We lived on The Broadway, Witton, and had a rag-and-bone cart most weeks. There were two of them, an older chap who never spoke and who my mother said had been gassed in the war (that is, the First World War) and a younger man who may or may not have been the older man's son. Sometimes they had balloons for the kids, but usually not. What happened to our Anderson Shelter I can't remember, but at some time in the 1960's my dad replaced the old hinge-down bath in the kitchen with a modern upstairs bathroom (which he paid for himself, even though our house was rented...those were the days!) and the old bath had to be got rid of. By then the horse and cart had given way to an ancient lorry, and the old bloke was no longer seen. However, the younger of the pair was still doing the rounds, and I have this memory of him struggling down the entry with our old bath on his back and swearing all the way. It took him and several of the local kids to hoist the bath onto the lorry, and taken away. I never found out where their yard was.
These days, about three or four times a week, we have the Diddicoys along our road, and I have to say that they provide a very welcome - and free - service. Anything with metal in it, they will take away for nothing - washing machines, old fridges, clapped out bikes, bits of cars, you name it. From what I hear most of them are East Europeans, and good luck to them.
G