51ºÚÁÏ

Use this lesson to find out if the design of a board game can tell us anything about life in the past.

Suitable for: Key stage 2, Key stage 3

Many board games, not on sale today, were devised in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and some of their designs are held at The National Archives. The board games used in this lesson are very interesting as historical sources as they can reveal something about the society that made them. How did people in the past like to have fun? Were their games very different from ours?

Board games were highly valued as a form of entertainment for Victorian or Edwardian children as they were not too physical or noisy, allowing them to be ‘seen and not heard’. They could be played at home with the whole family or a group of children under the watchful eye of a parent or governess. They offered a change from the usual ‘parlour games’ that the Victorians favoured such as ‘Charades’ or ‘Pin the tail on the donkey’.