Who remembers the Rag & Bone Men

[nan98 10]

i often tell my grandkids im going to sell them to rag and bone man for 2 balloons and a goldfish.

[Corny44 10]

i often tell my grandkids im going to sell them to rag and bone man for 2 balloons and a goldfish.

 

I used to tell my kids and grandkids about the rag and bone man and an occasion when my cousin brought one of their horses up our back yard when I was a little girl in the late `40s. My uncle had a scrap business back then and he used to hire men to go round with a horse and cart to collect rags for recycling. If the rags were collected they gave balloons or goldfish etc. but if you took rags to there yard they would be weighed and you got money for them. How things have changed!!

[Jaxy15 10]

Remember rag and bone man

The amount of goldfish I had off them... Fantastic:thumbsup:

[JackK0 10]

But what did they do with the rags how exactly were they recycled? Can someone explain?

[raymondo1952 11]

Rag & bone man use to shout donkeys stone for rags this was for putting on window sills and door steps they allso used cardinal and on steps and sills

[JackK0 10]

sorry what?? ?

[willybite 10]

sorry what?? ?

 

hiya one of my wife's stories of the rag man was when they were young they were given a chick but that chick grew into a cockeral that thought it was one of the family until it grew so big they gave it to their grannie who kept chickens on the wybourn estate but she was afraid of i4t as well.i remember my first two wheeler bike came off the rag mans rag cart, another was my dads uncle was a rag gatherer he lived on barrie rd parsons cross,when he was a young boy he lost an arm after falling under a tram, but one story of john was that his pony fell ill on one of his rounds so john bungled it on the cart to carry it back to the stables.

Edited March 19, 2015 by willybite

[historybuff 10]

During the 1940s and early 1950s my Saturday morning job at home (in Cheshire) was to "donkeystone" the three steps leading up to the backdoor, together with the outside windowsill. Those who lived in terrace houses took intense pride in the look of their front doorsteps, all meticulously donkeystoned, and woe betide the woman who was not houseproud and didn't carry out this chore.

 

I seem to recall that the donkey stone, obtained from the rag and bone man, was yellow in colour and would dry to a cream colour. I have no idea what substance they were made of and balloons must have been in short supply because I certainly never received one!

[brian1941 11]

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/104790896216727717625/albums/6128347998697611761

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Hi, Not sure where this picture were taken but here is your Rag & Bone man,

looks like a 1960s.

When he came up our cobble st he always shouted Any Old Rags, he wern't short

of nothing, gold fish- rags-even floor clothes- pegs and other items.

Always looked out for him. haha

[bantycock 10]

I used to tell my kids and grandkids about the rag and bone man and an occasion when my cousin brought one of their horses up our back yard when I was a little girl in the late `40s. My uncle had a scrap business back then and he used to hire men to go round with a horse and cart to collect rags for recycling. If the rags were collected they gave balloons or goldfish etc. but if you took rags to there yard they would be weighed and you got money for them. How things have changed!!

 

Would that be collins on Alfred road by any chance:confused:

[schoolrdgal 10]

During the 1940s and early 1950s my Saturday morning job at home (in Cheshire) was to "donkeystone" the three steps leading up to the backdoor, together with the outside windowsill. Those who lived in terrace houses took intense pride in the look of their front doorsteps, all meticulously donkeystoned, and woe betide the woman who was not houseproud and didn't carry out this chore.

 

I seem to recall that the donkey stone, obtained from the rag and bone man, was yellow in colour and would dry to a cream colour. I have no idea what substance they were made of and balloons must have been in short supply because I certainly never received one!

 

Me neither! I always wanted a goldfish or can you remember those metal birds on a piece of string? Never had enough rags for anything. I was wearing them! Then what was left went for dusters and dish cloths. No J cloths in those days.

[Jason210 10]

I remember one. John Collins. He had a yard just off Broadfield Road, where it joins Abbeydale. When you turn off Abbeydale Road on to Broadfield Road, you took a first right onto a street with terraced houses. Could it have been Tamplin Road? Then near the end of that street you turned right again, and there was a short way between the houses, and there at the end was John Collin's scrapyard. There were some green wooden gates, which opened into a yard. The yard was sheltered by a roof on three sides, and open in the middle. Under these roofs was where Mr Collins kept all the scrap metal piled up. In winter there would be a fire buring in a drum in the yard!

 

I remembered he had horses, and people working for him who had carts. One the guys with the carts was called Bill Knowles, and he had blue Volkswagon Golf, if I remember rightly!

 

I remember John Collins very clearly. He was quite thin, always wore a flat cap and a silk scarf or cravat, and used a lot of snuff. I remember the smell of the snuff to this day! He was a very good man.

 

I was only 7 or 8 at the time. All the housing round there was later condemned boarded up, finally being demolished around 1976-78. Mr Collins then moved to a place near Bramall Lane. I have a very clear memory of it all because my brother used to help out at the old scrapyard and often took me down as a kid there to hang out.

Edited February 23, 2017 by Jason210