What is a Rag Sorter?

[NEILKE]

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

[Romilly]

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.

[trefriw]

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

[NEILKE]

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

[jacquelineve]

Susan
           My g.g.grandparents were rag + bone gatherers, their daughters occupation was rag sorter.

Jackie.

[Christopher]

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

[behindthefrogs]

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

[Nigel Rennison]

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?

[heywood]

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.