Felt Hats

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Felt is a material or fabric made from animal fibres, such as wool, hair or fur. When the fibres are boiled they become matted together and, with further processing, felt is produced. Felt is strong and durable, an ideal material from which to make hats. Stockport became the centre for fur felts while Luton developed a wool felt trade, primarily for women’s hats.

The interior of the felt finishing room at a Luton factory showing four men engaged in different parts of the process.

The felt finishing room at Currant and Creak Limited, 1948
© Luton Libraries

Luton's hat industry had originally been based around the making of straw hats and bonnets. However, this was largely seasonal work as many women would like to buy a new hat in the Spring, particularly for Easter, which meant that there was a lot of work in the period from February to May and a long quiet season afterwards. With the setting up of the factory system the manufacturers needed to expand the market for hats so that they could be made and sold all year round.

The development of new overseas markets helped to increase sales and the introduction of felt hat making to Luton in the 1870s expanded the trade. Initially this began with buying partly-made felt hats or ‘hoods’ and finishing them locally. The first firms to make complete hoods in Luton were Lye and Hubbard in 1920.

Last updated 16th April 2007