Rug up for warmth

Rag rugging was how the poor furnished a bare house. Today children are getting hooked on it. Fiona Russell reports.

Nobody knows how it all began. It may well be one of the many aspects of Yorkshire culture for which we have the Vikings to thank. But we don't have the evidence. Old rag rugs are rare, they didn't become heirlooms and were not listed in inventories.

Rag rugging never became fashionable. It was a craft of the poor, something people did "to warm the place up a bit" and because they liked doing it. The rug might begin life as a bed cover, migrate to the parlour, then to the front of the range, and finally to the dog's basket before ending up on the compost heap.

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People used what was to hand – bits of tweed and felt from women's costumes, stockings, uniforms and petticoats, fragments of mauve from a funeral dress, a flash of scarlet from a hunting jacket, and an old hessian sack for the backing.

Doris Filby, 89, remembers rag rugging in the 1920s. Her family lived in a one-up, one-down in Brighouse with cold stone floors and says, "rag rugs were a necessity: we couldn't afford any better."

Her mother and father planned the rugs together. Father drew the designs on the hessian – a border, destined to be blue or black and made from old coats, and a diamond in the centre. "The diamond would be all one colour, but the rest was made from whatever we had. Some people used a special frame to make the rugs on, but my mum made them on her knee. She had a special hook though, a silvery-shiny one, it worked really well. I used one made out of an old clothes peg."

The rugs Doris's family made were large – four yards by two – and lasted a couple of years. "When we could see that they wouldn't last much longer, we'd start to plan a new one, collecting old clothes, particularly coats." The family were poor (Doris's dad was disabled after being injured in the First World War) and couldn't afford the entrance fee to the local school jumble sale. "But they'd save up anything that was left over and give it to my mum to make the rugs."

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Doris's family stopped making rugs when they moved to a new council house where they didn't need them any more. As standards of living improved, and as concrete and carpet replaced the old stone floors, rag rugs fell out of favour. In fact they became somewhat stigmatised. Jenny Salton says that prejudice against the craft is difficult to shift. "People remember the rugs in the last stages of their lives, dirty and greasy in front of the range."

Jenny is vice-chair of the West Riding Ruggers and is part of the team who have curated a new exhibition A Rough Guide to Rag Rugs at Gomersal. Rugging, like quilting, persisted as a handicraft. Kits were sold by, among others, the Readicut Wool Company of Terry Mills at Ossett, which promised "attractive modern designs" and commercially-produced "rug-making accessories'. But the old style craft, of 'hit and miss' designs and handmade tools, received a welcome boost in the 1970s as part of the wider revival of crafts such as wood-turning, home-brewing, weaving and basket-making.

Jenny, however, has detected a major resurgence of interest recently, and the reason is clear. "Rugging is the ultimate 'green' craft'. "We're using waste materials to create something completely unique." Several of the West Riding Ruggers buy nothing new, and have revived the practice of making their own tools. Jenny uses an old peg chopped in half. "I did buy it off someone, but it only cost me 50p.".

Jenny 'prods', the earliest and simplest rugging technique, where the rags are looped through the backing using a simple tool. "It's a very forgiving technique, it lends itself to abstract designs which can feel very contemporary. " Some of the most striking rugs in the exhibition are 'proddy rugs' made from that most contemporary of waste products – plastic bags.

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Other techniques include 'hooking', 'punch needle', 'braiding' and sewing. The technique and the design of the rug are often closely linked. Proddy rugs tend to be impressionistic, whereas hooking lends itself to pattern, detail and picture-making.

"In the past, people used what was to hand as a template," adds Jenny. "So you find lots of circles and squares." But they also found inspiration just outside the window. There were lots of flowers, boats, and sheep. The diamond to be found in the middle of many rugs, however, had an important function. "We think it was there to keep away evil spirits." Most rugs ended-up on the hearth, the most comforting yet vulnerable part of the house and somewhere which required plenty of folk-protection.

Today's rugs are migrating to the walls. Mary Lane, a West Riding Rugger, says "lots of the rugs I create are really wall hangings.". Mary uses the technique known as locker-hooking where loops of fabric are secured to canvas with a locker thread. She uses all kinds of oddments, but particularly enjoys using off-cuts from rolls of African fabric. "The colours and patterns are beautiful and with the thread they create a really rich mixture of colour. " Mary's hangings are detailed but still spontaneous. "I started out as a rug weaver, but now I find I prefer rag rugging. I like being able to see the whole piece at once and make choices according to what's there and what I have to hand."

Mary's hangings have been exhibited, most recently at the North Light Gallery in Armitage Bridge, Huddersfield and she sells her work, sometimes working to commission: "I enjoy making rugs for other people. It's interesting, a challenge." But the project she is most excited about at the moment is a little group she has set up at Wellhouse School in the Colne Valley, where she teaches part-time.

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The Rocking Rag Ruggers of Wellhouse School - Rebecca, Bethany, Joshua and Charlie, meet once a week and are currently finishing a wreath before they move on to 'something bigger'. The children came a family workshop run by Mary earlier this year and (to coin a phrase) they were hooked. All of them are 'quite crafty' anyway, but it's particularly interesting that they like taking their rugging home: "It's really peaceful, simple really," says Bethany, aged 10, "I can just pick it up." Rebecca also rugs at home whilst her brother plays on the Playstation or watches the telly.

The children's response chimes with Mary's own experience. "Rugging is the perfect domestic craft. You pick it up, put it down, carry it around the house, leave it for a few weeks and come back to it with fresh eyes. It's an antidote to the pressures and complexity of twentieth-century living, which even invade the home."

Mary says she is bowled over. "It's made me so happy to pass something that I enjoy onto them." But the Rocking Rag Ruggers are taking it all in their stride. "It may look really boring," Rebecca says, "but, y'know, it's really quite not."

A Rough Guide to Rag Rugs, Red House Museum Gomersal to September 26th. The West Riding Ruggers meet once a month at the Bradford Industrial Museum. www.westridingruggers.co.uk. [email protected].

YP MAG 26/6/10

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