Rag & Bone Man

Rag & Bone ManSigned Print "A bugle call heralded the arrival of the Rag Man with his horse and cart on his weekly collection round through the cobbled lanes between the long rows of back to back terraced houses. His era was a time before the plastic and chipboard throw away society in which we now live, almost everything could be recycled, very little was wasted. We would exchange woollens for a few pennies, a balloon or a goldfish which usually died a few days

I excelled in all the wrong things

I didn’t particularly care as I was going to be a coal miner like my dad and uncles

"Whitburn Colliery closed 1968 and I was kept on to form a small team of salvage workers whose task was to retrieve the more valuable items from the pit

"I worked in the drifts at Whitburn Colliery

but feigning to be afraid

community and way of life

for as soon as you go out with your litter to find food

The original painting has been donated to the Durham Mining Heritage Art Collection

For the most part we remain cocooned and insular

Signed Print 80 x 28cm

haversacks

I was fascinated by his choice of attire especially the odd socks he wore as gloves