Museum acquires rare 1940s road safety board game prototype

Heidi Gibbs discovered a rare prototype of a board game named Stop or Go in her late grandmother's attic in Norfolk, England.

The game was originally designed in the 1940s by the British games company Pepys but was never mass-produced. Gibbs noticed the item stood out among other childhood toys because of its age and condition, leading her to contact experts to identify it.

Tony Boydell, the curator at the Museum of Board Games in Newent, confirmed the find as a unique piece of history. Even Rex Pitts, an expert who wrote a book on the history of Pepys games, had never seen a copy of this specific title before. The game involves players throwing dice and moving counters across a grid while choosing to follow the Highway Code or take risks.

Boydell suggested the game may have been discarded by the original company because of its risk-taking elements. The museum purchased the prototype from Gibbs for permanent display. While the game's presence in the attic remains a mystery because the family has no known connection to Pepys, the discovery has drawn praise from board game collectors. These collectors view the piece as a significant addition to the history of British board games.