Tumble

A heap of brightly painted wooden toy cars and trucks, some with numbers on them.

A toy shop, mostly wood

Borrow it for two weeks, then decide

Most toys are loved for a day and then live under the sofa. So half our back wall is a lending shelf: take one home, and if it's still being played with in a fortnight, come back and buy it.

How lending works
Wooden animal toys, a zebra and a dog, standing on a little wooden frame by a window.
An old wooden toy train with a coal wagon on a pale rug.

Nothing here needs batteries, and nothing here talks back.

Three shelves

A wooden stacking toy with brightly coloured rings, some lying on a white table.

Stack, sort and pull along

For nought to three · from £14

Rings, blocks, shape sorters and one duck on wheels that every child we've met has tried to walk.

Ask what's in
Old wooden alphabet blocks with painted letters and numbers, piled up close.

Blocks, letters and trains

For two to six · from £18

Track that fits the track you already have, whichever brand it is, and blocks sold by the kilo.

Ask what's in
A row of little wooden sailing boats with peg figures in them on a wooden floor.

Small worlds

For three to eight · from £22

Boats, peg people, a farm that folds into its own box. Made by four workshops we can name.

Ask what's in
White open shelves with a few wooden toys on them, one in each square.

The lending shelf

Forty toys, one at a time

The shelf changes every Saturday. You take one toy home, bring it back within two weeks, and take another. If you'd like to keep it, you pay the shop price; the borrowing never costs anything.

A small wooden rainbow of pastel arches on a white surface.
Three wooden puzzle shapes on a stick against a bright yellow background.

Before you borrow

A card, free

One grown-up, one address, no deposit. It takes two minutes at the till.

Two weeks

Late is fine; tell us. After a month we'll ring and ask nicely.

If it breaks

Bring every piece back. We mend most things in the workshop and it goes back on the shelf.

Clean

Every toy is wiped and aired before it goes out again. Nothing with fabric is lent.