Who remembers the Rag & Bone Men

[echo beach 587]

Hi Blitzer

Can I add the chimney sweeps and the knife grinders to your list?

Some rags, I believe, were used to make paper but most were sorted, washed and ground down so that the fibres could be spun again into woollen yarn. The material was called Mungo or Shoddy (inferior to the original wool.) I always think of the old fashioned carpet underlay, before latex & neoprene came along, as being like shoddy. So recycling is nothing new.

I suppose in the 1950's/60's a lot of clothes were beginning to be made out of man made fibres like polyester and glues were no longer made from natural materials like bones & fish so that killed off the rag & bone men's trade.

[Ravenstone 10]

Since coming back to Rotherham, i was amazed to see (and hear) a Rag and bone man last summer. He was walking infront of a truck not a horse and cart but still a novelty in this day and age

[depoix 11]

I remember seeing carts parked up on a road just off London road in the 90’s.

thats where the rag an bone men rented them from,up by cccamp i think it was

[carol green 10]

Iremember living on Attercliffe and the rag and bone man coming up our street every sunday.All we got really as kids were baloons, not sure what anyone else got?

 

i remember them to dad always gave us a small bag each so we could all have a balloon.

[Vague_Boy 10]

Iremember living on Attercliffe and the rag and bone man coming up our street every sunday.All we got really as kids were baloons, not sure what anyone else got?

 

We got balloons at Herdings as well.

 

The rag and bone men will still making their rounds in the early 70s but I don't remember seeing them mich after that.

[Tallulah 10]

Remember rag and bone man around Handsworth. Didnt get ordinary balloons, got long multicoloured balloons,fab.

[okismoki 10]

I remember one who used to come to Parson Cross and yell unintelligable stuff at the top of his lungs.

 

At the cry of `hoyuuuuuurarrrgh ya!` all the kids would nick their parents washing off the line, stuff from wardrobes even their own clothes and take them to him for a balloon.

 

Ahhh the slaps I used to get when my dad realised his best suit was on the back of that wagon...

ha ha old man collins being chased by irate parents fetching the kids school clobber back

[arkwright1 10]

I remember seeing carts parked up on a road just off London road in the 90’s.

 

there still there

[chimay 10]

I remember the Attercliffe rag and bone man in the 1960s. He used to give pegs or balloons. Getting a balloon when mum wanted pegs would get me a clip round the earhole.

[carosio 186]

I remember the Attercliffe rag and bone man in the 1960s. He used to give pegs or balloons.

We at lower Walkley were more fortunate; we were offered balloons or goldfish in a polythene bag.

[Davekowl 10]

I remember when I was about 6 years old the "Rag and Bone Man" coming down our street and for some reason I had to have a balloon. My mother was up stairs and so I took a couple of towels off the side in the kitchen and exchanged them for my balloon. I couldn't sit down for a week when she found out .

[pigeon 11]

There was one known as "chippie" who used to come round our aea in Attercliffe. His "yard" used to be on Alfred Road and we,as kids would take stuff like rags and scrap metal down there in prams. The actual name of the "business" was "Collins Scrap"

now theres a blast from past there is a W.collins in Rotherham who collects scrap metal and rags.he was from Alfred road many years ago.it must be the same family