Growing up
Growing up is part of the following collections: The Harborough Collection.
Highlights
![MH Museum Case3 Liberty Bodice Aspect Ratio 800 400](https://www.harboroughmuseum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/MH-Museum-Case3-Liberty-bodice-aspect-ratio-800-400.jpg)
Liberty Bodice
The Liberty Bodice was invented by Fred Cox, Marketing Director at R & W H Symington & Co Ltd in 1908. It was a fleecy knitted vest with rubber buttons, re-enforcing cotton tapes and buttons to attach drawers and stockings. The bodice helped to change the way that children dressed in the early part of the twentieth century.
Until then most middle and upper class children wore supporting re-enforced corsets that were supposed to help ‘train’ their developing bodies. The Liberty Bodice was a softer, less restricting garment that allowed children to move around and play, at a time when playing and being active were viewed as an important parts of childhood.
Fred Cox’s daughter, Freda wore the bodice in an original advertising photograph. She appeared as the ‘Liberty Bodice Girl’ in much of the early marketing. The Liberty Bodice was produced in its millions and continued to be made until the 1960s. Loved or hated by three generations of children it remains one of Leicestershire’s most interesting products.
![Object Harborogh Toys 4 Aspect Ratio 800 400](https://www.harboroughmuseum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Object-Harborogh-Toys-4-aspect-ratio-800-400.jpg)
The Harborough Toys
Dating from the early 17th century, a unique hoard of more than 200 toys was found behind a bricked-up stairwell in St. Dionysisus Church in the centre of Market Harborough. The toys include whip-tops, tip-cats, small balls and sap whistles.
They were made from wood, pig’s knuckle bones and fabrics, all easily obtainable materials to children who had to make their own toys long before such things were mass-produced.
Tip-cat, a game where children have to hit a small stick with a bigger stick, has been popular for hundreds of years. It was often seen as a nuisance, even before health and safety rules took the fun out of playground games. As late as 1853 Punch magazine commented ‘This mania for playing at cat is no less absurd than dangerous…’
Could this hoard be confiscated toys taken from children causing trouble around the church more than 300 years ago?
You can read more about toys, including the Harborough Toys, in the Leicestershire Museum Collections website.
Further displays
![Case Born And Bred Middle Case Shot Aspect Ratio 650 517](https://www.harboroughmuseum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Case-Born-and-bred-middle-case-shot-aspect-ratio-650-517.jpg)
Born and bred
Read more about 'Born and bred'![Object Land Army Girls Photo Aspect Ratio 650 517](https://www.harboroughmuseum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Object-Land-Army-girls-photo-aspect-ratio-650-517.jpg)
Living off the land
Read more about 'Living off the land'![Case Soups And Harbilt In Case Aspect Ratio 650 517](https://www.harboroughmuseum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Case-Soups-and-Harbilt-in-case-aspect-ratio-650-517.jpg)
Made in Harborough
Read more about 'Made in Harborough'![Case Pheasant And Whittle Engine In Case Aspect Ratio 650 517](https://www.harboroughmuseum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Case-Pheasant-and-Whittle-engine-in-case-aspect-ratio-650-517.jpg)
Market Harborough and the District
Read more about 'Market Harborough and the District'![Case Left MHHS Case Top Shot Aspect Ratio 650 517](https://www.harboroughmuseum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Case-Left-MHHS-case-top-shot-aspect-ratio-650-517.jpg)
Market Harborough Historical Society
Read more about 'Market Harborough Historical Society'![Case Places To Go Middle Shot Aspect Ratio 650 517](https://www.harboroughmuseum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Case-Places-to-go-middle-shot-aspect-ratio-650-517.jpg)
Places to go, people to see
Read more about 'Places to go, people to see'![Case Lubenham Hall Shoes In Case Aspect Ratio 650 517](https://www.harboroughmuseum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Case-Lubenham-Hall-shoes-in-case-aspect-ratio-650-517.jpg)
Religion and belief
Read more about 'Religion and belief'![Case Sickness And Help Remedies Objects In Case Aspect Ratio 650 517](https://www.harboroughmuseum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Case-Sickness-and-help-remedies-objects-in-case-aspect-ratio-650-517.jpg)
Sickness and health
Read more about 'Sickness and health'![Case Sounds Of Battle World Wars Aspect Ratio 650 517](https://www.harboroughmuseum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Case-Sounds-of-Battle-World-Wars-aspect-ratio-650-517.jpg)
Sounds of Battle
Read more about 'Sounds of Battle'![Case Villages Case Top Shot Aspect Ratio 650 517](https://www.harboroughmuseum.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Case-Villages-case-top-shot-aspect-ratio-650-517.jpg)