THIRTY years ago the Southampton Common Study Centre on Southampton Common were proving so popular they were looking to move to larger premises on the grounds of the old zoo site.

Children would go on blindfolded walks – or crawls – following a leader and collecting items chosen by touch.

Other informal activities included “mirror walks,” in which children discovered a bird’s downward view of the world by looking into mirrors held near their noses.

They discovered the value of camouflage by looking for “wooly worms” – short lengths of wool in various colours hidden among vegetation into which some of the colours blended.

In another activity, each child picked up a single leaf from the same tree, apparently all identical. They got to know their leaf by imaging it were a map from an atlas – the veins were roads, the blotches towns.

The centre has since changed name to Hawthorns Urban Wildlife Centre.