to my requests. It was a beautiful, dapple grey rocking horse with a golden mane and a scarlet saddle and bridle.. Every Saturday I pressed my nose to the glass and wished. Even today, the rocking horse is to me the ultimate Christmas toy. My own children never seemed to want one which was perhaps as well, because I imagine that they are still very expensive and they also take up a lot of space!

Rocking horses became very popular in Victorian times but their pedigree stretches back to the Ancient World - to Greece and Egypt where toy horses were made on wheels. In medieval England, toy horses came in the form of the hobby horse as seen in mummer’s plays. These were simply a horse’s head on a stick. In her book "Rocking Horses", Marguerite Fawdry states that the rocking horse owes its origin to the wheeled stand which was used in the Middle Ages to keep horse armour and horse cloths when not in use and which were later used in jousting practice.

In the sixteenth century came the development of the "barrel horses" .These had a log shaped body which with four pole legs and an outline shape of a horse’s head fitted at one end. They proved to be very popular, being easy and cheap to make. Children could ride these horses and copy their elders - the barrel horse had the feel and presence of a real horse to a small child. By the seventeenth century, the true rocking horse had developed with rockers made from semicircular pieces of wood with a seat between and surmounted by a

carves horse’s head. With the arrival of the Arab stallion to England, the early horse was much refined and the rockers became steeper and the horse was fully carved. In 1880 the swinger stand was introduced, having been patented in Cincinnati, Ohio by the firm of P.J. Marqua. This addition made the horse more stable and safer thus ensuring the rocking horse’s place in the nursery. By now they were the plaything of children of the aristocracy and the rich, and consequently they became much more elaborate, often beautifully carved and painted with flowing real horsehair manes and tails, glass eyes and leather saddles and bridles.

Aristocratic children learned to ride on them and they were often constructed with a hole where the saddle begins for the insertion of a pommel to be fitted so that girls could learn to ride side saddle. While the basic barrel horses were usually made by local village carpenters, the later elaborate rocking horses were made by specialist firms - G and J Lines of London (later to become Triang) was probably the most successful.

The First World War brought about the decline in manufacture - lack of men to make them. In the years of the Depression which followed, there was less money for such expensive toys. The development of the motor car meant that horses became no longer the main mode of transport. Children still copied their elders but now it was the pedal car or the bicycle that they wanted. At this time, many a family rocking horse disappeared into the attic or the back of the garden shed. During the Second World War, many of the factories which had produced the rocking horse in great numbers were given over to the war effort and manufacture eventually ceased in Europe. Happily, this was not the end - with the advent of television many "horsey" pastimes became universally popular - show jumping, and pony trekking. A new generation of makers and a wide range of new materials saved the old horse from extinction. They are still being built and old ones are being restored. Early rocking horses have become objects of value and are much sought after by collectors.

A few months ago I was in Settle. Passing an antique shop I came across a rocking horse. It was dapple grey with a golden mane and a scarlet saddle and bridle. I was transported back over fifty years to the toyshop in the Wayfarers’ Arcade in Southport and the rocking horse of my childhood - but, no, I’m not asking Santa Claus for one this Christmas!

Barbara Hothersall