Occupations - Women

Female straw plaiters from census returns

The censuses show that the main occupation given by women was straw plaiting. In 1871, out of a total female population of 655, there were 264 straw plaiters.

Luton was the centre of the straw hat industry and needed large amounts of straw plait. It was made by hand in villagers homes by women and children.

As the following table shows, there were a lot of people employed locally in the industry.

Table: Female straw plaiters in surrounding counties

Source: http://www.hertfordshire-genealogy.co.uk/data/occupations/straw-plait.htm

Unfortunately the market for local straw plait collapsed due to the import of cheap plait from the Far East. By 1901 there was only one straw plaiter left in Clophill: Sarah Roberts, a 52 year old widow from 4 Bedford Cottages, Jaques Lane. As the following table shows there were still some women making hats. (But where did they get their straw plaits from?)

In 1891 one household had four Straw Hat Machinists!

As straw plaiting made a significant contribution to the household income it must have caused a lot of hardship. It might have also contributed to the increased migration to the towns and cities.

Schools for Straw Plaiting

The 1851 census shows that Lucy Ashby, aged 56, "Keeps a School for Platting Straw" in Little Lane.

They were known as "sore thumb schools".

History of Straw Plaiting and Hat Making

Hansard records that in a debate on the Luton Hat Industry on 15 July 1999 Ms Margaret Moran (Luton, South) said:-

"Luton has been long recognised as the centre of the United Kingdom hat industry.

The Luton hat industry has its roots in the 17th century and the production of highly-quality, locally grown wheat, which is ideal for the straw hat and boater. Initially, the straw plait was sewn together for gentlemen's hats, much like the cricket hat. Plait schools soon developed. Allied trades such as blocking, block making, which is, I understand, unique to Luton, and dyeing grew up to support the industry.

In the 19th century, the straw hat industry dominated Luton's economy; it was the feather in our cap. It transformed Luton into a major industrial centre."

The following extracts are from

Luton and the Hat Industry by Charles Freeman

first published in 1953 by Luton Museum at Wardown Park and are included to give the background to the straw plait industry.

Early Industry

"There are other claims, but evidence points to Tuscany as the place of origin of the straw-plaiting industry."

"...and as early as 1579 there was a corporation of strawhat merchants at Florence. During the eighteenth century the Italian industry expanded considerably, largely through the development, by Domenico Michelacci, of a spring wheat with suitable fine straw which eventually became the material of the famous Leghorn plait. Exports of Leghorn hats and plait to England and other countries were very considerable until the second half of the nineteenth century."

"The earliest fashionable straw hats worn in this country were probably imported from Italy. Early in the reign of James I two imported straw hats and bands for Lord William Howard cost £3 6s. But most of the earlier references and illustrations are to the cruder hats worn by of the labouring classes. Their production was probably strictly local, or even individual."

" When Tuscan hats did arrive they may very well have encouraged the improvement of the local products."

The Beginnings of the Local Industry

"If the origin of the English industry is not known, there is no doubt about its early localization in the South-east Midlands and its firm establishment there by the end of the seventeenth century. As early as 1630 there is a record of the farming out of Hitchin paupers to Jeremiah Hockley of Ware to make straw hats, and in the reign of Charles II [1660-85] it was necessary to limit the sale of plait at Tring market to the morning only and reserve the afternoon for corn. 'I was told at Hempsted,' wrote Oldmixon in 1735,' that £200 a Week has been turn'd in a Market Day in Straw Hatts only, Which Manufacture has thriv'd in those parts above 100 Years.' "

"... the establishment of an expanding industry is confirmed by the 1689 petition of the straw-hat makers of Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire against a bill that enjoined the wearing of woollen caps, in which they state that it would injure, if not ruin, nearly a thousand families in Luton, Dunstable and other towns and villages, in which over 14,000 people lived solely by making straw hats."

Expansion during the French Wars

" Conditions brought about by the Napoleonic wars [1803 - 1815] affected both the plaiting and hat Industries. Supplies from Italy were cut of during the war, and afterwards heavy import duties were imposed on imported plait and hats. These circumstances, with improved technique in plaiting, promoted the rapid growth of the industry in the South-east Midlands and led to its adoption in other parts of the British Isles. Spreading as far north as Ampthill the expansion covered the whole of south Bedfordshire, ousting the pillow-lace Industry."

"The South-east Midlands industry fostered by two Luton brothers, Edmund and Thomas Waller, sons of James Waller, who, it has been stated, was for seven years the only straw-hat manufacturer in the town, and who was eventually joined by Thomas and Francis Coupees. Thomas Waller began by buying plait from the French prisoners at Yaxley Barracks, visiting the camp twice a week, apparently successfully, in spite of the efforts of the authorities to stamp out the trade in the interests of the home plaiters. George Borrow, whose father was an officer at the camp, vividly describes the 'straw plait hunts,' when soldiers marched into the prison to seize the contraband plait for burning."

"When the supplies from Yaxley failed Waller experimented with grasses and unripe wheat in an effort to find an English rival for Leghorn straw. After the war he imported Tuscan straw, the chief result being the Production of an 11-ends plait, which was sewn into a hat known as the Tuscan grass bonnet, the first serious rival to Leghorn."

"In spite of efforts to equal the Italian plait the English plaits could not compete successfully until the invention of the straw-splicer enabled finer plait to be made. Though post-war inflation was partly responsible, plaiters' earnings then rose considerably, Arthur Young finding women at Redbourn earning a guinea a week. Six-year-old children at Dunstable, earning 1s. 6d. to 2s. a week, could earn a shilling a day when they had learned to use the splitter, and it was frequently reported that the wife and children could earn more than the husband did working on the farm."

"There was, however, great seasonal fluctuation in the pay, the spring and summer price of plait being double that of autumn and winter. In Bedfordshire plaiting affected the wages of both agricultural labourers and domestic servants, which were higher in the plaiting area than in the rest of the country. In Hertfordshire Arthur Young found that 'it makes the poor saucy, and no servants can be procured, or any field work done.' "

Decline

"In spite of the retention of tariffs until 1842, slump followed renewed competition at the end of the war in both the plaiting and bonnet-sewing industries, but they survived in the South-east Midlands, perhaps because it was the largest and longest-established centre, but also because its products were superior to those of other districts."

"With the importation of plait from China in the [18] seventies at about a quarter the price of English plait, the plaiting industry began to decline. The new importations coincided with the introduction of machine-sewing, and the local plaiters were incapable of meeting the vastly increased demand from the rapidly-expanding hat-sewing industry. When Japanese supplies began to enter after 1891 the home industry collapsed. "

CAUTION TO STRAW PLAIT DEALERS AND STRAW PLAITERS.

Selling short measure was a big problem. Here is a Poster warning dealers and makers. (Click on it for a bigger image)