“Any old iron” is not a cry you hear very often now in Britain and is certainly not one associated with silent walkers. I suspect that the people making that call for old metal in our streets would love to have been offered an abandoned iron spiral staircase or grass roller. They shout it nowadays from a van but I remember when it used to be from a horse and cart (and I’m not that old!).
The silent walkers listening to the sounds around them either through a mic and headphones or with the naked ear, enjoyed what they heard on our StillWalks taster session for WWAMH at Clynfyw Care Farm. It wasn’t that there were so many different sounds in the countryside in the middle of the day, but all that were there were heard and it surprised the walkers just how much can be heard when you focus your ears and listen.
We recorded some of the sounds of those walks and I will post a soundscape from the event tomorrow.
I can hear that cry now: “Any i’er, any i’er, any rag bone?”
Oh yes – it was only a couple of months ago when I heard it here. Definitely unusual these days. Do you remember the Morcambe and Wise sketch about selling the Evening Standard – or “e’en stanny”
I don’t remember that sketch, but will look for it on YouTube now.
My mistake – it was the “Morny Stannit” sketch but it seems not to be available in this country on Youtube
I cannot find it, but found the sketch written, where a newspaper seller shouts out ‘morny stannit’ but is then educated by a businessman to say ‘morning standard’ instead. When the seller eventually pronounces it correctly, the camera pans in to the pile of newspapers he is selling and they are called Morny Stannit. Brilliant.
That’s the one lol. Well found.
I think of some gypsies as part of my tribe, the most kind and generous people that have helped me in times of trouble.
I’m cool with that