East End Photographs and Drawings

[Rob Clack]

Hi Dave.

How long were the rag and bone men around? (I guess I assumed they were all gone by WWII. Thanks.)

Archaic

I knew a rag and bone man who was around in the late 1980s Bun.

Rob

[Monty]

One still goes down my street.

Monty

[Rob Clack]

'Totter' was another name for them.

Rob

[PC Roadnight]

Hi Dave.

How long were the rag and bone men around? (I guess I assumed they were all gone by WWII. Thanks.)

Archaic

In Camberwell there were stables for 'Rag & Bone' men near the Green up to 1977. Though they still used the 'Any ole rags an' bonessssss' cry, they mainly collected household throwouts and scrap metal. This was often of ecclesiastical origin.

I was, as a young PC, called to a distressed horse in Albany Road, where the 'Totter' was attempting to move most of the ton of new lead for St. Giles's Church roof. Result: My first and only issue of a Form 28 (I think it was) 'Request to a Vet to put down a Horse' and my first arrest for cruelty to the horse and theft!

[Archaic]

'Totter' was another name for them.

Rob

Hi Rob.

Were they called "Totter" because the poor horse pulling the wagon tottered in the road? The definition of totter is "To move in a feeble or unsteady way; to sway, staggger or wobble."

Reminds me of the old Stephen Foster song:
"Just a few more days for to tote the weary load,
No matter, 'twill never be light;
Just a few more days till we totter on the road,
Then my old Kentucky home, goodnight."


Hi PC Roadnight.

I'm a horse owner, and love my horses very much, so that's a sad story about the horse you had to order put down. It's shocking how some people forget that domestic animals are living things, and abuse them as if they're machines that can't feel exhaustion or pain.

I wonder when America saw its last rag & bone men?

The closest thing to it that I've seen is the old guys who go up & down the streets, checking in trash bins for aluminum cans to sell for recycling- probably for mere pennies. They're usually old alcoholics. It looks like a sad life.

Best regards,
Archaic

[Robert]

Bunny this will make you feel better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_g-gTcohSQ

[Archaic]

'Rag & Bone Men' Memories and A Cool 1979 Video!

Thanks for that Robert.

Out of curiosity I looked up rag & bone men on Google & on YouTube.

Found some terrific reminiscences online that I thought others might enjoy- stories of kids getting a fish or a balloon for a bundle of old clothes!

Rag & Bone Memories: http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question...0123532AAt54kE

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080722110524AAiyHuX

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060701013431AAmJIFp

*Best of all is this YouTube video
'Mitcham Rag & Bone Man Tom, on Magpie, 1979' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rApQ0pxMWXs

I'm pleased to see that the horse 'Joe' looks very happy and healthy... Going around with the horse-pulled wagon actually looks like fun!

(Love the completely incoherent "Ol'iron'n'bone!" cry- at least i thinks that what it started out as...)

Cheers,
Archaic

[Rob Clack]

Tot I believe is a slang term for bones. Other than that I don't know where the name came from.

Rob

[Archaic]

Thanks Rob.

According to an 1874 dictionary:

"Totting, bone-picking, either peripatetically or at the dust-heaps. "Tot" is a bone, but chiffoniers and cinder-hunters generally are called Tot-pickers nowadays. Totting also has its votaries on the banks of the Thames, where all kinds of flotsam and jetsam, from coals to carrion, are known as Tots. "

Hmmm, puts the term "Tater Tots" in a new light...
(For those of you not familiar with them, tater tots are baked shredded potatoes shaped like small thick logs, beloved of children.)

Thanks,
Archaic

PS: "Chiffonier" is French for "rag-gatherer", and is also a rather elegant term for an enclosed antique sideboard! Odd.

[Rob Clack]

Tots is another word for little children like toddlers, ankle biters or little b'stards.

Rob

[Archaic]

Hi Rob.

I know you're right.

"Tots" meaning "bones" just made Tater Tots sound gross; I guess because kids dip them in blood-like ketchup.

Archaic

[Cogidubnus]

The only tot I generally acknowledge is 1/32 of a bottle!

Dave

[Bridewell]

The Coachman

My mother would often say it when she saw a horse drawn vehicle...especially the local rag and bone man...on a visit to London she once badly upset a very pompous coachman exiting the Royal Mews...

Dave

It wasn't John Netley was it?

Regards, Colin.

[Cogidubnus]

Alas no, but he had ruddy cheeks, and a haughty demeanour...It probably didn't help that while my mother was calling out Whalla whalla Cats meat in her most refined Wapping tones, my brother and I (aged 7 and 11) were chanting out a version of the Steptoe theme tune...not very well bred children now I look back on it...and god was my father cross with us all...

Dave

[Robert]

...because you returned without any cat's meat.