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Rag Market

  • Thread starter Thread starter harley
  • Start date Start date
Here is one of the rag market.

Image2_The_Rag_market.jpg



Regards Stars
 
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I wonder if there are any bargains down there now and maybe in the old days the bargains were only priced correctly because of some flaw or whatever. I remember vendors with an armload of plates and saucers going through remarkable sales talk. They even dropped a few plates from time to time...did not seem to matter. Yes the Red terminus in front of St Marks. They would make the turn down Spiceal Street (I always thought that was Jamaica Row)...it led to Jamaica Row though and suspect that is where your rag market was. My mum loved to go in there but I hated the place...hated the dreaded words...'that would fit you'...arrgh. I think it was the hanging bloomers and smelly shoes that put me off from the start. I don't imagine these places are the same now...probably mostly antiques and maybe clothing from bankruptcy sales. You are right Viv. Times change things for everyone and also the demographics of shopping. Didn't realize that you were standing in the Manor Moat back then...none of us did.
 
I used to have an Ice Cream cart at the entrance to the Rag the one across the road from the slope next to St Martins. I remember the guy tossing the plates in the air, I always wondered how many he smashed getting it right.
 
I bought loads of cheap saucepans from a stall at the back of the old Rag Market around about 1970. They were enamel and had been fire-damaged, I thought I was in heaven to have such lovely pans after the old shabby ones Mom had (and she bought some too of course!)
An old aunt visited Mom one day and wanted to wash up for her after lunch, Mom agreed. Later Auntie said "I can't get all the burnt stuff off this one!" She had used Brillo to get all the non-stick finish off!
rosie.
 
i remember on my 14 birthday dad giving me 10 shilling ( thought i was rich ) to go and get myself some clothes from the rag market
coming from a large family we got most of our clothes from there i brought a net undershirt with layers of net my dad was not to pleased that i wasted 10 shilling but i loved it josie
 
The man selling the crockery always had a crowd around him, didn't he? I can hear him now, "eeyar, I en askin' three quid, I en askin' fifty bob, eeyar, the set for two quid !". I knew the market as the "Rag Tag".
 
Last day of the old Rag Market..
[video=youtube;RwhRN-ZKzVU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwhRN-ZKzVU[/video]
 
Memories?? When disco dancing first started we found that all the costumes had to be made in a new material called Lycra because it stretched to allow the movements. Not only that a special thread also had to be used because there was more give in it.
The problem was, where to find a shop that sold this majic material without going to London.
Low and behold one day I went in the Market hall and a stall there had Lycra on sale.I made lots of outfits for competive dancers which my grandaughter sold in her shop. All this because of the Rag Market !!!!!
Betty
 
Gosh that brings back memories. Early in my carreer I designed a Lycra let off device for feeding Lycra into a circular knitting machine; for making stretch fabric. Small world.
 
Hi, Betty. It's a long time ago but as I recall Lycra was a synthetic stretchy yarn like material that was fed into, a circular knitting machine with the regular yarn; I don't know...cotton or whatever. All knitted together to form a continuous largish tube of fabric. The fabric produced had some stretch to it because of the Lycra content.
The device in question was a steel roller about 2 inches in dia....mounted in bearings in a bracket and the roller was driven by a geared system from a ring gear on the circular knitting machine. A roll of the Lycra yarn would sit on the steel roller, held in place by the spindles protruding at the ends and guided by forks on the bracket.
The steel roller would be driven from the ring gear by a geared system which would control the tension of the Lycra being fed in using interchangeable gearing. I believe several of these devices would be arranged around the machine.
 
Hello Rupert,
Thanks for that it is most interesting. Apart from normal lycra there was also a cotton lycra which was a mixture of both Lycra and cotton. It was not quite as good as ordinary Lycra as it did not stretch as good. On normal Lycra I had to make outfits 2 inch smaller than normal size to allow for the stretch. I must have worked on thousands of yards / metres and was always curious about how it was produced. I think in America it is called Spandex. The lycra was produced by Du Pont.Once again thank you for bringing back a very pleasant memory for me.
Betty
 
I best remember the old Rag Market in Jamaica Row because my Dad used to take me there on a Saturday to buy lead soldiers. I guess this must have been during the late 1940s as Dad died in 1952.

Maurice
 
The old Jamaica Row rag market and area was a place used by human beings; with horse drawn carts in the road outside and litter of commerce about. The smells of old clothing and dust and horse manure outside were there and yes lead toy soldiers. No smart clothing was worn there except by the occasional spiv. Places like that are not built but have to mature over years of existance. It was something like my house, except for the manure and spivs; stuff lying around...animals (not counting myself) the place obviously lived in. Not totally neglected but some wear from having 'time in use'. The complete opposite of modernity...of the plain shiny surfaces and sharp rectangular areas of latter day suggested accomodation. It all looks cold and not somewhere to live and be.
For all of that though, I did not like going to the rag market as a child for reasons stated earlier in this thread. But now we seek out these and enjoy a romp through past lives and buy a thing or two.
 
Hello,
Talking of markets, Does anyone remember the original market hall and the chap that stood out side selling mushroom stalks????
No sign of a mushroom, just the stalks. They made beautiful soup and of course they were cheaper. I think there was a knife sharpener chap up the side street?
Betty
 
Can anyone tell me more about what was sold in the Rag Market in the past, apart obviously from clothes? I'm thinking pre- WW2 (though of course I know you're all far too young to remember :) )... 1940s and 50s would be a help at least. I'm writing a new story in which I hope to include the Rag Market both before and after ww2. I have talked to a family who all worked there but they were there later than that. Any brainstorm memories about this would be very welcome and thank you in advance!
Best wishes, Annie Murray
 
Lots of second hand clothes , sweets (rock fishes with sugar on the ) big slabs of "cheap Chocolate" and a man who sold China crockery . He would get your attention , and draw the crowds by placing the plates all up his arm and in seemed to throw the china into baskets. Never saw him break any.
 
st.evenlucy said:
Lots of second hand clothes , sweets (rock fishes with sugar on the ) big slabs of "cheap Chocolate" and a man who sold China crockery . He would get your attention , and draw the crowds by placing the plates all up his arm and in seemed to throw the china into baskets. Never saw him break any.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much - what a quick reply! I'm guessing you're talking about the 1950s?
Best wishes,
Annie
 
st.evenlucy said:
Lots of second hand clothes , sweets (rock fishes with sugar on the ) big slabs of "cheap Chocolate" and a man who sold China crockery . He would get your attention , and draw the crowds by placing the plates all up his arm and in seemed to throw the china into baskets. Never saw him break any.
Click to expand...

I remember the china crockery man but that was from the 60's, though there may have been someone doing the same thing from before that. It was fascinating to watch and, no, he never seemed to drop anything!

My memories of the old Rag market was selling pretty much the same as they do now. I think some of the traders are still the same people from before the move into the new building, though I don't go in much as I don't live in Brum now.
 
I used to use the Rag Market to buy my Chelsea Boots from as they are all I will wear. In the late 70's and early 80's they became rare as shoe fashions changed, but there was one stall in the market that continued to sell brand new all leather boots for £25 a pair. I used to buy two pair at a time one pair brown and one pair black, I still have the last two pairs I bought from the market in the bottom of my wardrobe now. Mind you they have been repaired a couple of times. I purchased a new pair a week back and they cost five times the price that they cost me.
 

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smashing pics of the rag market phil...love the 3rd one showing everyone on the run...

lyn
 
Lyn,

Yes it was just like the first day at the sales when they opened those doors, I used to love a stroll around the rag market though I never bought much it was like wandering around the Bull Ring open market. I never bought much from there either except a chunk of sharp cheese from the stall at the bottom of the stairs and I used to eat it walking round the town and by the time that I reached the Crown I needed that drink.
 
It mentions here that the previous market had only been there since the mid Fifties, is that correct?.
The last day of the old rag market..
[video=youtube;RwhRN-ZKzVU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwhRN-ZKzVU[/video]
 
Phil said:
Lyn,

Yes it was just like the first day at the sales when they opened those doors, I used to love a stroll around the rag market though I never bought much it was like wandering around the Bull Ring open market. I never bought much from there either except a chunk of sharp cheese from the stall at the bottom of the stairs and I used to eat it walking round the town and by the time that I reached the Crown I needed that drink.
Click to expand...

phil a good chunk of cheese is reason enough to follow it up with a drink lol....our mom and dad used to love the place...
 
another thought, There was a lady who made clothes. Mom used to order a dress or gym slip for me one week and we could pick it up the following Saturday. I think she h sold material for us to choose from. will ask Mom if she remembers more about it and what she remembers from the 1940s.
 
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