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Trimming department
© Sidney Barnes - Warwickshire libraries
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Mad as a hatter? |
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Indeed, Warwickshire had long been the centre of the hat trade. The city of Coventry was dominated by cap-makers from the 16th Century onwards, making round woollen caps and felted hats, as fashion demanded. What was certainly not allowed were foreign imports: Henry VIII went as far as to ban them.
Dyeing department
© Sidney Barnes - Warwickshire libraries |
By the middle of the 17th Century, the manufacturers migrated from Coventry to Atherstone, where they made large quantities of felts and cordies for the army and the peasantry. Here they remained, surfing the fickle tides of fashion, for the next three centuries. It might be a top hat or a billycock, a military cap or a little straw number, but the demand was endless as everyone was defined, whether in status or gender or season, by their headgear. It could be one of the most expensive items in one's wardrobe.
As with much of the wool trade, hat-making began in the backyards and upper rooms of domestic houses, but unlike the production of carpets, worsted hats did not lend themselves to mechanisation as readily. This was one reason it remained a cottage industry as long as it did. Nevertheless, (even without the harsh conditions of working in the mills) there was something dark and satanic about the working practices, particularly in creating the felt.
Words: Chris Upton
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