Childhood heirlooms

It is beautiful. Unfortunately, we weren't very well off so I had only a few cheap presents. The one thing I had always wanted was a rocking horse.

Redrobin51 thank you. We weren't well off either. He never had a stand, tack or mane and tail when I was a child. I French knitted his bridle!

Well you've certainly done him proud as he looks splendid now.

Beautiful rocking horse!

Oh Foxglove, French knitting - that brings back memories. I used to love doing that. I think in amongst all my junk mementoes there’s an old wooden cotton reel. I must look for it 😀

What a beauty - the rocking horse !!

Thank you for your kind comments. Here is a before photo. He looked very different!

What a wonderful horse! My father made one for me and, 70 years later, it's still the best Christmas present I ever had. Sadly when we moved a few years later there was no room for him and he was consigned to the garage. I always hoped to renovate him but a lot of him was papier mache and he didn't survive life in the garage.

He's beautiful Foxglove! I have a stuffed Teddy somewhere is a box in the attic. His fur is worn and his mouth became unstitched, but he was well loved.

What a wonderful toy foxglove, and what a splendid restoration.

Our childhood teddies live in our display cabinet. They are well loved so chunks of fur missing. We call the display cabinet Teddy's Care Home.

I love the old fashioned toys like teddies, dolls houses and rocking horses.

We weren't desperately poor as children, but there were four of us and we had to share round whatever toys we had. My dollies and teddies were often shot and hung by my brothers when we played cowboys and indians! And my younger sister ruined my dolls pram using it as a chariot with the boy next door sitting in it!

When I had my first child, my Dad rescued some good wood from a local skip and made her a rocking horse. It was a very modern design, flat bodied and with a string tail but every stroke of the wood plane and brush of varnish was done with love. I still have it in our loft and it is about to be resurrected for our third grandchild (the other two loved it as well!)

It brings a lump to my throat every time one of the little ones rocks on it and smiles...

Wow I am jealous! I always wanted a rocking horse. I was in a house that had one, with my Mum I think, when I was little but was too shy to have a go on it.

He looks beautiful now Foxglove

Just beautiful foxglove…🤗

He is just beautiful. Does he have a name? I never had a rocking horse, but a local shoe shop had a very handsome one, and I always had a go on it when I was taken to buy new shoes.

He is beautiful Foxglove. Did you take him to The Repair Shop?

Thank you for your lovely comments. Grandma70s, yes I am calling him Storm. Kate1949 he was restored by a talented lady called Jan Rusling. Deedaa and AskAlice lovely memories of your special rocking horses xx

I have two little chairs I had as a child both from around late 1940s and a teddy I remember choosing mid 1950s in a shop window
I picked the mummy size out of Daddy,Mummy or the Baby bear, she’s still in quite good condition.

My teddies and the best beloved of my dolls are still alive and kicking, as it DH's monkey.

They have a many roomed house in an old kitchen dresser up here in my study,

Here is Monty the monkey. The outfit he's wearing was knitted secretly by my mother for a doll I was getting for Christmas. The doll is long gone but Monty lives on in a drawer in a Kallax unit in my bedroom. I toy with the idea of the Repair Shop but I would hate being on TV.

DeeDee - how cute 🥰

We had a lovely little set of wicker furniture, table, chair and settee which came from my grandparents, the right size for dolls ' tea parties. I have no idea how old they were, and a small dolls bed, which were loved and played with. My sister has restored them and they are now being enjoyed by her granddaughter. Likewise a couple of teddies she has restored (she ought to be on the Repair Shop!).
I still have the dolls house made by my Dad when we were small and regularly 'play' with it still!

My teddy, known as Bear, was bought by my maternal grandparents for my first birthday, he happily sat on my bed for many years, until I got married in 1976, then he was safely stored in the loft.
He will be 66 this September.