SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

Anyone out there old enough to remember whip'n'top day? I think it was Shrove Tuesday but I'm not sure. Whip'n'Top was a very popular pastime with us kids for about a month every year The tops came in various sizes and we chalked coloured rings on the top of them so when they spun they looked really attractive. One of the tops was quite small and we called it a window smasher 'cos if you hit it really hard you could make it fly through the air and it would still spin on landing! The whip was just a stick with a leather bootlace threaded through it. Doesn't sound very exciting these days but in those days every season had its pastime!

While I remember whip ‘n tops well, I only ever remember them being used by girls. From the distance of nearly forty years it seems that most playground pastimes had a season. As well as whip ‘n tops, conkers [for obvious reasons], marbles, skipping ropes, girls again, hop scotch, which, looking at Google earth, now seems to be painted on most playgrounds, not chalked on anymore.

Johnny39 wrote: Anyone out there old enough to remember whip'n'top day? I think it was Shrove Tuesday but I'm not sure. Whip'n'Top was a very popular pastime with us kids for about a month every year The tops came in various sizes and we chalked coloured rings on the top of them so when they spun they looked really attractive. One of the tops was quite small and we called it a window smasher 'cos if you hit it really hard you could make it fly through the air and it would still spin on landing! The whip was just a stick with a leather bootlace threaded through it. Doesn't sound very exciting these days but in those days every season had its pastime! Hi i can remember whip and top days, and the tops came in red blues and greens and then you chalked different coloured pattern on the top so when they were spinning they looked abstract. I also remember some top were like mushrooms on a long stem, but they were harder to keep going.

Certainly do - wasn't this followed by the marbles season as the weather got better?Thinking (sadly), surely not allowed these days in our liberalised schools - can just imagine the do-gooders raving about deviant implications of using leather whips, full-face safety visors protecting against the over enthusiatic lashing of whip stick and hard-hat of course in case the tops should become air-borne!How did we all survive to tell the tale

I remember games having sort of informal seasons, although apart from conkers I couldn't say when they happened. But Lent for whipn'top does have a familiar ring. There was also a game where you had to bounce a ball and pick several small cubes, was it called "checks?"I remember during long hot summers making "spanish water" by shaking liquorice in NHS orange juice bottles of water. Also at the end of the long summer holiday having run out of stuff to do starting "chumping" for bonfire night.

I remember CHECKS very well Trojan. They were about three quarters of an inch cubes and had corrugated sides and were in various "strong" colours. Its difficult to say what they were made of, but they had an odd feeling as if they were were formed from rock hard plasticine. Fascinating little things they were - happy days eh ??

I was born in 1942 lived in Bramley for most Of my years till leaving the UK to come to Australia (1964). I remember whip n top day Spose it seems a bit old fashion now but that's the sort of things we did to pass the time, was Whitsuntide around the sam time, new clothes

So as I understand it you are saying that you let your children Trespass a farmers land and then climb an Oak tree without a safety harness and steal Horse chestnuts. you then aid abet this misdemeanour by roasting the said chestnuts until they are rock hard. after you admit drilling a hole in and threading a string through you then let your child stand opposite another child armed with a similar object. throughout all of this it seems there is no safety officer present. The next stage will take some believing, You let your child hold his solid chestnut out in front of his face / body whilst the other child aims his similar projectile at the other one. at no time has either child worn safety helmets, face visors or body armour, no health and safety officer on site this reckless and extremely dangerous it seems continues until one of these objects ( strangely named Conkers) is broken or one of the children sustains a serious injury and is taken to Hospital for treatment or perhaps surgery for life threatening damage. Again at the time No medical staff were present.

Now on to the next.... You say you let your child play outside unsupervised with a number of Glass balls he describes as "Tors"

As kids we would take a small piece of wood about the size of a cricket bail and whittle the ends down so that when it was laid on the floor the two ends were not touching the floor, then with a stick we would hit one end causing it to spin up into the air, we then would attempt to hit it with the stick. The trick was to see how far you could hit it.. "Health and Safety ??.

Sounds like Tip-cat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tip-cat

Whip'n'top was great if you were treated to some fancy chalks. I'm afraid my whips were so well used they finished up with about five holes in them as they wore out. Dad burnt new holes through with the poker.