All Our Childhoods
30 September 2006 – 17 February 2007

Take a glimpse back to past childhoods, from the Victorian era to the present day.

The show includes images and representations of childhood through photographs, ceramics and paintings from Gallery Oldham’s collections. These include works by Helen Bradley, George Wimpenny, Joseph Southall, Bernard Meninsky, Clement Cooper and Nudrat Afza.

See toys, games and dolls from the past and take a trip back to the Victorian seaside through objects including a set of Punch and Judy puppets, which was recently donated to the Gallery. Families can act out their own stories with a puppet theatre and play with a range of toys and games.

Also on show are a range of toys set to be some of this year's Christmas top-sellers, kindly donated by Oldham company Character Options.

The world of learning is explored through objects from the classroom such as desk, books and embroidery.

As well as play, holidays and learning, child workers are represented through materials and objects common to the child ‘half timers’ who worked in Oldham’s mills until the 1920s.

Image: Punch from the Punch and Judy set on show in the exhibition that belonged to Oldham puppeteer Edward Platt.