THE probby, proddy, proggy, brodded, stobbie, tabby, tatty, loopy, cleeky or clippy rugs made by wives, mothers and daughters across northern England, in southern counties such as Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Somerset and Devon, in parts of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland for much of the 19th century and beyond, recycled fabric at a time when, among Britain’s poor, recycling was a necessity.
In the cold cottages of Westmorland farm-hands and Lancashire millworkers, the mining communities of Co Durham and southern Northumberland, and among the fisherfolk of Berwick-upon-Tweed, handmade, homemade rag rugs repurposed threadbare clothing and bed linen. These shaggy or smooth-pile hardwearing rugs warmed stone and bare-earth floors in bedrooms, kitchens, sitting rooms and—once they were past their best—wash houses and sculleries. Families made a new rag rug for Christmas morning…
