Candie Museum toys with the past

From about 1930, in the building which is now Christies in the Pollet, the iconic local store traded before its closure in the 1980s.

Museums learning and access manager Jo Dowding said: ‘Nostalgia is always very popular and we try to create an inter-generational thing for people of all ages.

‘We are always very grateful to the people who loan things to us to go on display.

‘We have to work to a budget and my dad made the shop window from an old wardrobe while my mum made the curtains for it.’

Action Man, Ladybird and the Mr Men books, Waddington’s board games, and numerous annuals are among items evoking memories.

The display is in the Discovery Room while the adjoining Time Warp has a similar theme and features a working train set and a restored pre-decimalisation working till.

Miss Dowding said the turn out had been fantastic.

Michaela Wakeford, who works at Specsavers, visited with son, Jack Le Sauvage, 10.

‘I only just about remember Baker’s Bazaar as I was very young,’ she said.

‘The main thing I remember is the metal railings that prevented children from touching the toys and it was more like a museum than a shop.’

Jack, who goes to St Martin’s Primary School, said the toys seemed to be older with bright colours to catch your eyes.

Games such as Cluedo, Sorry, Operation and Escape from Colditz were still around today.

‘I’d like to know more about how a few of the things in here work,’ he said.

‘It seems a lot of the toys are meant to be played with somebody else’.

Jack said he liked computer games, including retro ones from the 1980s such as Space Invaders and Pac-Man, and he was also keen on board games.

In the visitors’ book someone recalled buying their first fishing rod from Baker’s Bazaar while another told of buying paper scraps to stick in scrap books.

Crockery was also sold in the store and there was a large working train set at the far end.

Nurse Sandra Leightley remembered the railings and the toys behind them.

‘I mainly went there at birthdays because it was really the only time you got toys in those days,’ she said.

‘I remember most of things in here [the display] and I loved Spirograph and troll dolls.’

n The display runs until the end of the year. The Museum is open daily from 10am to 5pm.

Normal admission fees apply and people with discovery passes can go free.