Hooky Mats and Rag Rugs: How the Art of Necessity Helped Define a Nation

Hooked rugs are humble things made of recycled cloth and worn out textiles, originally born of need and lack: and yet they have come to mean much more to the communities that produced and enjoyed them. In America they have become an emblem of homespun pioneer thrift and self-reliance and an important element in the definition of a certain kind of national values. Handmade hooked rugs are the stuff of everyday life, but in Canada they became a vital form of income for impoverished seafaring families in Labrador and Newfoundland. And in northern England and southern Scotland they brightened up the hearth of many rural and urban working-class homes. But in the far north of the British Isles a very different tradition developed where sewn pile rugs came to play a role as vital protection for sleeping bodies against night time trolls and witches. Join us as we explore the many forms of hooky, proggy, proddy, clooty, clippy, stobby, and bodgy rugs that have spread around the world. For more information about this episode and pictures of the people and places mentioned in this episode please go to . And if you would like to find out about Friends of Haptic & Hue with an extra podcast every month hosted by Jo Andrews and Bill Taylor – here's the link:

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Hooky Mats and Rag Rugs: How the Art of Necessity Helped Define a Nation is an episode from Haptic & Hue by Jo Andrews.

This episode is 40:35 long.

This episode was published on Nov 6, 2025.

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