Straw plaiting to supply the hat industry was a significant, professional occupation that played a major part in providing income to rural families.
Plaiters supplied the UK’s hat manufacturing industry. Plaiting was a highly skilled craft that involved straw preparation, plaiting, finishing and winding into a hank (piece) which was often sold to a plait dealer. The lengths were usually made in 10 or 20 yard pieces.
The technique of plaiting is specific to the hat industry. A straw plait for the hat industry has a:
Straw plaits were a fashionable item and there were many patterns and colourways. A plaiter had to be sufficiently skilled to often learn new plaits at short notice. Plait was made in different widths, from less than 5mm to 25mm, using different numbers of straws that were either split or whole. Although there are many mentions of straw hats and plait in earlier documents, the trade seems to have become more organised by the late 1600s. Two petitions of support for the hat industry were sent to Parliament in 1689 and 1719. The petition of 1719 claims the craft (which is assumed to include plaiting) has been practised for ‘time out of mind’ and provides employment for ‘many thousands’.
From the late 1700s, growth of the UK plaiting industry was assisted by turmoil in Europe and the Napoleonic Wars. By the early 1800s straw plaiting was attracting considerable attention as a source of employment for children and those in workhouses. The plaiters were trying to compete against narrow plait made in Italy. It became possible with the introduction of the straw splitter at this time. By the 1840s plaiters were working in all but three counties in the UK. By the 1860s it was an essential income-generating occupation for about 30,000 men, women and children in Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and northwest Essex.
Changes in hat production led to the import of considerable quantities of cheap Chinese and later Japanese plait in the second half of the 1800s. While this caused a significant growth in hat manufacture thanks to the availability of cheaper imported products, the home industry of straw plaiting began a slow decline. Plaiters could not match the low prices of the imports.
Straw plaiting continued with plaiters copying new designs and colourways from Europe and the Far East. From the late 1880s there were efforts to revive the home industry. Unfortunately, the introduction of man-made fibres that could be machine-made into cheap new products brought about the end of the plaiting industry. Straw plaits and their use in hats had always been led by fashion trends and the excitement of these new products made straw plait less relevant. The last truly professional straw plaiters working for the hat industry stopped working in the 1930s, they had managed to keep working by producing plait to be made into specially commissioned hats for celebrities and the Royal Family. A few women, either elderly plaiters or those who may have watched their mothers plait continued to demonstrate and make small pieces of plait until the 1980s.
Since that time lack of written instructions for making authentic plaits has meant that the original methods have often been corrupted and absorbed into Straw Working and Corn Dolly Making which has created much confusion.
The process of hand plaiting individual pieces of straw into a single length usually approximately 20 yards (18 metres) long. The finished plait is strong, an even width and suitable for sewing into a hat shape. Within the hat industry, the term straw encompasses a range of materials: wheat and rye straw, grasses, wood chip, palm, man-made fibres and rag-based paper.
In the 1800s different plait patterns were associated with specific villages (see Thomas George Austin, The Straw Trade, 1871), split straw plaits were of particular importance. Within the 19th century hat industry, the straw used was not exclusively from cereal crops. Plait was made from wood chip (chip), paper and various other imported plant fibres. Although most publications state that wheat straw was used it seems entirely probable that workers used barley, rye and grasses to create the plaits. It is probable that a plaiter was expected to be able to work with a range of materials.
Sub-crafts
In the past the straw plaiter would have been supplied with the straw ready for plaiting. When the trade was alive there was a chain of sub-crafts:
Now the straw hat plaiter must perform these functions.
Allied trades:
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Straw plaiting for the hat industry was a paid occupation employing tens of thousands of men, women and children throughout the UK but for the longest period in Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and north west Essex. Plaits were exported from the UK around the world, either as plait or as hats. Straw hat manufacture was a major trade. Of all the straw crafts, this is the only paid profession.
Veronica Main has since the 1980s been reviving the original methods of straw plaiting, providing demonstrations and courses. Heather Beeson demonstrates at the Chiltern Open Air Museum and provides instruction. Anne Dyer provides instruction for some types of hat plait.
Websites
Magazines – the following occasionally feature articles about straw hat plaiting
Partial list of publications
Publications containing some plaiting instruction, not always complete.
History of the straw-hat industry
Museums holding research collections:
Note: Other museums in the traditional plaiting/hat areas of south east midlands have small collections representing the trade.
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