As, probably the oldest member here, I can clearly remember the rag and bone man coming, but then we also had the knife sharpener, shoe repairer and Breton onion seller call periodically.

Milk and Bread came on horsecarts. My mother could post, with confidence, the grocery and butcher's orders in the morning and a lad would deliver them, on a bike, early in the evening. The greengrocer came weekly in a decomissioned LHD WWII General Motors AWD truck, always with a fag in his mouth, even when talking.

Its only in recent years, with the internet and supermarket deliveries that some service at this level has come back, but then in those days, you couldn't order a hot meal on the 'phone.

Our local council re-housed the local rag and bone man in a council house, but he then got in trouble for keeping the horse in the front room with its head sticking out of the, street facing, window.

Back to the subject: Neighbours of ours had a sign: "No hawkers, circulars or didecoys"(Also spelt didicoi). The Rag & Bone man was usually by definition a traveller or didecoy, consequently that one word might well have been used. Tinkers (Odd jobbers who mended household items) also generally came from the gypsy community.