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Can anyone tell me what the hell they shout?

It sounds like

Baaaahhhhhh badaaarrrr mahhhhhhh

Der-ding, der-ding, der-ding....just the (hand) bell, no shout at all. That must become an ear-worm for him surely, keep him awake at night?

twice a week at least, one is a white van with a horn, one is a proper scrap wagon and shouts "aaaaaaaany iiiiiiiiron"

Ours shouts rag and bone

'scraaaaap metul'. Then sometimes a skinny bloke in a hi vis will knock on the doors.

Yes! I e just moved and have never seen this before (well not since I was a little girl). I'm sure they used to shout any old iron but the loud hailer made the guy the other completely incomprehensible. He had a siren like a NY cop car. I thought Die Hard was playing out before my eyes.

I've never heard anyone shouting anything. Half the contents of a skip disapeared overnight though which I was very grateful for, an extra £100+ worth of room :D

Scrap metal
Any old Iron

Twice a week at least. One boy at a toddler group a couple of months ago was running around shouting 'Any old iron'

Yes, and I was when he came around our close

Not because I'm a snob, I just didn't know they still do this.

He was hanging out of his van window ringing his little bell

"Scrap BAaaYyyIn!"

Usually shout rag and bone.
I remember when I was little there was a proper rag & bone man with a horse and cart, I saw one recently for the first time in years, they drive flat bed trucks now. I must be getting old.

Well the last time the dishwasher went bang , I had a bet with DH ,that if we put it out on the drive , that it would be there for less than 24 hrs . Less than two hours later , doorbell rings , and I open the door to see a 6 foot 6 Eastern European gentleman , indicating the said dishwasher .

'Is crap ? ' he asks . 'Yes it is crap '. I reply bemusedly .

'No ! Is scrap ! Rubbish ? ' looking at me like I'm a complete idiot . 'Oh! Oh ! Yes ! Take it ! Please do ! ' I babble . He then tucks it under his arm and throws it onto the back of the lorry, to loud cheers and thumbs up from the van's occupants . I am such a fuckwit sometimes .

I haven't seen a rag and bone man for at least 40 years.

We get at least 3 a week.

Rag and bone don't sound like what he shouts.
Same for
Any old iron.

I think he shouts noise to get people to come out and tell them to go through back yard lol

Just the once in three+ years.

I live in a naice area and could just imagine my neighbours choking on their quail's eggs.

couple of times a week round here.. quite handy if you have shitty luck with appliances like i do and no transport......

one honks horn ...the other shouts "aaaaaaannnnnyyyyyiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrnnnnnnnn"....

used to be a proper rag 'n' bone man when i was little with pony.and cart

We have polite ones who drive around and stop and knock on your door. They don't shout anything! It's a part council/part private estate so we're not psh or anything..

Poliminio at least your scrap men ASK. I once put out an broken washing machine. Half an hour later I put out the rubbish and washing machine had gone. I was very pleased as it saved me lots of trouble but they could have asked! Same happened with a fridge I once left out for the council to take. They told me that its quite common they turn up to collect stuff and the scrap man beat them to it

No idea what they shout though but they're along once or twice a week at least

Almost every day sometimes here. The ones here don't knock and ask, they just take, even if you weren,t going to get rid, cheeky feckers. When we were extending there was a pile of old copper pipes round the back the builders were going to get some cash for. Gone next day.

We have dozens of the scrounging twats. Even some who still have a horse and cart.

We don't give any of them anything because they just fly tip it if they can't get any money for it.

Oh, and the ones that do shout just shout *OOONNNEEE"

We have one regularly. I have no idea what he's saying.

I think ours just shouts iron.

Same here storm. We out an old freezer out. Next day it had disappeared! When we had a house fire, the cleaning people had to remove all our white goods. They were lined up outside, they were here within minutes of the stuff beng outside. They did ask that time but I insisted on cash for it! I'm not being funny but there was a fridge, freezer, fridge/freezer, washing machine, dishwasher, then they went rooting through the skip for anything containing metal. I mean physically in the skip. Bought us dinner out though!

Where the hell do you lot live ?! I've never seen this in my life!

Once a week around here, but it's a quick spin around the close in a flatbed van and nothing shouted... disappointingly.

There are also the annoying, endless charity-that's-actually-not bags that appear, which is just the modern incarnation of rag n bone surely?

Are you guys living in the 1950s?



I don't get this....!!

How handy. What kind of stuff do they take?

I'm in the Northeast - in an old pit village. There's whole families in the business. As well as Steptoe and son, I've identified the entire cast of Last of the Summer Wine living here, too

I hadn't seen them since I was a child, but in the last six months we seem to get a visit twice a week.

I've never seen a scrap metal man. my dh had made a bit of money by taking scrap to the scrap metal place (I've no idea what this is really). But no one comes to our house.

I've lived in naice places and inner cities, and still never experienced a rag and bone man.

I feel deprived I even have some scrap waiting in hope ...

have recently moved away from hull. we had a local rag and bone men who came round with a horse and cart. cheeky sods used to go in back yards if the gate was unlocked!

Anything that's not locked away, MrsRajesh. Some have been known to help themselves to people's garden gates.

When we had the new heating put in, there was one actively scrounging for the sheet of MDF that was currently being cut up to use for boxing in.

"Are you needin' that?"
"Of course I'm still needin' that, and if I don't need that for this, I'll keep it for something else!"

They trawl round our town and steal things off driveways here. We had a dishwasher and a cooker next to our house - under a lean-to, not very visible from the street - and they came and nicked them. We wouldn't have minded, if they had asked, but it scared us that they would come so far onto our property and hadn't asked permission. The police took it quite seriously but said that it was happening a lot.

In London I hadn't seen them since the late 70s, moved to Yorkshire last year and they're round at least weekly. I was amazed.

I never heard them shout anything.
they don't need to - the ramshackle van announces by rattling and speeding like crazy.

The ones I've seen just ring a bell, no shouting.

very handy, though, dh flagged them down to get rid of broken heavy garden stuff.

Faith - you got cash? Is that how it works? I thought they just took stuff - previous experience. How much for a freezer do you reckon?

We put stuff out and usually gone within a matter of hours. They always knock to ask if ok to take though. Ours I suspect are from th local travelling community. But good luck to them they save me a job, and are trying to make a living which I think is a positive isn't it?

I had no idea they still came round. I have vague memories of them from my childhood. Not seen one for years and years now though.

Could be mighty useful and a darn sight cheaper than paying the council to come and collect or hiring a skip.

metal legislation has changed now. they have to certify where they have got their stuff from when cashing in.

Washers dryers deep fat fryers ours shout and it sticks in my head all day.

Once a week, no shouting, just a bell. They're very handy when you don't have a car to get to the tip!!!

Ours don't shout, just knock and ask if they can take [random metal object in the front yard/porch]. We've told them just to take any metal they see there, so usually stuff disappears within a week. It was about a year later we realised one of our gates had vanished - was only on one hinge so might have fallen off and been seen as fair game.

A box of VHS videos took a couple months before someone nicked them, but on the whole stuff disappears quickly. I did have one Freecycler come and find a mirror had been nicked before she arrived, but amazingly it came back a week later so she got it after all! Clearly polite scavengers in Sarf Lahndon!

We had one last week, ringing a bell. What do they want? I wouldn't have the foggiest idea what to give them, no random bits if metal hanging around in people's houses generally are there?

When I was at university in Leeds there was one with a horse and cart. In 2004!

Ours has been coming here for years, brings his own flask and settles to have a chat except I have not an earthly clue what he says. I just nod and smile.
He probably thinks I can't speak.

I hadn't seen one since I was a kid in Chelmsford and thought they'd stopped, but I saw one there last summer ringing his bell.

The first day i moved into my house I overherd an argument at the top of the street, a neighbour accusing the polish builders of nicking her metel chairs out of her shed.

Then a few days later I was stood at my back door and heard this..
Man 1: Anything in there? (the shed)
Man2: I think theres someone living here now!
Man 1: Naa lets just see whats in here.

At which point I stook my head out of the door and told them to chuff off!

They just help themselfs around here, some knock on the door most dont!
It really annoys me because so many things have gone missing out of my garden over the years

Someone comes at least once a day here, no shouting just a van or truck stopping and anything put outside a house is grabbed and chucked in quick as a flash and they're off. I live in East London and never really noticed it until once when I had jet lag and was sleeping in the front of the house looking out the window for the milkman!

chocolate as I say there was tonnes of stuff, we lost virtually everything electrical from the kitchen, living room and hall. I only got £20 for everything I said (they took all sorts from the skip like DVD players and a chrome airer).

I'm in a village in Lincolnshire by the way. I used to live in a town in the West Mids and although they came round, nowhere near as often as here (maybe once a fortnight here?).

At least twice a week. But get this, they play the Steptoe and Son theme tune over the tannoy. Classy!

We get them here sometimes. My mums a few miles away and they're round every week!

Meant to say - when our old washing machine went they took one of the numbers off our door so it looked like we lived at number 5 rather than number 54. It was not screwed on properly but honestly did they actually think we didnt need it We replaced it so we now have one nice new shiney number 4 and a rusty old 5. It looks silly should really replace the 5

The scrap metal guys come round but don't shout out. If you leave any metal/appliances etc out they disappear very quickly. No need to pay anyone to take things away.

Really? 42 years young and have never, ever had even an echo of a scrap man.

Will they take an old dehumidifer do you think?

Doesn't need to - he lives next door :D

When I moved intO a flat in Dalston a can of drink got punctured in my boot. I left it behind a wheel of the car whilst we carried stuff in, intending to put it in the bin when we came back. It was gone when we came back! This prompted me to leave a broken flat screen monitor outside the door rather than take it to the tip. It was gone in ten minutes :D

Plomino I can't stop laughing at "Is crap?"

We have an Eastern European man and his teenage son, collecting scrap in a Tesco shopping trolley.

I think the fastest record was when I put my old Dyson on the driveway at 2.45pm and it was gone by 2.55pm when I went to do the school run.

Annoy old iroooooonn

I was locked out sat on my doorstep texting once and the scrap van went past..they shouted
brrriiing brrriiing its for yooouuu!
Made me smile. They come round at least once a week. They cleared some stuff for my mum the day before her wedding and they gave her a lucky horseshoe.

We don't get a scrap man. We get a succession of very suspect looking men in battered transit vans bugging the hell out of the doorbell, asking for anything they like the look of in the front garden. The fucking bastards stole a cast iron bath, some copper pipe and the brand new spare tyre from my car.
We were taking the bathroom out. We took the pipe out of the front door, returned for the bath and the pipe went. Went in for the floor sweepings and the bath went! The tyre was leaning against my car waiting for me to finish the bathroom and put it on th car!
I wouldn't mind but we live in a seriously rural area and have a large set back front garden!
It actually made me quite nervous about being so isolated.

We get them here too, north Wales.

Often it's the local traveller community and they often knock and ask what you have. I had about five of them in my house last year taking away my old fridgefreezer and some manky old baby gates. They were very nice and helpful. They have always knocked if they see something of interest in the gardens. I've only ever had something taken that I was a bit annoyed about but id left it in the garden for weeks and some bugger too it.

They do come round with a truck with a megaphone thing on top shouting IROOOON, ANY IROOON though.

We get them regularly, they shout " ayeeeeeeeeyon. Any old scrap ayeeeeeeeeyon"
They made my day once when they shouted across the street to me saying they don't normally take beautiful women but in my case they'd make an exception.

Ours have a knackered old siren that sounds like a dying ambulance.

We have had the scrapman round a few times in tha last year..never seen him before. He has a hunting type horn

Really loud and annoying sounding horn. But useful as you hear them three streets away so can be ready when they get to you.

We keep getting more and more coming round, we have a massive traveller community, but recently there's been Eastern European men doing it too. They don't shout, just beep.

We have a few round here (London), they just cruise the streets looking for stuff in people's front gardens, but they don't yell or toot.

The other day we put something out the front, DP then went out and within a couple of minutes of him going the scrap guys turned up. I thought they must have been psychic until DP told me that he'd seen them at the end of the road and said we had something in the front garden

Ours don't shout they just drive about on the lookout. We have a large traveller community nearby

When we had building done apparently they knocked and asked for an old radiator.

When we had our boiler replaced the plumber made - I thought! - a heck of a song and dance getting the old one off the wall and out of the house. "These are really heavy" he groaned. I thought: wimp.

Getting ready to take it to the tip, DH and I couldn't lift it into the car between us!

Neighbours were out so there was no one we could ask to help. And I couldn't magine how we'd get it out when we got to the tip. So I said to DH "Just leave it out the front and with any luck the travellers will have it."

DH said "They wouldn't just take it!!" - well it was gone the next day.

I am not sure how I would have felt if I had actually wanted it . . .

We also have a very old fashioned and charming gentleman - immaculately dressed and like a stereotyped pawnbroker from a bad sitcom - who knocks about twice a year asking for any antiques or gold. When I mentioned that I did have some spare old crappy 9 carat argos gold jewellery in a box right at the back of the loft where I can't get to it, he was really trying to encourage me to go up and get it then and there. Errr no mate I am not spending 48 hours battling through our nightmare of a loft for £8 of gold.

We get them come around a few times a day in their pick up trucks. We just leave the stuff out and it's got within the hour. We call them the metal fairies. Don't get any money, but it saves a trip to the tip, or paying the council to pick it up.

In Sarf East London you know not to leave anything out the front you don't want to disappear.

I have moved into a er...different area and yes we have a scrap van or three that are all in competition with each other.

They do not shout though - just scout round peoples houses looking for dumped goods. They are often found sieving through any skips etc in hi-viz

"Where the hell do you lot live ?! grin I've never seen this in my life!"

We live in rural South Yorkshire and never get a rag and bone man round. I wish we did though. I have had to pay the council to take away large items, and went to the tip yesterday with a car load of stuff.

We get lots,some of them not very nice.My friend lives in an isolated farm and they threatened to come and burn her and her children out if she didn't hand some scrap over,they then went to another farm and threatened to kill the owner because he wouldn't let them have an old car he'd got.Then they went to our farm and verbally abused my uncle because he wouldn't give them anything.They were stupid enough to leave a business card,so everyone concerned rang the police,who refused to do anything because it was only our words against theirs.We all know that really it was because the scrappies came from a notorious traveller site and the police don't go on there if they can help it.

I've had stuff nicked from the front garden too.I'd put it there for my dad to collect for his scrap heap and someone stole it.

Sparkling, that is funny! Love it!

Faith, the same thing happened to me after a fire. The insurers needed the washer which caused it but it got nicked! That was when I lived in Leigh near Wigan. Now on a part council/owned estate in Manchester.

There were 2 scallies in my garden once after some sofas I'd left for Free cycle. It was after midnight and I scared them by striking up a conversation with them. One ran off the other panicked.

We get them round once or twice a week. And some people in an upholstery company van which drives into our cul-de-sac and out again every week or two who I assume are also scrap-merchants, although they seem a bit dodgy...

We've got one who lives over the back from us. You can hear him sawing things up at all hours. He drives a pick-up truck which has a strange sounding air horn which he uses when he drives up the road and which announces something incomprehensible. Never used to come up our road (but was always visible in the village) until a housing association built some houses across the road. It is with great amusement that we regularly see white goods appear on the front lawns of the houses, only to disappear within hours.

We have one but I still can't work out what he's saying through the megaphone thingy!
Our neighbour had a washing machine in her drive and within a day it had disappeared! She knocked on our door to ask if we'd seen were it went but I Never saw anyone collect it.

Sorry faith, i focused on the wrong thing entirely in your post. The fire was clearly the bigger issue but I got £££ signs in my eyes cos i'll be dumping a freezer soon. Shame on me.

Sorry to be stupid here, but do these people pay you for your scrap or do you just give it to them?

I think you just give it them Saggy. Saves a trip to the tip.

Bugger that! There's good money in scrap metal! That's why I was so peed off when they took the copper pipe and bathtub from my garden! They've even been round after my electric fence batteries. The garage bloke next door gets me £5 a pop for old car batteries. I'm sure as hell not going to give them away!

Saggy you could set up 'Saggy's Scrap Metal Services' and make shedloads of cash.

Ours blows an out of tune bugle and warbles 'any ol gas fires [with the emphasis on] fire uurs.

It's a noise akim to nails down a blackboard.

They used to love us as dh would put all of his rubbish from customers in a skip on a drive, it was a goldmine to them or so they told me.

*our not a

Why do we never get scrap metal merchants in rural South Yorkshire?

In also in a town 20 miles of Hull. East Yorkshire. My mum is in a town outside of Wakefield and she still gets them too

They don't shout anything round my way. They just seem to turn up about 10 minutes after you think about getting rid of something.

It would be really helpful if I didn't give it all to one of my friends to take away. Thyt get the cash and then they always feed me scrummy food and bake DS biscuits when we go round

I have my reasons for not being too fond of our local gypsy traveller site residents Tally, so do not give a toss if I've offended your sensibilities. I know I'm not racist though, thanks.

Well I've got the funniest story about my mum's local scrap metal man.

Mum's neighbour last night had a builder type parked in the street outside his house. Neighbour was stood in the drive and saw all teh drama that unfolded. The builder has his van doors open at the back and was getting some stuff out his van. Keys were in the ignition and builder was going to get some stuff and then get keys/lock the van and come up the drive.

Scrappy van comes down the road hollering for scrap. Drive past the van, turn round and come back. Bloke jumps out hte passenger side of the scrap van straight into the builder's van and drove off with it!!! Open back doors flapping about!

Police haven't recovered it, they know where its gone and who with but they can't get it. They're after the tools rather than the van I should think.

And yes, the scrap men are travellers. That's not been racist - I know who they are. By name and by generally recognising them as I have quite a bit to do with them via work and some of their kids went to school with dd.

It's a racist slur

I never said you should love any and all travellers that you come into contact with, but don't use racist insults when describing them

Well, we must have the nicest scrap metal men then: they pay! Probably because people are tighter than a gnat's chuff in these parts. Also, the local scrap metal recycling place is less than a mile away - so you can just rock up with your scrap and get cash on the spot.

It's ra-bone here and always answered by dogs barking, it sends them nuts. They take white goods left outside people's houses which they have paid the council to remove. I had a broken washing machine and my BF said to put it in the garden to see what happens. I went out for a few hours and when I came back no washing machine. I was only half annoyed because they saved me a trip to the tip or a £10 council removal fee but on the other hand they did come into my garden without my permission and stole it!

About twelve times a day. Apparently they take your dogs too if you leave them out.

The one round here doesn't shout anything, he rings a little bell. The bastard knocked my wing mirror off a couple of weeks ago - cost me £200

I know it was him, I watched him do it and he knows I saw him, hasn't come back down the road since funnily enough!

I wish we had them. Would save me doing skip runs!

Tally, I'll accept that you find the shortening of the word 'gypsy' to be a racist slur. I promise that having come into close contact with seriously disaffected, poverty-stricken and discriminated against, Roma (or Rom) during my time in other European countries, I would never knowingly be racist. As far as I was aware, the Roma are considered a separate race while the term 'gypsy traveller' is used by planning departments to distinguish those people who settle from those who don't, rather than their ethnic origins.

However, those who call themselves gypsies but have been determined to settle illegally, can't discuss money for 'cultural reasons' and are unable to complete a tax return/pay tax, if female, do not drink alcohol but are regularly arrested for drunken brawling, are 'proud' yet fraudulantly claim thousands in benefit, are 'religious' but nick lead from church roofs, steal cars but the police refuse to go and reclaim them for fear of violence and retribution, slashed my 9 month pg mum's car tyres because she dared to oppose a planning application etc etc.........

I shall now refer to them as 'those thieving scumbags who live on the travellers site'. Because heaven forbid I should be percieved as racist.

Better?

Am amazed that people don't have them - sometimes get a couple a day go past here. Things left outside rarely stay there more than an hour. We are on a fairly busy road, but am amazed people don't get them at all.
Can't make out what they shout though!

Yep we get the traditional horse and cart with man sitting on shouting 'rag n bone'.

Where I used to work, once a week the young traveller lads used to come and take away the old knackered coffee machines for scrap.

When I was younger (1980's) we had the man and his cart.

Ours have a knackered old siren that sounds like a dying ambulance.

Same as!

Have them in posh Guildford, mostly rooting through skips.

We have one - it took me ages to work out that it was the scrap metal man!

We have a church nearby and I thought that the noise was coming from the church, like some sort of bizarre call to prayer!