Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

84 THE STRAW HAT TRADE. A DISTINCTIVE ENGLISH INDUSTRY. AMONGST the essentially British handi- crafts which have flourished at various periods a prominent position is claimed by the straw trade. It is one of the most beautiful of modern industries, for not only are the materials employed of necessity elegant, but it calls for the exercise of artistic taste and of originality in design. So far as the department of feminine head- gear is concerned, it is readily understood * Photo : Cassell & Co., Ltd. STRAW PLAIT ROOM (MESSRS. A. J. HUCKLESBY AND CO.). trade is that the plait utilised in the manu- facture is made in the district. That was certainly the case in former years ; but the mutations of time have changed all that. To-day the special work of the straw traders of Luton, St. Albans, and Dunstable is to make up the plait into those exquisite creations so dear to the heart of the feminine portion of the community. Many years ago Dunstable was the seat of the industry; to-clay Luton has left its neighbour far in the rear in the race for fame and fortune, and has become the metropolis of the straw trade, whilst St. Albans has also beaten its smaller com- petitor over the county border. It was at Dunstable, how- ever, that the first straw bonnet was produced. This was made of whole straw, the method of splitting the straws not having yet been discovered, and it is thought to have been of the “ coal- scuttle” shape, a type that continued in vogue for a long time. Then means were devised for splitting the straws, and to this invention may be attributed the success which afterwards attended the manufacture of straw plait in England. Its introduction brought about quite a revolution, and it was not long before bonnets composed of the split straws had succeeded in displacing the whole - straw Dunstable creation from favour. Later on Leghorn hats began to be imported, and these became so popular that the home manufacturers were alarmed. After a time that the business is primarily dependent upon the vagaries of Dame Fashion, whose whims and fancies are as changeable as the hues of the chameleon. This fact renders it incumbent upon those engaged in the straw trade to be at once enterprising and resourceful ; and that the English manu- facturers keep abreast with the times is evidenced by the fact that, in spite of the keenest foreign competition, the home pro- ducers of hats and bonnets of straw and other fancy materials succeed in retaining the trade in those parts of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire where it originated. A popular misconception regarding the straw a new kind of plait was invented, from which was made a Tuscan grass bonnet that was regarded as superior to the Leghorns, and satisfied the fickle devotees of Fashion for