Billy Wright was a rag-and-bone man and became a famous character in Gainsborough. He was born in 1848.
He would be seen going round the town with his donkey and cart. Billy, his donkey, and cart appeared on postcards; it’s believed he signed and sold some of them.
The image on them was taken on Etherington Street around 1904.
His handmade cart had distinctive mangle wheels. One story about him is that he left his donkey and cart outside a pub while he went inside for a drink.
A gentleman explained how they (his friends?) unhooked the cart from the donkey’s harness and put the cart’s shafts through a fence railing. They then moved his donkey and put the shafts back through the donkey’s harness.
“… which absolutely confused Billy when he came outside the pub, having no idea how that happened.”
In the newspaper report following his death, it says that Billy was known to have a fiery temper and colourful language which got him into trouble with the local police.
In a later life, he had an organette and put it on a perambulator; he apparently found it more profitable than his rag-and-bone business.
Billy had a brother, Charles, who was born in 1856.
At some point, Billy appears to have become ill and went to live with Charles in Andrews Yard, which was near the Lodging House at 153, Bridge Street.
Billy’s wish was that he would never end up in the workhouse, which didn’t happen, but he missed out on the Old Age Pension as he died a year before he would have received it and appears not to have retired.
Billy died on the 26th February 1917 and is buried, with Charles, in the General Cemetery. For many years, there was no memorial on his burial plot, and now he has a marker.
