Hat Works — Attraction in Stockport

The Hat Works is a museum in Stockport, Greater Manchester, England, which opened in 2000. Before that, smaller displays of hatting equipment were exhibited in Stockport Museum and in the former Battersby hat factory.

The building, Wellington Mill, was built as an early fireproof cotton spinning mill in 1830–1831 before becoming a hat works in the 1890s. It is a Grade II listed building on the A6, Wellington Road South, between the town centre and Stockport railway station.

Stockport played a pivotal role in the textile industry of the United Kingdom. Firstly it was silk throwing. In the early 18th century, England was not capable of producing silk of sufficient quality to be used as the warp in woven fabrics. Suitable thread had to be imported from Italy, where it was spun on water-powered machinery. In about 1717 John Lombe travelled to Italy and copied the design of the machinery. On his return he obtained a patent on the design, and went into production in Derby. When Lombe tried to renew his patent in 1732, silk spinners from towns including Manchester, Macclesfield, Leek, and Stockport successfully petitioned parliament to not renew the patent. Lombe was paid off, and in 1732 Stockport's first silk mill (indeed, the first water-powered textile mill in the north-west of England) was opened on a bend in the Mersey. Further mills were opened on local brooks. Silk weaving expanded until in 1769 two thousand people were employed in the industry. By 1772 the boom had turned to bust, possibly due to cheaper foreign imports; by the late 1770s trade had recovered. The cycle of boom and bust would continue throughout the textile era.

On 21 July 1784 Samuel Oldknow, arrived in Stockport and bought a house and warehouse on Hillgate, he gave out 530 lengths of cotton warp to the local hand loom weavers who returned the woven pieces, these he traded through a London agent. This was the Putting-out system that survived in weaving long after the factory system was normal for spinning. He had commercial connections with Arkwright and with Drinkwater. To obtain yarn he opened a mill in 1791 at the Carrs, on the Tin Brook and a large mill at Mellor. The combination of a good water power site (described by Rodgers as "by far the finest of any site within the lowland" [of the Manchester region] ) and a large female and child workforce used to textile factory work meant Stockport was well placed to take advantage of the phenomenal expansion in cotton processing in the late 18th century. Warren's mill in the market place was the first. Power came from an undershot water wheel in a deep pit, fed by a tunnel from the River Goyt. In 1796, James Harrisson drove a wide cut from the Tame which fed several mills in the Park, Portwood.; Ashmore (1975). In 1786, Henry Marsland gained water rights to erect another mill adjacent to the 55 yards (50 m) by 12 yards (11 m) Park silk mill which he already owned. The two Carrs silk mills had converted to cotton before 1785, and the larger silk mills such as Park and Logwood followed.

Hatmaking was established in north Cheshire and south-east Lancashire by the 16th century. In the early 19th century the number of hatters in the area began to increase, and a reputation for quality work was created. The London firm of Miller Christy bought out a local firm in 1826, a move described by Arrowsmith as a "watershed". By the latter part of the century hatting had changed from a manual to a mechanised process, and was one of Stockport's primary employers; the area, with nearby Denton, was the leading national centre. Support industries, such as blockmaking, trimmings, and leatherware, became established. The First World War cut off overseas markets, which established local industries and eroded...

Free local museum in Stockport. We visited with 2 adults and 5 children aged between 6 and 14.

The museum is set out over two floors. You enter on street level and descend to the first exhibition - the Gallery of Hats. This presents a huge display of beautiful hats themed around the materials used, their use or, sometimes, simply their colour. Children are well catered for with a trail which allows them to spot various items throughout the exhibits, equipment like magnifying glasses to inspect the detail on the hats, and lots of opportunities to try on different hats. The play hat shop was a particular hit with my six year old niece and 9 year old son.

The next floor down recreates the hat factories Stockport was once famous for and takes us through the whole process from catching the animals for their fur to selling the finished hat at the end. This was very interesting and, again, a trail was offered to the children to spot different items in the exhibition. I was impressed by the ear defenders which were available to borrow if the noise was upsetting to anyone.

From here you go back up to street level where there is a well stocked gift shop with some really interesting items, and a café. We didn't eat there but it smelled good and prices were reasonable.

All in all, a great way to spend 1-2 hours on a day...

Very family friendly, engaging floor of hat displays and a floor of machinery, a nice hour-long experience. Clean, well lit, with activities for kids, and a very attractive visual design.

As a museum it needs a bit of improvement - very hard to get any information on the things you're seeing, and the reference numbers on many of the hats have already fallen off etc so where there were information panels it was hard to match the hats to the entries. The thematic display of hats by material is visually engaging, but as there's limited dating on any of them you miss the opportunity to learn anything about hat fashions from any time period, or how they changed over time. Surprised not to see much mention of the RSPB which originated in Manchester as a campaign to reduce the use of feathers in hats etc - an opportunity for an interesting collaboration?

It would have been good to be able to access a tour or similar additional information - I've been looking on the website periodically for months but there's been nothing, so I ended up just visiting the...