Imports, Mechanisation and the Decline of the English Plaiting Industry: the View from the Hatters' Gazette, Luton 1873-1900
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Imports, Mechanisation and the Decline of the English Plaiting Industry: the View from the Hatters’ Gazette, Luton 1873-1900 Catherine Robinson Submitted to the University of Hertfordshire in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of MA by Research June 2016 Acknowledgments This dissertation would not have been possible without the kindness, encouragement, help and support of Sarah Lloyd and Julie Moore from the History Department at the University of Hertfordshire. I would like to thank Veronica Main who was the Significant Collections Curator during my research time at Luton’s Wardown Park Museum, for all her help and support; it was Veronica’s suggestion to research the decline of the plaiting industry. Veronica shared her passion for the straw hat and plait industries with me, welcomed me into the museum, facilitated my research of the Hatters’ Gazette, showed me the collections and shared her immense expertise. Being at Wardown Park Museum and reading the 19th century Hatters’ Gazette and being able to see and study the hats and plaits themselves, was a truly remarkable experience and one that I shall always treasure. I would also like to thank the staff at Wardown Park Museum for making my time researching not only fascinating but also so enjoyable. I would like to thank Elise Naish, Museums Collections Manager, for allowing me to research the Hatters’ Gazette at the museum during a very busy time for staff. I would like to thank Mary Miah for all her help – from getting the volumes of the Hatters’ Gazette out ready for my research, to scanning old documents and photographing images to be used in this research, to sharing her work space – thank you Mary. I would also like to thank Chris Grabham, Local Collections Assistant, for putting together the wonderful CD of straw hat and plait images. Lastly, I would like to thank my husband Steven, and children Angus and Sarah for all their support and encouragement during my research. Abstract Between 1870 and 1900, the straw plaiting industry changed from being one that substantially contributed to local rural and family economies, to one in irrevocable decline. Researching the reasons for this decline is historically important because it gives insight into the practical working reality facing English plaiters during the period when the straw hat manufacturing industry sought new opportunities and experienced rapid expansion. There has, however, been little in-depth exploration of the relationship between this decline and the concurrent and rapid industrial revolution in the straw hat industry. Other studies have considered the social and economic history of the plaiting industry and have concluded with an acknowledgment that the industry declined in the 1870s. The often brief reasons given for this decline have focused on the impact of straw plait imports and mechanisation in the hat industry. This study aims to move the discussion of decline forward by clearly linking the shape of the plaiting industry’s demise to industrial expansion in the straw hat industry. This has been attempted by researching a contemporary hat industry trade journal for the years 1873 to 1900. The Hatter and Umbrella Trade Circular; A Monthly Trade Journal, provides insight into the concurrent processes of decline and expansion, and is from the view point of the straw hat industry itself. This reveals a story of divergence between the fortunes of those working with straw. The rapid expansion of the straw hat industry created wealth in Luton, especially during the 1870s and 1880s and this threw the English plaiting industry into decline. However, it was the plaiters’ responsiveness to changes in demand for labour from the hat industry, which appear to have facilitated the hat manufacturers’ and plait dealers’ ability to meet the explosion in demand for straw hats. South Midlands rural workers were an on-tap supply of skilled straw workers. Many of these workers reacted to Luton’s industrial revolution by adapting; by moving between plaiting and hand-sewing according to demand and by traveling or migrating to become straw hat machinists in Luton’s myriad of small workshops. Contents Acknowledgements Abstract List of Illustrations List of Maps and Tables Page Number Introduction 1 1. Methodology: the 19th Century Trade Press and the Hatters’ Gazette 26 2. An Eastern Tale; the Story of Straw Plait Imports from 1870 59 3. Mechanisation, Luton and the Revival of the Straw Plaiting Industry 107 Conclusion 151 Appendix 159 Bibliography 169 List of Illustrations Page Number 1. Gray and Horn plait stall. 6 2. A card containing thirteen examples of intricate Italian plait. 22 3. Two examples of Chinese plait and one of Italian plait. 65 4. E B Thompson standing in front of a bale of imported plait. 81 5. Nicholls plait stall. 91 6. Edmund Wiseman. 119 7. An example of broad plait with a fancy border. 120 8. An example of dyed plait. 124 9. Painting of Dolly Varden 126 10. An example of a hydraulic press. 127 11. A dye shade card for plait from Lye. 129 12. Ashworth’s season cotton sewing thread colours for 1878. 130 13. Staged scene of dealers collecting plait for market. 144 14. Straw bonnet. 158 Maps Page No. 1: Map of China showing key places mentioned in the Hatters’ Gazette 68 2: Map of Japan showing key places mentioned in the Hatters’ Gazette 97 Tables Page No. 1: Plaiters in the Bedfordshire straw trade 2 2: The rateable values of Luton and St Albans at the end of the 19th century. 4 3: Report from the Consul-General in China, showing, ‘the most remarkable increase of any commodity sent from China’. 67 4: Approximate equivalent of 19th century Chinese place names in the Hatters Gazette. 69 5: Board of trade statistics and straw plait imports. 70 6: Chart showing Board of trade statistics and straw plait imports 71 7: Imports of straw plaiting from certain ports for 1898 and 1899. 89 8: Chart showing the trend to declining plait imports at the end of the 19th century. 89 9: Exports of straw plaiting from certain ports. 90 10: Chart showing the late 19th century trend to increasing exports of straw plait of foreign manufacture. 90 11: Exports of braid (straw plait) from Shanghai to Britain 94 12: Shanghai’s falling straw braid export between 1894 to 1898. 94 13: 1885 report on straw plait (braid) in Japan for the past three years. 95 14: Imports of straw plait in lbs, with China and Japan in bold. 102 15: Chart showing decline in Chinese plait and growth in Japanese plait. 103 16: Numbers of males and females working in the plait and hat trades in 1861. 123 17: Weight and destination of British exports of foreign made straw plait. 131 18: Chart showing the comparison in the monetary value of plait imports and exports from 1894 to 1900. 132 19: Census return numbers of persons employed in straw plait and hat manufacture in England and Wales for 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, as reported in the Hatters’ Gazette. 142 Introduction Plaiting whole or split straw into patterned lengths to be sold and then sewn up into straw hats was an economically important cottage industry in the 19th century agrarian South Midlands and North Essex.1 This work, mainly done by women and children, was slotted in and around daily lives and was a vital contribution to the family economy. Within the considerable geographical area of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and North Essex, plaiting straw was ubiquitous. By 1899, with the straw plaiting industry in the final throes of decline, the trade journal for the hat industry, The Hatter and Umbrella Trade Circular; A Monthly Trade Journal, reported on the key ‘straw’ villages and towns surrounding Luton.2 Luton was the centre of the straw hat making industry and had manufacturing importance and influence. Here is “Strawopolis,” and a circlet of villages all within fifteen miles of Luton, is the district where the straw hats are made which adorn the heads of our sisters, and which give a sense of airy freedom to the masculine wearer as well…Although Luton is the entrepôt, there are other places in the district which depend solely upon the staple industry of the town for their livelihood. The “straw circle” embraces Sandy and Potton, in Bedfordshire, on the north-west, and Dunstable, containing a population of 4,513, east of Luton, on the Great Northern Railway. Just inside Hertfordshire is St. Albans (with a population of about 13,000), Redbourn, and Harpenden, perhaps less progressive than the other villages.3 The expansion of Luton’s straw hat industry directly impacted the decline of the straw plaiting industry and the Hatters’ Gazette’s focus upon the town gives researchers the opportunity to view the decline of the plaiting industry from the perspective of Luton’s straw hat trade. 1 In this dissertation, the South Midlands is understood to comprise of Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire, see for example, J.G. Dony, A History of the Straw Hat Industry (Luton, 1942), p.19, and the endpaper map. 2 The Hatter and Umbrella Trade Circular hereafter referred to as the Hatters’ Gazette 3 Hatters’ Gazette, ‘The Luton Straw Industry’, January, 1899. 1 Table 1: Plaiters in the Bedfordshire straw trade4 Date Plaiters 1861 21,126 1871 23,058 1881 17,316 1891 3,500 A lack of alternative employment in the south of England rendered crucial the role played by straw plaiting in shoring up lives of rural poverty frequently caused by inadequate agricultural labouring wages and work.5 Therefore, the decline of such a widespread and financially necessary industry during the last third of the 19th century had significant economic impact during a period when falling back on the poor law meant either outdoor relief or the workhouse.