Home life in 1932, making list (rag) rugs.

My bed was a metal cot about 3ftx5ft with slender black rails head and foot and 4 brass knobs which one could unscrew and hide tiny treasures. The girls shared a double bed, but I can’t remember much more about the bedrooms as they were just sleeping places. When cousins came they slept in the beds and we slept on the floor; or sometimes 4 would sleep in the double bed but laid alternatively, head to toes.

In our living room we had a square table covered with coloured oilcloth and a large knife drawer in one end. On Sunday tea-times it would also have a white linen or damask cover, and the best china may be used. There were 2 adult chairs, 3 buffets, 4 high-backed dining chairs kept against the walls, a treadle sewing machine and aspidistra in a copper plant-pot bowl, a sideboard and a piano. At one side of the Yorkist range (similar to the one at Grimey), was a stone sink and washing place with a cold tap, concealed in a cupboard, copied at the other side with large cupboard and drawers below. The floor was stone flags, linoleum covered and with list rugs. I seem to remember a square of raffia type carpet but I’m not sure. I do remember that the list rug between the fender and the table was comfy to recline on with an attractive pattern.

These rugs we made ourselves as a family group activity. A heavy wooden stretching frame (which I think was passed around among neighbours) would be secured on the table. A double hessian base was stretched over it and a pattern marked out, then Dad or Mum, or sometimes our Winifred, but most often Dad, would * prick “ lists through with a special tool. Mum and we children were kept busy cutting up old woollen and worsted clothing into 1” x 4” lists of a variety of colours seeing who could prepare the biggest pile. Sometimes these would be done in advance of “rugging” day; buttons were separated and kept in jars for re-use, also patches of good material for repair jobs. I used to like rugging times as a pleasant family co-ordination occasion, and the pleasure we felt when Dad had finally cropped the lists to his satisfaction and we could all admire the patterned result. A job we children shared as we grew older was the once a week beating the rugs got, when thrown over a rope line and bashed with a cane racket to remove dust.