Rag and bone man

[indiapaleale]

I remember the rag and bone man - used to come down our street in Brum - sometimes on the same day as the Davenports Beer man!

The rag and bone man had a lovely grey horse and a horrible smelly cart that was piled high with icky stuff! Mother wouldn't let us have a goldfish - She said Dad was allergic to animals!

He evidently wasn't allergic to hops!

 

[7igerby7he7ail]

The rag and bone man
The man delivering beers, mineral water, dandelion and burdock, sasparilla, all in stone jugs.
The provisions man in a converted 1930's bus
The knife sharpener and his bike
Door to door brush salesmen
Cobbled streets
Gas lamps
Steam trains

No cars about, football and cricket and many other games played in the street.



The 'Doctor Who' type police boxes

The Goons, Educating Archie, The Clitheroe Kid, Ray's A Laugh, on the radio

This was the 50's

All the offal [ bloody offal, I can tell you ]we were made to eat, tripe, trotters, black puddings, brains etc. etc.

[Some of the posher restaurants now sell this at at silly prices!.]

Words like 'ginnell' 'gradely' 'nowt' which I have not heard in years having flew south

[nort]

Talking about horse and carts,i remember when i was about 8,we moved house by horse and cart.All the furniture was tied onto the cart and i sat with the driver.We must have did 3 or 4 round trips as it wasn't very far away.A lot of people did this because it was cheaper than a van.I can also remember seeing him cutting the long grass by the side of the roads with a scythe ,to make hay to feed the horse.By the way this was in the mid 1960s ! !

Steve

[littleclaire]

My Great Uncle Cecil (or George as he was known) was a rag and bone man. My mum remembers going on his cart in Leeds when she was young. He 'disappeared' for 2 years - probably to prison. He made quite a lot of money if the rumours are right....
When I was a student in Leeds in 2000-2001 there was a man on horse and cart who used to go round collecting stuff - these people live on....!

Claire

[kesannah]

Here's a picture of our rag and bone man with his fold down roundabout.

[AiredalePete]

Judging by the fashions and the house decorated with bunting, that photograph would have been taken around September 1945.

The cart, with its small, metal tyred wheels, must have been very noisy and uncomfortable to move from one place to another.

I wonder if the owner really was a rag and bone man or whether he was a 'showman'. I think that in those days, unless the carts were carrying coal or dairy products, everyone with a horse and cart was regarded as either a 'rag and bone man' or a 'gypsy', just as nowadays the people who travel around with fairgrounds are often incorrectly termed 'gypsies'.

[kesannah]

Our rag and bone man was a Gypsy. His name was Levi Lee. He had a particular affinity with horses.

[briant]

Aye,When i where a lad,way up in the Pennines,we did'nt have a rag n bone man,we wore the rags,except on a Sunday,

Black Pudding,Tripe & school mince made me retch and still do'es to this day,

Anyone remember "The Jack Jackson" show,he played a bit of music but had clips from other shows so you got the impresion Harold Steptoe was talking to Tony Hancock,
Sometime during the show somone would mention a colour,ie "The sky is blue today" to which another voice would say "Not blue,mate,More of a dirty yellow" it creased me for years,

The Glums,with Jimmy Edwards was another prog that made me laugh

[AiredalePete]

They were shows that you could let your children AND your children's friends watch, without needing to worry about any of them pcking up any language they shouldn't.

I'm beginning to sound like my dad.