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Some Special Interests => Occupation Interests => Topic started by: Kevinshouse on Thursday 22 January 09 20:16 GMT (UK)
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I have found a family member - occupation Rag Sorter - I know or presume they would have sorted rags, but what for and why? Any help much appreciated
Kind regards Susan
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Hi Susan
It might not be just old rags, googling around I found that they also have it down as
Occupation: RAG SORTER (PAPER)
Occupation Rag Sorter, industry Paper Mill
ricky
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Also found this. although I think its in the USA, but would have thought that they did the same over here ???
http://www.umaine.edu/folklife/wphistory.html
ricky
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Many thanks for your replies Ricky, my relative Elizaebeth (a great aunt was a rag sorter aged 17 on the 1911 census, but they lived in a small village in the countryside! I wonder where she did her sorting.
Many thanks again for your time
Kind regards Susan
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Hi Susan
I aint as old as the 1911 census ;D ;D ;D, but I can remember a woman in our village used to go around collecting old clothes. She used to remove the buttons etc, and then bag up the clothes/rags and sell them. Perhaps thats all your rellie did ???
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Here's a good site for old occupations
http://rmhh.co.uk/occup/a.html
Susan :)
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Hello Susan,
Rag sorters may have been people who sorted old clothes for charitable or commercial purposes I remember people going around Belfast collecting old clothes when I was a child just after the war I think they may have had a pony and small cart to get to the suburbs ... in the more densely populated parts of the city they may have used hand carts. You knew they were coming as they shouted "Any old rags?"
The rags were sorted into those that were still fit for wear and those that could be used for other purposes. Some people's rags are other people's good clothes. Those that were fit for wear were sold at stalls in markets or in second hand clothing shops. The same thing happens in charity shops today. Items fit for wear are kept and items not fit are bagged up for collection by recycling businesses. The charities receive a payment which is based on the weight of the items passed on to the recyclers.
Christopher
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Paper was originally made from rags and so a rag sorter was a normal occupation to be found in a paper mill.
David
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High quality, high density cartridge paper still has a "rag" content. Rag sorters were also involved in the "shoddy" market, where old "rags" were in effect "re-constituted" and re-used, maybe as filling, or such things as "flock" mattress covers etc. There was a thriving industry in the West Riding of Yorkshire in the production of "shoddy" and I suppose the word itself now expresses it as "being of inferior quality"
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as it has all ready been said a rag sorter were employed in paper making this is were the term old rag meaning a cheap newspaper came from. At the ford papermill South Hylton now part of Sunderland rags were used untill the 1860s when Thomas Routleuege brought the papermakers Flaxen ,Curd and Bryant from Barkshire to produce paper using esparto grass which made paper of a better quallity When the mll closed in the 1970s members of these 3 familys were still working at the mill.
regards neil
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If you look at this Site:
http://www.boydharris.co.uk/wf01.htm
(A Paper Mill).
You'll see that people were still working as Rag Sorters in the 1950's!
Romilly.
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In the Batley area of West Yorkshire, Rag sorters were employed to sort rags in the Shoddy mills. The rags were sorted according to the materiaal they were made of, they were then 'reconstituted', mixed with a proportion of new wool and made into cloth. The cloth was used to make uniforms for the armed forces. They also made Mungo in the batley area. Mungo was similar to shoddy.
Rag sorters were skilled workers as they could identify the different materials they were sorting.
Francine
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hi again in the north east we have rag and bone men they used horse and carts they would take coats, woolens,shoes and scrap metal or anything else they could get on the cart if you had things to give them they would give you a gold fish or washing pegs now goldfish is a no no.Now they tend to come round just looking for scrap in clapped out transit vans.
regards neil
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Susan
My g.g.grandparents were rag + bone gatherers, their daughters occupation was rag sorter.
Jackie.
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hi again in the north east we have rag and bone men they used horse and carts they would take coats, woolens,shoes and scrap metal or anything else they could get on the cart if you had things to give them they would give you a gold fish or washing pegs now goldfish is a no no.Now they tend to come round just looking for scrap in clapped out transit vans.
regards neil
The horse and cart was much better than the old transits used today ;)
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In the 19th century some my ancestors in Chinley Derbyshire lived in Paper Mill Row close to the paper mill. Nearby was another row of cottages which were known as Rag Row. These cottages were provided by the Mill owner for his workers.
David
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I live on a terrace of 13 houses opposite the site of the former paper mill in Chinley that "Behind the frogs" referred to. This row is known locally as Rag Row. In the 1911 census it was referred to by it's current name, Whitehall Terrace. However, in all previous censuses it appears to be referred to as Paper Mill Row. Can anyone confirm whether Rag Row, Whitehall Terrace and Paper Mill Row are all the same place?
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If you look at this site (there are other map sites) https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/ you can enter a postcode and look at maps for different years.
There is Whitehall Terrace in a later map but it is unnamed in earlier maps.
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In the Batley area of West Yorkshire, Rag sorters were employed to sort rags in the Shoddy mills. The rags were sorted according to the materiaal they were made of, they were then 'reconstituted', mixed with a proportion of new wool and made into cloth. The cloth was used to make uniforms for the armed forces. They also made Mungo in the batley area. Mungo was similar to shoddy.
Rag sorters were skilled workers as they could identify the different materials they were sorting.
Francine
Additionally, secondhand cotton cloth and secondhand woollen cloth were re-used in the manufacture of "worsted" cloth.
Woollen clothes, such as coats and dresses, made from worsted cloth were beautifully soft and expensive to buy.
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I'm in Leicester and remember the rag and bone men shouting " any old rags and bones" from their carts in early 60's
Don't know when they stopped .
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I remember the ragmen & their carts & trumpets, it was rags they were after & wouldn't have thanked you for a bone! ;D
Bests,
Skoosh.
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Ours collected metal objects too ..I always wondered why they asked for bones too...just an expression I suppose ..I never saw any bones tho I'm sure there are used for them and I'm all for recycling.
In some areas of the city now you can put furniture or white goods outside the house and they will be whisked away with in the hour ...all done very silently
Once rang council to book appointment to collect some carpets and had to call back and cancel !
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Bones were crushed and either used for glue or garden fertilizer.
My dad kept his glue in an old round tin. The colour of the glue was brown and it wasn't runny - it was a solid block which he turned into a thick liquid with heat from an old fashioned blow torch.
That blow torch came in handy for heating a kettle of water for cups of tea when on a day out in the country side.