Hatworks The Stockport Hat Museum

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A museum dedicated to hats might strike most people as rather dull, but the Hatworks has a lot of very interesting and genuinely educational stuff to see. Stockport, Cheshire, in the UK was once a central operator in the hat making industry. The town used to produce, (among many kinds of hats) Stetsons for export to the States, (where their production was too slow for the market) so as one guide pointed out, some of the hats worn by John Wayne in the westerns could have come from Stockport. Today, only Failsworth is still a major producer of hats in the North West England area. The main centrepiece of the museum is the lower floor machine room, where Victorian hat making machines are turned on and operated by expert guides who show the process from beginning to end with some quite dangerous looking machines (especially as most are very slow to stop. They were once operated by children, and in Victorian times, safety guards and emergency stop buttons didn’t exist). The display of hats from around the World through the ages is delightfully eclectic. Up to the mid 1570’s, most people wore knitted caps, but in 1570, a law was passed which obliged all who could afford one to wear a woollen cap for church on Sundays and at Easter & Christmas services to protect the cap makers from severe competition by the growing felt hat industry. Imported beaver skin hats became something have a craze in the 18th century, and the beaver was pushed to the brink of extinction. In the 1880’s five million birds were killed for their feathers, which were added to various exotic hats. Today, most hat-feathers come from hens. There are all kinds of hats on show, from magnificent Native American headdress to Chinese Mao hats of the Cultural Revolution. Some of the lighting is subdued in order to avoid damaging more fragile and delicate hats, which often makes reading the information boards about the displays difficult. Some displays are also rather over-stated. For example in showing how smaller family cars like the Mini, with its low roof, meant that people could not drive by showing off their hats and caps to other road users, meant a decline of the hat trade, the museum have an actual Mini Cooper in the middle of the display, when a smaller model of one would mean more space could be used for other stuff. Some display material carries notes of other information. A Pearly King and queen display has a dress covered in pearls that includes a swastika. The display notes are careful to point out that this is a reverse of the design used by the Nazi’s and represents fertility. My favourite hat there is the early 20th century William Edale clown hat, which is a garish colourful bowler with a jack in the box skeletal ghost leaping out of the top. I can imagine this terrifying any children seeing it leap out without warning during a circus show. Overall, a fascinating little museum that is well worth an hour of anyone’s time. The museum on Wikipedia Arthur Chappell.