Newly reopened and reimagined after four years away, Stockport’s Hat Works is a colourful treat for the senses this May half term.
The UK’s only hatting and headwear museum combines the town’s proud hat-making heritage with a fresh, vibrant, globally-inspired collection.
Its free-to-view ‘Gallery of Hats’ – an array of colours, shapes, patterns and textures – now includes 1,300 hats and related objects, more than four times the previous number.
And there’s plenty for little hat enthusiasts to do with new Montessori-style play equipment, challenges, try-on areas and pretend play milliners.
Bookable guided tours of the factory floor take visitors back to Stockport’s fur-felt hatting heyday, from the 1870s to the 1930s, with the opportunity to see newly renovated Victorian hatting machines in action.
The machine floor also showcases the hidden heroes of Stockport’s hatting industry, including Elsie Plant, a socialist and successful birth control activist who also helped drive her husband’s family hat-blocking business forward.
Painstakingly catalogued, much through lockdown, the Hat Works collections have been carefully curated to tell stories and spark conversations through engaging themes. These include the impact of colonialism and the social vilification of fur, as well as hats and clothing as a means of expression in the LGBTQ+ community.
Cllr Frankie Singleton, Cabinet Member for Communities, Culture and Sport, said: “Stockport’s high-class fur felt hats were exported around the world and the Hat Works brings this industry, which was unique to Stockport, to life.”
“Our museum also celebrates hat-making and wearing globally. Visitors can make connections between different parts of the world, as well as the past and present. We also explore how hats can be inspired by nature, architecture, social issues and more”
“Many of our collections are collaborations and collaboration has been at the heart of creating lots of our new displays. Working with colleagues from the Ibadandun Cultural Heritage Living History Museum and local African textile historian and artist, MamaToro, has helped us understand the power hats and headwear have to connect people from all over the world.”
Hat Works is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 10-4pm
General Admission is free.
Guided tours are available on selected days. You can book these in advance via Art Tickets. Adults £7.50, Concessions £6.00, Under 16s Free when accompanied by an adult.
