Atherstone was once an important hatting town, and became well known for its felt hats. The industry began in the 17th century as a cottage industry located in the crowded yards at the back of the houses that fronted Long Street.
It finally moved to mass factory production in the mid 19th centruy and at its height seven different firms employed over 3000 people in and around the town. Due to cheap imports, the trade had largely died out by the 1960s, and ended completely in 1998.
Generally, the hats (and caps) produced in Atherstone were of a ‘coarse kind’.
The coarest speices of hats, or those called felt hats, are principally made at Atherstone
A Statistical Account of the British Empire John Ramsay Published 1837
Atherstone Hatting in 1851
Hatters were disproportionately numerous in the small districts of Atherstone, Newcastle-under-Lyne, Chipping Sodbury, and Keynsham, where the numbers, 207, 177, 126 and 132 men were, in 1851, employed as such. In each of these districts, therefore, there were at least ten times as many as the average proportion, and in Atherstone as much as twenty-eight times as many. In districts of larger magnitude not already noticed, the highest proportion was in Clifton, near Bristol, where there were 223 men so employed, or between five and six times the average rate. In Bristol district, containing about an equal population with that of Clifton, there were 147.
Statistical Papers Based on the Census of England and Wales, 1851. Thomas Abercrombie Welton. Savill and Edwards.
Atherstone Hats and the slave trade
Here we reached the town of Atherstone, where the staple industry was the manufacture of hats, the Atherstone Company of Hat-makers being incorporated by charters from James I and Charles II. Many of the chiefs on the West Coast of Africa have been decorated with gorgeous hats that have been made at Atherstone.
John O’Groats to Land’s End by Robert Naylor and John Naylor published 1916.
It is understood that the Atherstone hatting industry suffered significantly after the abolition of slavery in 1833. Atherstone had been supplying a great deal of cheap felt hats for African slaves for many years.
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I have a hat, an digger/slouch/bush hat that, according to the stamping in the headband, was made by Denham & Hargraves, Atherstone in 1943.
Would like to find out more about the hat and the manufacture, if possible.
Appreciate your time and consideration.
i can’t tell you about any particular hat ,but if you wish i can tell you about the horrific conditions in the hat factorys in those days. i am surprised that anyone who worked there is still alive.
they all suffered with rheumatics and bronchitis not that it was any worse than many other factory jobs in 1943. i was a child and took lunch (snap)to one of the girl workers -aged 14-on most days. i walked through the factory from north street to long street. the workers wore wellies as the floors were always swimming with water. the air was so steamy it was like a london pea-souper.
I am researching my family history. Does anyone have any information on William Ward, he was bound apprentice to John Morewood. Or of the William Simmonds Charity in 1845, which enabled him to become an apprentice. He went from Atherstone to Willenhall, where he worked in the lock trade as a master locksmith.
I am researching my family history, and my grandfather x 3 was a hatter. He was born in Sussex, but moved to Birmingham/Warwickshire and then on to Leeds.
I believe both of these places were large hatting communities.
I would be very interested to know whether anyone has any interest in Henry Freeman, born 1791 – died in 1858 in Leeds.
June
Very interesting all this. One of my Family, John Broadley, who seems to have come from Atherstone was down as a Hatter in 1938 but in 1941 seems to be a Bricklayer. He later moved to Bermondsey in London where he was again a Hatter. Perhaps he was one whose living was lost after the slave trade was stopped.
I am a descendant of Joseph Wilday (1711-1765). He was sent to London as an apprentice to a haberdasher of hats so he could become a merchant, returning to Atherstone in the 1730′s. He became a very influential member of the Atherstone community. He married a wealthy widow named Anna Farmer. Does anyone know who this Anna Farmer was? Who her first husband might have been?
Joseph and Anna had, among others, a son John who lived in Philadephia for awhile and married Susanna Montgomery in Philadelphia. He eventually returned to Atherstone, where he and his wife are buried.
Mardi
I am researching my family and my Grandfather said his occupation was a hatter. He lived in Bristol in 1901 when he was 10 years old, until he joined the Navy in 1908. His mother was a dressmaker working from home. He changed his name from Farmer to Haycroft sometime in that period. Could he have worked for Atherstone. Would anyone else know about that time where a boy would be employed making hats.
Sue
Im researching my Holland ancesters from Atherstone. My great-great grandfather Edwin Muston Holland was a felt hatter and felt hatters foreman from at least 1876 to 1902 in Atherstone. I believe the ‘mad as a hatter’ phrase was his downfall. His death certificate says he died from a self inflicted wound to the throat, being at the time temporarily insane. Has anyone else come across this? How can i find out more about what happened? The inquest records dont survive for 1902.
Im also researching my family tree, and wondered if Edwin Muston Holland could of been a brother to a Mackenzie Holland born 1851 born near Hinckley Leics.
Im researching too and my grt grt grandfather was a felt hat trimmer. Im getting stuck with my research a bit though as I dont know of any living Albrighton reletives to help.
Does anyone know of a link between Joseph Wilday of Atherstone fame and the Wildays of Coventry?
For Philip Albrighton
There were, and are, many Albrightons in the village of Baddesley Ensor near to Atherstone. Local researchers have large data bases. Contact the website of Nuneaton & North Warwickshire Family History Society to find one of them.