I recently visited the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley, West Midlands where a typical village has been recreated with original houses, shops and amenities moved and rebuilt from their original locations to show life in the Black Country from early 1800s to around the 1930s. There were plenty of hands-on things to do including children being able to play with toys from the early 1900s. One of these was a metal hoop toy that you had to balance and push along the street with a handle as per the photo below.

Children playing with metal hoop toys 1900s

Amazingly when we got back home I had received an email with some old photos of Rainham from the 1900s and one of the shots showed a child playing with exactly the same toy along the A2 in Rainham!

Children playing with metal hoop toys 1900s

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