Tufty Road Safety Game
- Object:
Board game
- Place of origin:
Enfield (manufactured)
- Date:
1973 (manufactured)
- Artist/Maker:
J W Spear & Sons Ltd (manufacturer)
- Credit Line:
Given by J. M. Harvey on behalf of Theydon Bois Tufty Club
- Museum number:
B.150:1 to 11-2011
- Gallery location:
In Storage
This board game was designed by Spear's Games featuring characters from the Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA). Created by Elsie Mills in 1953, Tufty featured in a number of books and safety instructions for the society and in 1961 the Tufty Club was set up as a nationwide network of local groups. At the club meetings, usually once a month, children were told stories, encouraged to join in games, read the Tufty books together and take home the message of road safety. This game would have been produced to capitalise on the Tufty club phenomenon, which by 1973 had more than 10 000 affiliated clubs and over two million members.
Although Tufty was restylised in 1979, and again in 1993, his presence in RoSPA campaigns has much diminished over the ensuing years. Local Tufty clubs have been wound down and little merchandise is available on their website, but he is still used by the RoSPA in publications and educational packs for schools.
