What is a horse chestnut conker?

A Conker is the English name for the seed of the Horse chestnut tree

Poisonous

The seed is poisonous and should not be ingested. They should not be confused with horse chestnuts which are edible.

The game of conkers

It is used in England for the game of 'Conkers' played in the Autumn by school children, when the spiky seed pods drop from the tree. The smooth brown coloured seed in these pods is hardened then tied on the end of a string by boring a hole through it. Then the two participants in the game take turns trying to break each other's conker by taking turns to swing their conker on the string to collide with the opponents conker. The first to break the other conker is the winner. There are various regional rules to this game and many cheats such as hardening the conker by baking it or soaking it in vinegar.

Health and safety in Schools

Recently the game has lost popularity in schools after a number of misguided headmasters banned it as dangerous under health and safety rules. In fact the British Government health and safety executive have never had any reports of injuries caused by playing the game of conkers. The real reason is more likely to be to that H & S is being used as an excuse to reduce the mess made by the spent and broken conkers which the schools have to remove and dispose of.

The Health and Safety Executive commented on TV that they have never banned conkers or considered it a risk.