A return to Ladybird land, where boys and girls knew their place

Peter helps his friend with some carpentry while Jane saddles up for a horse ride. Peter waters the garden while Jane warns him, maternally: "Don't get wet and don't let the water get on the cat. She does not like it." Jane then bathes her dolls.

Such are the plot twists in We Like to Help, one of the legendary "Peter and Jane" Ladybird books of the 1960s and 1970s in which which he, in pressed shorts and cardigan, and she, in neat dresses and Alice bands, confounded gender stereotypes about as frequently as their creator, former headteacher William Murray, surprised his readers. Hammer and nails were for the boys and their fathers. Baking, preparing tea, and baking for mothers and daughters.

But frozen in time though it might be, a yearning for the blissful and ordered world Murray created has rekindled interest in Ladybird books and prompted an exhibition of illustrations by one of the Ladybird's best loved artists, Martin Aitchison, at Newby Hall, the stately home near Ripon, north Yorkshire. The exhibits on show remind us of Peter and Jane in all their gender-stereotypical finery.

"Children's illustrations have been a real draw before," said Laura Strangeway, the art exhibition manager. But younger visitors should expect their parents to become rather dewy-eyed as they revisit the 1960s Ladybird world. In We Like To Help, "Peter and Jane ... get on a bus to go their grandmother's and grandfather's house. They go by the Police station and see a Police car there."

No Asbos or Chelsea Tractors in a paternalistic time when police officers were actually visible and always afforded a capital "P".

Ladybird used professional artists from the start, believing that the images of children dressing up, exploring and helping were just as important as the words. One of them was Aitchison, who illustrated about 70 Ladybird titles. He was attracted to art after his education was limited by poor hearing which later deteriorated to profound deafness. He studied at the Birmingham School of Art between 1935 and 1940, then briefly at London's Slade art school, joining Ladybird in 1963, just as it was about to launch the Key Words Reading Scheme which Peter and Jane were a part of. He also worked on "Well Loved Tales".

"Our books were heavily criticised by the children's critics of the time for their unfashionable lack of imagination and their laboured techniques," Aitchison said recently. "But, while not necessarily arguing with that, I feel that we, perhaps unwittingly, did build a record of middle-class childhood of the period."

The books, which were originally produced in 1940 by Willis & Hepworth, a small Leicestershire printers, remain in production today and Murray's Key Words Reading Scheme, which focused on 300 words considered vital to reading, celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2004. Meanwhile, Ladybird illustrations have become collectors' items. The Martin Aitchison Art Exhibition runs at Newby Hall until 2 September.

Another world, illustrated by Aitchison

* Where We Go (1964)

A trip into the country for all the family, with Mummy sporting some splendid sunglasses. A passing rabbit has a brush with Pat, Peter and Jane's dog, but Peter drags the dog away to Jane and Mummy's relief.

* Peter and Jane Help at Home (1971)

In a spotless suburban kitchen, Jane helps Mummy arrange flowers and bake currant buns, while, through the kitchen window, Peter and Daddy can be seen doing "something" with the car.

* Games We Like (1964)

Opens in a toy shop where Peter and Jane are spending money. It's a gun and rope for Peter, balloons and a skipping rope for Jane. After treasure hunts and bubble blowing, the girls "show the boys how to cook."