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Rag and Tag Market


Guest Desy

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THE RAG AND TAG MARKET IN SHEFFIELD CITY CENTRE

For those that don't remember the entrance was at the bottom of Dixon Lane and it went over to the bottom of commercial street.

Don't remember much about it, only there use to be a guy sell crockery think he was called pop Edwards.

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Guest tsavo

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Don't forget the lady with the weighing machine (with the plush red seat) who guessed your weight before you got on.

If she was right you paid your 2d, if she was wrong it was free.

Don't think she got many wrong though!

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I remember there being a sweet shop in there where my Dad always bought us a quarter of "Marry Me Quick" which was a hard rock kind of candy. Anyone else remember it?

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Guest tsavo

Think you'll find that's the wholesale side of the old market. This is the open market known as Rag n Tag which was on the right at the bottom of Dixon Lane. The building at the top of the picture is the Corn Exchange, now demolished.

Picture courtesy of Picture Sheffield

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Is that the one ?

I believe that is what was called "Castlefolds" market which was a commercial market. As Tsavo says the Rag & Tag was on Dixon Lane and was mainly open stalls with a row of pemanent buildings down one side. The Sheaf Market was built to replace this one.

Picture courtesy of Picture Sheffield

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Guest J R Wrigley

Is that the one ?

What a wonderful photo. I've never seen that one before. It certainly is the "Rag and Tag" or more correctly the Sheaf Market. It closed in 1973. Before it did I ran off a reel of FP4 film taking shots of the old market. Some of them appear in D.J. Richardson's book "Sheffield in the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies". The building in the background was the old Corn Exchange which caught fire shortly after the war and was finally demolished in the 1960s.

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What a wonderful photo. I've never seen that one before. It certainly is the "Rag and Tag" or more correctly the Sheaf Market. It closed in 1973. Before it did I ran off a reel of FP4 film taking shots of the old market. Some of them appear in D.J. Richardson's book "Sheffield in the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies". The building in the background was the old Corn Exchange which caught fire shortly after the war and was finally demolished in the 1960s.

You have film footage ?

Crikey - do you still have it ?

It would be great to watch it sometime..

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TOWD RAG AND TAG IS WHERE WIFE BOUGHT HER SHOES WHEN WE MARRIED BUT ON A SAD NOTE, YOU MAY REMEMBER TURNERS TOOL STORE ON THE CORNER ENTRANCE,I WAS IN HOSPITAL

(INFIRMARY) AND Mr TURNER WAS IN THE BED ACCROSS WIRED UP. HE ALLWAYS KEPT ASKING IF I WAS OK AND SAYING THINGS TO KEEP ME HAPPY. HE DIED DAYS AFTER I CAME OUT IN 1956.

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Think you'll find FP4 is a fine grain b & W still film.

Ah - thanks for clearing that one up

I'm not that up on film (although used to own a fabulous Canon A1 and kit)

Love photography though

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Guest J R Wrigley

You have film footage ?

Crikey - do you still have it ?

It would be great to watch it sometime..

I think I have misled you - I meant a film of FP4 which used to be the favourite black-and-white film for photographers and could be bought in 50 foot reels for bulk loading. In 1973 shortly before the market closed I went to the market to photograph some of the stalls. A number of these photographs are in D.J. Richardson's book "Remembering Sheffield in the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies".

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Guest tsavo

FP4 & it's predecessor FP3, I remember it well, as they say. I worked for a year at Castle Hill Studio's. A small photographers just outside the Waingate entrance to the Castle Market. We were still using plate film then as well as roll film. Did lots of work for Henry Boot with 'progress recording' on many of their construction sites. Hours spent in the darkroom doing D & P. That would have been 1958/59.

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FP4 & it's predecessor FP3, I remember it well, as they say. I worked for a year at Castle Hill Studio's. A small photographers just outside the Waingate entrance to the Castle Market. We were still using plate film then as well as roll film. Did lots of work for Henry Boot with 'progress recording' on many of their construction sites. Hours spent in the darkroom doing D & P. That would have been 1958/59.

I think Iremember my mom dropping a roll of film of to you when I was in my pram :lol:

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Guest tsavo

If the prints had 'deckle' edges (like crinkle cut chips) it was probably ours. I hated them ! Worse job I had was supporting babies (who couldn't sit up on their own) under a tartan rug so they could be photographed. I was the only 17 year old with nappie rash hands!!!!!

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Guest J R Wrigley

FP4 & it's predecessor FP3, I remember it well, as they say. I worked for a year at Castle Hill Studio's. A small photographers just outside the Waingate entrance to the Castle Market. We were still using plate film then as well as roll film. Did lots of work for Henry Boot with 'progress recording' on many of their construction sites. Hours spent in the darkroom doing D & P. That would have been 1958/59.

When I posted the piece about FP4 film I racked my brain to remember who the man was I met doing the same thing - that is taking photos of the rag and tag before it closed forever. After I had posted it - of course his name came back. He was Bernard Dore - a Sheffield cinema historian who was at one time manager of the Wicker cinema. I once attended one of his lectures at the old Firth Park Library. He showed a photo he had taken of part of the precenium arch at the old West Bar music hall - now demolished - that ended its life as a wedding accessories shop. Bernard is no longer with us but the other cinema historian still very much alive is Dr. Clifford Shaw - some of you may have his book on Sheffield cinemas. He has a remarkable knowledge of cinemas in general and Sheffield cinemas in particular. When I occasionally find a photograph of a cinema showing a particular film he can often tell me the date that that particular film was shown at that cinema. He was kind enough to let me have a photograph of the Tivoli cinema which was just below the Peace Gardens. I don't have the rights to show it to you but for those of you fortunate enough to have the book "In Memory of Sheffield Cinemas" by Richard Ward it is on page 29.

But back to the rag and tag. Those interested in photography may be interested in the camera Bernard Dore was using - it was a Reid III, a British miniature camera based on the Leica. I wonder what happened to Bernard's photo collection. I hope it is in safe hands.

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Rag and Tag entrance, about 1937. Pictorial, illuminated sign by Novel Signs. (Images of England Central Sheffield)

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Don't forget the lady with the weighing machine (with the plush red seat) who guessed your weight before you got on. If she was right you paid your 2d, if she was wrong it was free. Don't think she got many wrong though!

That is one of my first ever memories

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TOWD RAG AND TAG IS WHERE WIFE BOUGHT HER SHOES WHEN WE MARRIED BUT ON A SAD NOTE, YOU MAY REMEMBER TURNERS TOOL STORE ON THE CORNER ENTRANCE,I WAS IN HOSPITAL

(INFIRMARY) AND Mr TURNER WAS IN THE BED ACCROSS WIRED UP. HE ALLWAYS KEPT ASKING IF I WAS OK AND SAYING THINGS TO KEEP ME HAPPY. HE DIED DAYS AFTER I CAME OUT IN 1956.

Turner's was like a Magic Kingdom - you could buy most hardware items there. They later transferred to the now demolished Sheaf Market. You could always rely on getting what you wanted for small DIY jobs at Turner's.

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What were they ?

I suppose they were a pre-runner of the old gas lamps, but simply gas jets which lit up the immediate area.

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Turner's was like a Magic Kingdom - you could buy most hardware items there. They later transferred to the now demolished Sheaf Market. You could always rely on getting what you wanted for small DIY jobs at Turner's.

That's what's missing these days shops like that. Most places had one,there was one in Pitsmoor it was like open all hours.If he hadn't got what you wanted you weren't allowed to leave until you'd agreed to let him get it for you.

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Guest transit

Turner's was like a Magic Kingdom - you could buy most hardware items there. They later transferred to the now demolished Sheaf Market. You could always rely on getting what you wanted for small DIY jobs at Turner's.

Turners was the first shop on your right as you entered from the Park Square pedestrian bridge (now removed- although the rest is still there to the Canal Basin) Like you say ,it had almost anything you needed, although the staff seemed to watch you like a hawk. I seem to remember Bomber Graham had a gold shop almost next to Turners, and he would be frequently there behind the counter after becomming a well known celebrity and major force in boxing!

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