Page 58 - British Museum: SYTYGIB Medieval Castle

Thankfully, jesters making rude jokes weren’t the only source of fun in the castle.
Knights in armour on horses were popular toys. As a kid in a castle you would have seen plenty of the real deal going about – your dad might even have been a knight – so having toy versions makes sense.
Other toys that have been discovered by archaeologists include tiny pots and pans, spinning tops and dolls, while board games like chess and backgammon were also popular.
If you’re considering burying your brother’s beloved games console so that future archaeologists can dig it up in a few hundred years, please ask your parents first. Hint: they’ll say no.
Why does that angry pig keep staring at us?
Umm, I think we have something that belongs to him.
Ball games were all the rage too, but there were no sports shops
to nip into to buy your precision- engineered, scientifically balanced, superstar-endorsed ball. No, things were a bit more basic back then.
If you were lucky, you’d get a ball made from leather stuffed with horsehair. Slightly less pleasant- sounding is a ball made from a pig’s bladder filled with dried peas.
Next time you go for a kick-about in the playground just imagine scoring a goal with a pea-filled bladder. Although it’s definitely better than scoring a goal with a pee-filled bladder.
One ball game that was popular at the time of the great castles was camping or campball, which you might have gone to watch. Despite the name, it had nothing to do with tents – it was more like rugby, although it seems to have been less about how good you were at passing and scoring and more about how good you were at kicking and punching!
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