The first I heard of conkers was in a book by a Scottish author in which the children were playing a game of conkers. I had to look it up to see what it was. The next time I heard of conkers was on a scrapbook page that Chrissy posted. So, I think it might be particularly British, Irish or Scottish thing to collect conkers. I wonder if the closest thing to it in the USA would be what we call buckeyes. Maybe some people in the USA call it conkers and I just don’t know about it. Anyway, Mel, your page is a lovely fall page. The girls are so little!
My dad used to tell stories about "playing conkers" with horse chestnuts when he was a kid in New York - so I have heard chestnuts called that before. The place where we go apple picking every fall has a huge chestnut tree and the ground is always covered with them.
We have a huge horse chestnut tree in our neighbors yard but I've never had a 'gifted from the birds' one spring up in my yard. We don't play conkers here but my eldest played when he was in Primary school in Harrogate.