Story props, artefacts & costumes

Enrich the curriculum and inspire your pupils (and teachers!) with fantastic artefacts, props and costumes for all topics, performances and occasions.

Costumes

Costume bannerOur costumes can make a school performance come to life, or add depth to any classroom activity.

  • Perfect for history, geography, drama, citizenship, or art
  • Adult and childrens’ sizes
  • Historical costumes from ancient world to Britain since 1930
  • Contemporary costumes from around the world
  • Uniforms/people who help us
  • Drama and pantomime

How many costumes can I borrow?

  • Unlimited number of costumes (within reason)

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Historical artefacts

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Enrich your history topics with one of our artefacts collections. Artefacts can be an expensive purchase for your school, so why not borrow them instead? Each box contains up to 40 artefacts.

  • Abolition of SlaveryFire of London box
  • Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome
  • Ancient Rome – Museum of London collection (includes original roman artefacts in addition to replicas)
  • Anglo Saxons
  • Bengalis in East London
  • The Blitz
  • Britain Since 1930
  • Explorers
  • Fifties and sixties Britain
  • Florence Nightingale
  • Homes (early 20th century)
  • London Docklands
  • Mary Seacole
  • Matchgirls
  • Pirates
  • Somali East End
  • Stone age to bronze age
  • Toys and Games
  • Tracks through Poplar (steam railways)
  • Tudors
  • Victorian Britain
  • Vikings
  • World War 2
  • Writing and Printing

Single historical artefacts are also available, including:

  • Artefacts from all of the above eras
  • Navigation and exploration
  • Treasure chests (empty)

How many artefacts can I borrow?

  • Unlimited single artefacts where available
  • Up to one historical artefacts box per teacher (and no more than one of each type per school)

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International and Multicultural Artefacts and Textiles

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Bring a global dimension to your classroom.

International artefact boxes include:

  • Shahnameh : The Phoenix of Persia : Iran/ Persia and traditional tales. Produced in collaboration with Tiny Owl Books.
  • Dolls from around the world (boxes for different countries & continents)
  • Where in the World is Barnaby Bear? / Weatherby Bear? / Benita Bear?
  • Countries, including Modern Egypt, France, Australia, Poland
  • Bengal History
  • Deforestation
  • Adinkra and Kente Cloth
  • Olympic Games
  • Story tents (see our story tents page)

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Individual items can support:

  • International celebrations
  • Black History Month
  • Chinese New Year

are from:

  • Africa
  • Middle East
  • South America
  • North America
  • India and Bangladesh
  • Europe
  • China
  • Japan

and include:

  • Textiles and flags for displays
  • Everyday items
  • Festival items
  • Masks
  • Musical instruments
  • Puppets
  • Toys made from recycled materials

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Religious artefacts

re artefacts bannerArtefacts can help pupils gain insight into complex subjects like world faiths and religion.

  • Holy booksbuddhism box
  • Celebrations and festivals
  • Christianity
  • Islam
  • Buddhism
  • Sikhism
  • Hinduism
  • Kwanzaa
  • Prayer
  • Religious clothing
  • Weddings
Science artefacts

Science artefacts bannerWe have a wide selection of artefacts to help teach a range of science topics:

  • Human skeletons
  • Model body parts
  • Teeth
  • Habitats and food chains
  • Lifecycles
  • The Solar System
  • Rocks and fossils
  • Magnets
Story sacks, story props and puppets

Story prop bannerProps and puppets to make any story come to life. Add an extra dimension to your storytelling or literacy sessions, or use a persona doll for PSHE and citizenship.

  • A wide selection of story sacks
  • Animal and minibeast puppets and glove puppets
  • Favourite character puppets and dolls
  • Multi-sensory stories (ask us for more information)
  • Puppets to suit traditional tales and fairy tales.
  • Persona dolls

Latest additions to the artefacts and costumes collection

Opening Times

Opening times

Term time Monday – Thursday: 9am to 5pm

Fridays and holidays: 9am to 4:30pm

Christmas holiday

23rd December to 1st January : CLOSED