East Dulwich Rag And Bone Man (Audio)

[edhistory]

This small segment came up in one of the oral history interviews:

East Dulwich Rag And Bone Man

I had totally forgotten about him until this interview.

Can anyone add anything? Were there others, or did he have a local monopoly? Am I right in remembering goldfish in jam jars?

John K

[Anna27]

When I was a child the rag and bone man used to come up my mums road, Ringmore Rise the ED side of Forest Hill I have fond memories of him ringing his bell, it was a cart pulled by a horse. Could this be the same guy? were only talking roughly 20 years ago can't really remember how old I was at the time but it was a regular thing!

[frump]

I remembered the Rag and Bone Man who used to come down Benson Road in Forest Hill when I was a child in the sixties. I moved to Nunhead and in about 1994 I remember a Rag and Bone Man coming down my street with his horse and cart. I pulled my then 2 year old up to the window to look, excited that she hadn't seen a horse in the street before. Just as I pointed out the horse to her, the man punched the horse really hard in the side of his face.......not sure what my daughter now thinks of the old Rag and Bone Man!

[computedshorty]

There was also the Rag and bone Woman ( and children ). Here is the family in Tottenham circa 1930.

The poor old horse has had seen better days but Ma has put a bunch of flowers on his back.

In exchange for old junk Day old chicks were offered. But very few survived the truma of being handled.

The Rag and bone man here is relativly new, the horse now having the protection of the RSPCA, and the cart on Rubber Tyres the man wearing boots that would in earlier days could have bought the horse and cart.

An interesting thing shown here is the large rear wheels on the family cart, when some carts got over loaded they would tip up with the horse dangling off the ground these larger wheels prevented that.

The all same size wheels on the Rag and bone mans cart would be very unballenced at the back.

With so many horse drawn vehicles in those days it was not unusual to see a horse off the ground dangling from the shafts, those who were nearby would help to get it back to the ground gradually not to break it legs.

[Sue]

I lived in Streatham as a child in the fifties, and remember the rag and bone man very well. Sometimes he would stop in my street for the horse to feed from his nose bag. My aunt who also lived locally would rush out with a shovel to pick up any manure for her roses. I guess it probably wasn't the ED man though, they must have had their own territories.

We also had paraffin (Esso Blue and Aladdin Pink) delivered to the door by tankers. Apart from the milkman, who as well as milk delivered yoghurt in little glass pots (plain or strawberry only), the baker also delivered and carried bread and cakes up the path in a big basket, and the greengrocer also came to the door. You could go into his van and pick out what you wanted, no ordering in advance.

Bit depressing to think my childhood is now social history :))

My mother once locked herself out, and a policeman came back with her from the police station and climbed into a top floor window to let her in. Can just imagine the reaction now if you expected them to do that :))