Sheffield Rag Week

[mickjj]

I remember every year the Students of Sheffield University had " Rag Week" This was held to raise money for charity by the sale of the "Twicker" magazine plus various events, concerts and dances. It always culminated with the Rag Day Parade and the "Boat Race". Groups of students would build varying types of rafts then have a race down the Don. This was when the Don was not a pleasant stretch of water at all especially as they came down by Ladys Bridge. Thousands would come out to cheer them on or some would get old fruit from the market and add to their misery by throwing at them.

Anyone else have memories of these events??

[Sheffield History]

Wasn't the pyjama jump part of this ?

If so - that was stopped due to the increased drugs and rapes

[Sheffield History]

Twikker took its name from the pronunciation "Us" locals have for places, such as T'pub, T'match and obviously refers to the Wicker.

Twikker was still going in the early 90s

It was at a time when power in the students' union shifted away from the students, towards the management. They had never been big fans of Rag, even though it was raising in excess of £100000 for charities each year. The demise of Twikker, and ultimately Sheffield Rag started with the banning of Pyjama Jump, an event which alone raised £30000+ each year.

the students' union attempted to ban Twikker (it was the one with the gold cover) due to some allegedly racist comments made in an article about the Devil offering marriage guidance on hallowe'en. The article had been borrowed from Punch, which had been on sale at the Union shop some months before.

The ban was overturned at the biggest EGM of the union's history.

Editors Of The Twicker

Michael Conyers - 1990-1992

Ewen McLaughlin

Also known as 'The Rag Mag'

[deejayone]

I think the Pyjama Jump replaced the "Boat Race"?

As said previously, most of it was stopped due to drugs, a spate of rapes on the evenings and apparently the danger of students climbing up to the overhead Supertram electric cables!!!

[Sheffield History]

Rag Website - http://www.sheffieldrag.org.uk/

[Sheffield History]

Reasons for it's end

It was stopped because it became too popular and students were coming from all over the country. Each year there were more and more people and the hospitals' a&e departments were becoming more and more over stretched (hypothermia being one of the causes, students in nighties coupled with sub-zero temps and copious amounts of alcohol). The police were having to fund more and more patrols to keep an eye on the students.

Eventually, the police objected as did the residents of those areas round the student halls.

Here's a photo from 10/11/1938

It shows students on the River Don where they take part in a raft race for Sheffield Universtity Rag Week

[Sheffield History]

A few more pics that might trigger some memories - this time from 1960

[Guest tsavo]

Best float I ever saw was in the 60s, around the time of the Cuban missile crisis.

The float featured a bride & groom with the bride in what you might call a 'delicate condition'. The slogan? From here to maternity on a guided muscle! Hillarious.

[GrinderBloke]

I think the Pyjama Jump replaced the "Boat Race"?

As said previously, most of it was stopped due to drugs, a spate of rapes on the evenings and apparently the danger of students climbing up to the overhead Supertram electric cables!!!

I recall going to watch the boat race down at Ladies Bridge, some people watching had bags of flour to throw at the poor souls in the race! At the time the Don must have been very polluted.

[RichardB]

Each year there were more and more people and the hospitals' a&e departments were becoming more and more over stretched (hypothermia being one of the causes, students in nighties coupled with sub-zero temps and copious amounts of alcohol).

Sounds like me :rolleyes:

[Sheffield History]

lol

Nighties ?

[knightstemplar]

Once got on the 52 bus into town for a night out. The bus stopped at Darnall and about 10 blokes got on with nighties, blond curly wigs and high heels. Rag week pyjama jump. One had a beautiful pink tinsel wig on matching his black with pink trim nightie. he he

[RichardB]

Nighties ?

Whilst I never took part, my Mother, who helped out at Barnardoes on The Moor, used to make a special effort to gather together nighties and pyjamas, for months before Rag Week. They even used to make alterations, basically sewing an extra foot of mismatched cloth down the back of nighties so they would fit onto the frame of 6 foot 4, burly, bearded students :rolleyes:

[Guest pidd]

Anyone got any photos of these events?

[SteveHB]

Anyone got any photos of these events?

A few can be found in this Topic pidd, Sheffield Rag Week

[jiginc]

Photos, at last.

We think the year was 1964.

jiginc

[mickjj]

Great pictures jiginc . It really was a big thing back in the day as the crowds of people show.I must admit I enjoyed the boat race more than the parade. Now if only we could get a copy of the Twicker on here.

[jiginc]

Some time ago a post showed a copy of the University Rag Record.

I thought then I had a copy and have found it.

I have downloaded two MP3 files from the record (only parts of each track) to give an idea of the recordings.

Remember this was a floppy disk (not a computer disc) recorded in about 1965 and has been transported all over the country in my many moves.

Interesting to me is that the side 2 tracks are listed in the wrong order, the song "Number One" being the first track on that side not the second. I have never noticed this before until playing it now.

Also it is a 33 1/3 rpm record and not as most 7" EP records 45 rpm.

Enjoy.

rag record 1.mp3

rag record 2.mp3

[vox]

I think this one made it into the paper.

My Dad worked for The Star and here he is being shaved by students.

Sheffield Rag Week 1961.

Photo by a Star Photographer

[syrup]

I have just found this on Pathe News about Rag Week its the second part of the Clip.

Sheffield, Yorkshire. Various shots of people assembled at the start for the piano pushing race.

Various shots as the teams push their pianos down the road. crowds gathered on waste ground

for finish of race. students fighting with flour. Various shots of pianos being broken up with axes,

sticks and sledgehammers. crowds on the waste ground.

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=43785

[DaveH]

I have just found this on Pathe News about Rag Week its the second part of the Clip.

Sheffield, Yorkshire. Various shots of people assembled at the start for the piano pushing race.

Various shots as the teams push their pianos down the road. crowds gathered on waste ground

for finish of race. students fighting with flour. Various shots of pianos being broken up with axes,

sticks and sledgehammers. crowds on the waste ground.

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=43785

In the pre "Je san frontier" days of local "It's a knock out" when teams like Ottley and Ilkley used to play each other in the 1960's (about the time of this video) one of the stock games was a race between the 2 teams to see who could smash a piano up with sledge hammers and pass all the pieces of it through the hole in a suspended toilet seat first.

I think this may be where this game had its origins.

[Guest Peter St]

I think the Pyjama Jump replaced the "Boat Race"?

No. The two events ran together for many years. I only did the boat race once, but I went to several Pyjama Jump nights when it was held at Roxys (or Top Rank?). Another popular event was the Spider Walk which was basically a 50 mile sponsored walk around the outer edges of the City and which started at Midnight (usually Saturday night) after drinking a few pints of alcohol. I did the Spider Walk twice finishing about midday on Sunday.