J. Kershaw and Co. Straw & Brazilian Hat Manufacturers

Social History (Museum of St Albans)

Advertisement for J. Kershaw and Co. Straw and Brazilian Hat Manufacturers with an engraved illustration of their factory on the corner of Victoria Street and Upper Marlborough Road in St Albans. Engraving by Brodies, signed bottom left, no date. During the Victorian period there were 40 straw hat factories in St Albans. Straw plaiting for the hat making industry was the most widespread cottage industry in nineteenth century Hertfordshire. Plaiting had been taking place for hundreds of years but at this time the plait was in great demand and different people were involved in each stage of the process; the harvest of local straw, sorting into sizes, splitting, plaiting and dyeing. Many women and children from poor families plaited straw at every possible moment as working class men often did not earn enough to support their family. The women sold the finished plait to buyers for the hat industry at the weekly St Albans plait market. Some women sold the plait to agents who came to their homes. The straw plait was sewn into hats at one of the many hat factories in St Albans. These factories were mostly around Victoria Street and Marlborough Road. By the 1930s most of the factories had closed down due to foriegn competition and changes in fashion.

PH8547 Kershaw Hats

i] 120 trany

J Kershaw & Co. straw hat factory, 53 Victoria Street (on the corner of Upper Marlborough Road), St Albans, Hertfordshire, UK.