I Remember Mother’s Peg Rug 39

We did not have carpets in the living areas of the house, the only carpet was in our best room, a room we only used on a Sundays(for some reason) and that was just a big square covering the main centre of the room, most of it was under the large polished table.

In the other rooms were home made carpet, some made out of cut up worn out material be it old curtains or old clothing, and pegged through a thick Hessian sack, the sort we had groundnut flakes came in from abroad , (a feed protein for the milking cows)

The pegging was done with what we called a bodger, a thick needle on wooden handle, just up from the point is a slot which can be pushed through the material/sacking, the strip of coloured cloth laid across and pulled back through U shaped, leaving the two end sticking up.

I Remember Mother’s Peg Rug

I remember mother, when she used to make peg rugs,
There to put your feet on, while drinking Ovelteen out of mugs,
As kids it kept us off brick floor, just before our bedtime,
Feet all nice and cosy, till up the stairs we climb.

 She started with piece of Hessian, the size of rug she wants

Often it’s a big old bag, a thick one found on her farm jaunts,
Next she digs out all old cloths, of all the colours to find,
With these can make a pattern, with boarder and centre outlined.

  Cut them up all into strips, and then to four inch long,

Father always helped with this, to groups of colour they belong,
With the bodger they got started, three rows round the side,
All of us we had a go, centre marked shape of pattern applied.

 As it got near to the finish, essential colour runs short,

Up stairs into the wardrobe, through the cloths she’d sort,
To find a matching colour, someone’s shirt or tie submits,
Finished now and backing complete, and sweeping up the bits.

Owd Fred

How many of you remember making these rugs ?

 I think nearly every house had them during the war when luxuries were few and far between, and central heating never heard of.