OFTEN old rocking horses come with a history. Not many could match the one that a Crediton man found in a skip more than 30 years ago.

The bits were rescued by Shaun Newman when he was working on the Wirral, just over the water from Liverpool, in 1986.

“When I saw the bits I realised it had been well-made. I thought I’d better do the right thing and asked if I could take it. The lady of the house said it had been hers, she had loved it.

“Her parents had bought it from a rocking horse maker in Liverpool. I was able to find some leather straps and found some stirrups in a junk shop and managed to get some scraps of horse hair.

“One good thing was that the base was still intact and was sturdy. That was made from pitch pine, brought over in the ships as ballast when the boats were loaded with sugar,” said Shaun.

Their eldest daughter loved it, so did their second daughter but their son was not quite so interested and so, in time, the little horse was put away.

When the family moved from Cheshire to Crediton it went into the basement and stayed there for 25 years but when their grandson came along, Shaun thought of the rocking horse.

“I did some research, found a couple that looked similar, found they were from a Liverpool firm and it turned out they were very famous for their rocking horses,” said Shaun.

“The firm, Collinsons, had ceased trading in 1993 but there was an email address. I wrote and had a reply from the daughter of one of the men who made the horses.

“She was able to tell me who had made this one because of the angle of the head. Each was hand-made and unique. She said it had been made around 1952.

“I found a firm who do spare parts for rocking horses and so was able to get a proper mane and tail and they had the ‘daisy head’ nails I needed to go round the saddle and other work.

“I made the saddle and bridle from a leather handbag that had belonged to my late mother, the stirrups I made from plywood, sprayed with gold paint. The ones I had bought previously were really too strong and tended to scratch the paint.

“Then I had to find out how to do the dappling. My wife, Libby, did all that,” added Shaun.

So this rocking horse has a bit of a charmed life. It is certainly a big difference from the guitars and other stringed instruments Shaun usually works on.• The Rocking Horse is currently included in the Crediton Museum exhibition, Childhood, which is being staged at the Old Town Hall, Crediton.

Sue Read