Wooden toys may be dearer than the mass produced plastic alternatives, but, offer greater value for money because of the longer life spans of wooden materials.

The original records of toys were in the earliest advanced civilisations of Greece, Egypt and Rome and while items may vary from culture to culture, they shared a common material of creation; wood.

In 2008 archaeologists, from Bristol University, uncovered what is believed to be the oldest toy ever found in the British Isles, when they excavated a Bronze Age child’s grave close to Stonehenge. The carved animal was a rare find from this era of British history and experts are, as yet, unsure whether the wooden toy depicts a pig or a hedgehog.

The Victoria and Albert Museum of childhood, in London, houses an impressive collection of traditional wooden toys: from an early 19th century Noah’s Ark to early rocking horses and to a 1840 sample book (used by salesmen to show potential customers their wares). The much loved and treasured wooden toys of our ancestors are on display for all to wonder at.

Fashion for toys may wax and wane and this year’s must have Christmas present will be at the back of the toy cupboard before next year comes around, but, wooden toys have a timelessness about them not found in today’s modern materials and should children be permitted to touch the exhibits at the V&A museum, you can be certain that they would love them as much as their original owners.