Talk: Winterbourne Hatters in Times of Radical Change

Hatting was a lucrative artisan skilled trade so Winterbourne and surroundings did very well when work boomed from the 1760s and the village of Watleys End was built as a ‘greenfield’ hatting village.

Work from London and Bristol trade growth boomed and the cottage industry delivered economic and social gain for 100years. Mechanisation de-skilled the trades and locals rejected this process for a few decades. So the industry changed and moved to mills up North with a compliant workforce. Social, economic, political, agricultural and technological reforms during this period were huge and the hatting industry played a large part in this with lessons for our future.

Join Peter Bruce to find out more about the history of hatting.

Parking for this event will be at the Barn, BS36 1SE.