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When Everyone Wore A Hat...

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Atherstone was well known for hat manufacturers. The pub in the town is still called The Hatters. I remember going to a shop a few years ago which was inside the hat factory, it was amazing stepping back in time. The factory is sadly closed now but the building is still there. The photo's are Hatton's Hat Manufacturers c1920.
 
Tried to magnify it as best I can. Still not sure, in particular whether gthe tube with the tap is connected to the tubes in the drink. I wonder if it is some crude sort of cooling device with the tubes in the drink connected to the top with the white lump being ice, and the tube coming out just being to drain off the water from the melted ice.

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I think the tube is for topping up the cordial and/aerating the drink. And as Mike suggested it passes through the bag suspended over the drink (in which ice is packed) to cool it. Looks like a fruit punch in the container., segments of oranges etc. A bit Heath Robinson, but it must have been difficult to produce it in any volume. Isn't there some scientific way to do with pressure which would allow it to be topped up through the overhanging tube? Otherwise the tube is used simply to pump air into the drink if it's meant to be aerated water as per the newspaper article. Viv..
 
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Wendy said:
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Atherstone was well known for hat manufacturers. The pub in the town is still called The Hatters. I remember going to a shop a few years ago which was inside the hat factory, it was amazing stepping back in time. The factory is sadly closed now but the building is still there. The photo's are Hatton's Hat Manufacturers c1920.
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Interesting photos Wendy of the inside of the factory, they seem to be making only one style of hat . Looking through the photos in this thread I haven't seen many people wearing that type of hat perhaps they were for sale overseas.

'Hattons' an apt name for a hat manufacturer ! :)
 
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On second thoughts, maybe the white bag is just a bag of air with which to aerate the drink. The tube being the mechanism for pumping air into the bag.

This bag of air (me) will now sign off! Viv
 
Wendy - I like the hat factory photos very much. Look about 1920s judging by the younger ladies haircuts. There's a definite division of labour shown in the two photos. I think the finishing shop (adding the ribbons to the hats?) is definitely a female domain. Whilst the other photo of all men must have been more physically demanding part of the process. Although can't work out why. Viv.
 
Mommy, I told you if you didn't stop messing with that hat there would be no seats left.
 

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The Scotts Guard Band certainly drew a crowd, all wearing hats naturally !
I can only see one flat cap wearer, maybe he picked the wrong hat for the occasion .... :)
 
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paul stacey said:
Is Summerfield Park, Winson Green, still there?Paul
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Summerfield Park is still there today, though I'm not sure if they still have a bandstand, even if they had, I'm sure it wouldn't draw the same amount of listeners today.
 
It looks as if the girl on the right is taking her own picture with the aid of a "Selfie Stick" sure is a whole lot of puzzlement!
 
oldMohawk said:
Interesting photos Wendy of the inside of the factory, they seem to be making only one style of hat . Looking through the photos in this thread I haven't seen many people wearing that type of hat perhaps they were for sale overseas.

'Hattons' an apt name for a hat manufacturer !
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People like Tom Mix, in the early cowboy photos, wore hats like those.
They look like Ten Gallon hats to me.
 
I think stretching the felt was quite a difficult process, for this reason it was done by men. Big business too this is inside Wilson and Stafford another Atherstone factory. I think this one closed in the 90's.




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Thanks Phil, went once or twice as kid, huge place in the middle of a massive built up area that was little surreal.Paul
 
That's strange Wendy seeing all those hats stacked in the early stages of manufacture. Well I assume they're unfinished. Quite incredible that they were produced in such volume.

And look at this. Google has picked up the hat conversation and we can all get our own handmade beanie knitted in the UK !! How times have changed. Viv.
 

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Vivienne14 said:
And look at this. Google has picked up the hat conversation and we can all get our own handmade beanie knitted in the UK !! How times have changed. Viv.
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Good old Google doesn't miss much !

I think the wearing of hats in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods is something which defines the 'look' of those times for me.

Perhaps we will all be thought of as 'When Everyone Used Google' .... :)
 
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oldMohawk said:
Good old Google doesn't miss much !

I think the wearing of hats in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods is something which defines the 'look' of those times for me.

Perhaps we will all be thought of as 'When Everyone Used Google' ....
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I think a hat gave outfits a finishing touch. If chosen correctly it balanced the whole outfit. Today I think there's more emphasis on shoes and handbags to do that job. Viv.
 
Always thought there was some compulsion with regard to the "working class" wearing caps in early C20 but can't find any reference on Google so perhaps just an urban myth. Picture of my maternal grand dad with his "best"hat on his wedding day, he always wore a cap to work and in the garden but a trilby to go out. His best hat looks somewhat like the ones in the factory pictures don't you think.old family 12.jpg
 
Enjoying a Victorian bank holiday, a group of people gather near a barrel organ player while a donkey feeds from its nose bag. Someone not wearing a hat has spotted the slightly hidden camera. I wonder what the lady on the right was thinking as the camera clicked ?
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In these modern times. the donkeys, or horses, entertaining the tourists, in Great Yarmouth, have the bag at the other end!

Eddie
 
#203, Just like 3D Oldmohawk, you feel as if you could lie in the long grass by the lad, those old type-plate photos where brilliant for bringing the photo alive. My Nan told me of her memories as a girl, of the Hurley Gerdy men, and there animals, usually a monkey.Paul
 
Yes Paul - I find myself looking at the people in old photos as much as looking at the buildings etc.
Some information about the photos and the camera below .....

The pictures were taken by Paul Martin (1864-1944), a wood engraver by trade but with a keen interest in photography.
Around 1890 it became possible to combine fast-dry plate negatives with a fairly small camera — the Fallowfield Facile camera was an example. Martin used a Facile, which could be disguised as a parcel or carried in a leather box. It did not have to be opened between exposures to change plates, which enabled Martin to take candid shots of people at work and play.
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He obviously took care taking his photos because of probably high cost of the negative plates etc, whereas today with our digital cameras we take loads of pics and simply erase the ones we don't like ....
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They all have hats as was the custom in those days but one not wearing his. I suppose men in top hats riding in a carriage don't carry small change ... :)
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Hi Rosie - I think the man is moving because his feet are not touching the ground. That looks like King George V in the middle.
oldmohawk
 
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