I was parked up in a street of tightly packed terraced houses, typical to my home City of Hull, when I realised that I must have dozed off, momentarily.
In the first full week back at work after the stop-start regime over the Festive Season the pace was taking its toll on my physique and mental state. I was exhausted.
Accustomed as I had been to taking a nap whilst watching a black and white movie in the preceding slack period it was a difficult habit and culture to shake off. Emerging from that hazy, dopey feeling the first image in view was of a horse attached to a brightly coloured open sided cart.
I was not sure upon seeing this whether I had travelled back in time to, well , it could have been anywhere in that particular street between 1900 and the 1970's.
The animal and its attachment blended in well with its surroundings and over the buzz of urban traffic I could hear the unmistakable drawled calling of " Rag-an-berrrrrrrnnnnnnnn".
The cart was piled high with objects ranging from an old bedstead to a selection of bikes, washing machines to video recorders, wrought iron house gates to bits of car body. In between these larger objects were a tangle of wires, cables, Quality Street selection tins, smaller bits of metal and discarded domestic items.
I felt sorry for the horse, a small wiry breed of a type commonly seen tethered at the roadside up on the by-pass under the increasing strain of pulling the heavy load but it was motionless, patient and calm, in full acceptance of its lot.
The Rag and Bone Man was quite a regular sight in my childhood years although very much in a state of decline after the halcyon days of the mid to late 19oo's and through to the post war period. They are now back in our urban scene largely pursuing the financial rewards of rising scrap metal prices to fuel the emergence of the Indian and Chinese economic expansion.
The label of rag and bone is derived from the two principal materials gathered by the traditional scavengers in the 1800's in order to eke out some form of existence in a harsh world where the majority were in the gutter in a state of destitution and poverty. Rags were collected for processing for paper production and bones could be put to use in a crafted state as knife handles or chemically treated to become a constituent in soap and china goods.
These specialisms soon developed into general dealing and from hand collection and manual carrying it was inevitable that a larger range of goods required carriage on mules, horses and then carts and wagons. The depiction of Totters, Merchants and wheeler-dealers in the TV series Steptoe and Son formed a very strong stereo-type of those in the business and will have had a strong grounding in actual characters and personalities undertaking a hard, all weathers, physical job. The existence in such a business did depend on the ability to sell on the stock to another echelon of entrepreneurs and opportunists often for a level of remuneration representing a fraction of the true value further up the chain of contacts and collectors. Rag and Bone Men were the foot soldiers whereas Scrap Merchants and Antique Dealers enjoyed the wealth and prestige of the process.
The arrival of the horse pulled cart and often the quite intimidating persona of the Totter and helpers in a street would excite the resident children to gather and follow in procession. The presentation of a Goldfish in return for item or items was a cherished reward and incentivised the gathered masses. Other forms of enticement included balloons and the attraction of a bright penny coin.
The decline of the Rag and Bone business from the 1970's can be seen as an interesting case study of the socio-economic development of the UK.
Although consumerism increased rapidly and by definition there should be a higher wastage rate as domestic goods were superceded by the next "best thing", people hung onto their surplus items or now had the storage space in lofts and garages to just keep them indefinitely.
A growing awareness of collectables and their values amongst the public made it less likely that they would just be given away to a street collector. The days of the discovery of a Ming Vase or Faberge Egg amongst the doorstep rubbish are long gone.
There was a strong likelihood that no-one would be at home on the residential estates in the daylight hours of a Totters' round as two incomes were required to support a modern lifestyle.
The internet opened up new markets for trading and E Bay, Gumtree and Amazon amongst many others deprived the Rag and Bone Man of a large proportion of potential stock.
In more recent years the determination of householders to recycle combined with an easy means to do this in domestic bins and at collection centres further reduced the supply chain.
Car Boot Sales also took a good proportion of items to be sold for a few pence and pounds rather than to be given away for the benefit of others.
Rising scrap prices may have been the catalyst behind the return of the Rag and Bone Men but they have to be seen to pay a price for their free spoils. To a certain extent the reappearance of the traditional form of transport on our streets does represent a display of ecological non-carbon based ethics but above all, not a little bit of expected showmanship.
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