Pedlars, Tinkers and
Hawkers…
Throughout my life (being now in my late 70’s) not only in Ireland,
but more so here in London,
up to about twenty-five years ago, it was quite common to see various types of
travelling people who sold their wares, played street music and repaired
anything imaginable. They did such things as sharpening scissors and knives,
repairing metal containers, repairing umbrellas, selling all sorts of odds and
sods, make music and just plain beggars. Much has changed and I doubt if I have
seen any such people, other
than street beggars, for as I say about twenty-five years.
The ‘tinkers’ in
the old days would repair all types of metal containers be they kettles, pots
and pans, buckets, portable bathtubs etc. That was before the ‘throw-away’ society
that we now live in. Their women would
sell small bunches of ‘lucky
heather’ or imitation flowers of all colours and shapes which they
made themselves using crepe paper.
Nowadays the men spend most of their time wheeling and dealing
in horses for the Continental
meat market, laying dubious tarmac driveways, while the women and
children are often seen ‘begging’.
There was an old Music
Hall song ‘Any
Umbrellas, any umbrellas, to mend today’. It was based on true
characters that did indeed travel around calling out and repairing broken
umbrellas. You see, not that long ago, everyone carried a long
umbrella as the fold-aways
had not yet come into being. Chinese made umbrellas are now so cheap as
to make repairing broken ones uneconomic.
The ‘French
Onion Man’ was seen up to quite recently. He used to wear a
beret, a hooped blue and white tee shirt and ride a bicycle on which he had
hanging numerous strings of large onions. In actual fact although some were
genuine Frenchmen, many were British using a French accent......
I have not seen a Pedlar for
many, many years but he was the one who walked from town to town selling his
wares. Many Sikh
Indians did this in the forties and fifties. They had
beautiful silk scarves, handkerchiefs and cheap jewellery.
If a Pedlar had means
of transport, be it a horse and cart or in fact a donkey and cart, they
became 'Hawkers' and
were in fact the upper class Pedlars.
They carried larger items and much more stock.
I can only suggest that since the arrival of ‘Pound Shops’ (Quarter and Dime in the
US) they were unable to compete on prices. Pity really as some of their quite
beautiful and colourful wares opened up the eyes of poorer people especially just after the war...........
Regularly I used to see the ‘sharpener’ who had a weird looking
contraption, which had a circular stone and other bits and pieces. The ‘machine’ was pedalled to
turn the stone. He would sharpen anything including scissors,
knives, gardening tools and such. One in particular that I remember would earn some money
then make his way straight to the nearest pub and drink his takings.
I well remember the ‘Rag
and Bone’ men. They would come around with their horse and
cart and give small items like gold-fish or balloons for old clothing. I never
knew why they had the ‘bone’
in their name as I never knew them to take bones. Apparently the bones were at
one time crushed to make a slow releasing fertilizer or in some cases a type of
glue. Oddly enough, their call was always the same ‘Any old Rags, Bones or Bottles?’
In more recent times there appeared ‘The Skippers’. These people are
often seen at night driving their vans around the streets especially where
buildings are being repaired or renovated and search the ‘skips’ – (large rubbish containers)
for anything worthwhile being it scrap or anything else worth taking. Many make quite a good
living at it with several antiques found by them fetching large sums of money
at auction.....
Most of the sellers needed ‘Pedlar's Certificates’ which were
issued by the police in the area where they ‘worked’. As a police officer one was
supposed to check them when seen but I, and no other officer that I knew, ever
even saw one.
The Hurdy-Gurdy
man was in many cases a sight to be seen and heard.
Trying to explain his instrument is too difficult but suffice is to say that sometimes
it was something like a piano on wheels with all sorts of ‘instruments’ attached to
it. Some were quite good and could produce some worthwhile
music. Most were ‘worked’
by winding a large handle. Some even had
a monkey as an addition attraction.
They were all characters – sadly missing from this modern age
of ‘rush and
push’,
and throw-away society.
---------------- everyone
|
Highly
Recommended:……….
There
is a lovely Luke Kelly of the Dubliners tune called ‘Tramps and Hawkers’ on the
following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvPOTucka4w
----------Mike----------
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