LOVE AND OTHER MADNESS AT THE HAT WORKS

A Memoir written for the Cassidy, Davis and Ford families to honour a special lady who found love at the hat factory.

Winifred Ford  nee Cassidy 12/10/1919-7/10/2018

To be “Madly in Love”… Love has the power to drive you crazy and sweep you off your feet.

Anon

At just 13 years of age May Davis worked happily away at her job at Courtaulds, a successful silk and rayon manufacturer in Bedworth in Warwickshire. A year earlier due to increasing world demand for rayon their second mill had commenced operations and after being extended and equipped it was used for weaving viscose rayon into fabrics blouses, dresses etc.

In addition, Bedworth had become a centre for hat making after the silk ribbon weaving industry was decimated in 1860s. May’s father, Philip and her extended family either worked in the silk industry or as hat makers. Messrs Wooten and Forge bought the new hat making industry to Bedworth in 1887 and the population had jumped from 5000+ to 11,500 by 1921. Previously the hat industry and hat making were not even classed as occupations for the purpose of taking the Census. A petition to the government saw the trade of hat manufacture included in later census records. Philip Davis was a hat body maker and the 1901 and the 1911 Census records that other Davis relatives were hat plankers, hat hardeners or felt hat dyers.

James Edward Cassidy  1914

Seventy-seven miles away in Bury, Lancashire, an 18-year-old lad named James Edward Cassidy was working as a felt hat finisher for Messrs Spencer's Regent Hatworks in Bury. Factories in Bury were also becoming significant hat manufacturers.

British Legion -Bury 1919 James is centre back

After a stint in the 7th Lancashire Fusiliers where he was wounded, hospitalised and returned to England, James returned to work at the hat factory and married a local girl, Amelia Duckworth on 24th of April 1917 at St Josephs Church Bury. James was a member of the British Legion branch in Bury where he built his life with Amelia and their two little girls, Winifred and Patricia. Tragically on 19 December 1924 Amelia died.

James's old friend Frank Nuttall also worked at Spencer's. In 1924 Frank and his wife Nellie Chambers decided to head to Australia. Frank was working at R.C. Henderson's Hat factory in Broadway, Sydney. R.C. Henderson's Limited had started up in Sydney around 1907, expanding its market to Queensland by 1917. Their hats were beautifully silk stitched and were both machine and handmade with special attention to head measurement. Hats also had silk headlining with the firm's name printed inside. The Queenslander 13/10/1917

The firm produced hats to suit every taste. The Henderson Hat was a new style of hat, which was light with “simplicity of style and a good shape”. It was a droop hat with “Baden Powell” crown in all the newest colourings. They made a good range of straw hats as well.

At the age of 51 Phillip Davis with his wife Sarah Ann and children May, Ivy and Jack also decided to travel to Australia in 1926. He began working at Henderson’s and met up with Frank Nuttall who eventually became a foreman. When May arrived in Sydney on the Otranto she would have been about 20 years old.

Davis Family from Bedworth L-R Sarah, Ivy, May, Eva's husband Jack, Jack and Eva

Nuttall persuaded the bereaved James to come to Australia.  “Henderson’s” as it was known was expanding and needed skilled staff. In October 1927, a farewell concert was held in the Bury Branch of the British Legion in James’ honour. He left for Sydney and took with him the gift of a silver cigarette case to remind him of his good friends and good times in Bury. Although he was unable to take his daughters with him at that time, he took with him the good wishes of the British Legion for a good and fortunate life in his new home. After six weeks at sea on the SS Hobsons Bay, he arrived in Sydney Australia in November 1927. Eventually after a period of unemployment in Sydney James took up Nuttall’s offer of work.

And so it seems James' old friend from Bury, Frank Nuttall was instrumental in introducing May Davis to his newly arrived friend. "If you want to get ahead get a hat" is the old saying. If you want to find a girlfriend then work in a Hat works. May and James were married only 6 months later on 30 June 1928. James had managed to “marry the boss’ daughter”. May’s father was a foreman at the eastern suburbs site.

James and May's wedding

More wedding shots.. everyone wears a Henderson hat

James had left his two little daughters in the capable hands of his sister-in-law Alice Tootill. Wouldn't they have been surprised when a year or so later their Father sent for them to come to Australia and meet their new mother who originally hailed from Warwickshire only 77 miles away.

In December 1928 Winifred Cassidy aged nine and Patricia aged six sailed on the SS Orsova to Sydney to join their father and his new wife at 17 Annie St West Ryde.  Later it was renamed 17 Moss Street West Ryde. James and May happily lived out their days together after bringing up the two little girls and their four sons James, Terry, Michael and Tony.

Wynne and Pat at the family home in West Ryde with James and May

There is a saying that some people are “mad as hatters”. Mercury was used in the process of curing felt used in some hats. It was impossible for hatters to avoid inhaling the mercury fumes given off during the hat making process. Hatters often suffered from mercury poisoning, which caused neurological damage, confused speech and distorted vision. In February 1936 the Sydney Morning Herald reported that Frank Nuttall was acting a little mysteriously when he was seen to approach a cupboard daily, perform some mysterious rite and emerge locking the door behind him. The cupboard exuded a peculiar and unpleasant odour. No doubt James and Phillip would have speculated with the other staff regarding Franks idiosyncratic behaviour, the contents of the cupboard and the mysterious ritual.

No… Frank who was in charge of the finishing department, was not mad – just supervising an experiment. All was revealed when new machines were designed. Frank’s experiments resulted in perfecting a new finish to the velour hat which rivalled the special Austrian velour. They would have been bemused to find that Mr Nuttall had been on a fishing trip and the contents of the cupboard were that of a drying and treated sharkskin! Nuttall had developed a process “by which the rough surface of the shark skin tore into the fur and brought out the very lifelike lustre which is so important to a velour hat “

When the Autumn millinery collection was shown that year the new velour allowed for greater diversity of style and trimming.

“High-turned brims and pointed domes speak of China, and a contrast is the befeathered model that the Duke of Wellington would scarcely have thought of wearing, but which, nevertheless, is modelled on his own ceremonial head - gear. Sports hats are Tyrolean in shape, but are not exaggerated. An interesting feature is the oblong crown, and in some cases the triangular crown.
Feathers and other trimmings follow the line of the hat. These are mostly restrained, and frequently provide just an accent of colour. Berets and Beretta persist, and ecclesiastic head-dresses are also represented. Other high-crowned models are rather like inverted flower-pots, but so restrained is the line of these has that they are smart rather than eccentric In appearance.” SMH 4/2/1956

James and May wearing the fashion of the day 1938

There is something about working in a Hat factory which brings more love and romance into this story. James's daughter Winifred or Wynne as she is affectionately known joined him at Henderson's when she left school.

Wynne was a milliner and hat trimmer, a job she was proud of and which would use her creative and sewing skills. As Australia entered the war the girls in the factory began making hats for the Defence Force. You can just imagine the girls chatting all those handsome soldiers they had seen out and about as they worked away at their machines. Theirs would've been a very important wartime job ensuring the supply of the ever-increasing numbers of Australian soldier slouch hats needed for the boys in uniform.

It was the custom in some hat works that the hat trimmers wrote little notes for the soldier who would receive a hat that they had finished. These would have been little notes of best wishes and encouragement for the young men who were taking off to foreign parts or northern Australia to defend our country against the enemy.  A visiting journalist asked Wynne if the milliners at Henderson’s were in the habit of writing notes to the soldiers. She quickly wrote a little note and impulsively slipped it in the band of the hat she was working on and continued with her quota. 

One young 25 year old soldier was posted in Darwin. During a bombing raid, he lost his slouch hat. Wynne in fact, made his replacement hat. He received a replacement hat with the note attached from young Wynne who was aged around 23 at the time. One little message and then cupid did his magic. Joseph Hudson Ford and Wynne Cassidy began corresponding. Through the bond of that message in the hatband they somehow met. While they were courting Joe left the Army in Darwin and joined the RAAF to serve in New Guinea. Whilst home on leave they married on 10th of June 1944 at St Michael’s Church at Meadowbank.

Wynne and Joe's wedding with Pat as bridesmaaid , James and little brother Michael (r)

They made their home in Eastwood where they brought up their three children Mary, Chris and Stephen. Joe was totally devoted to Wynne from the day they were married until he died aged 90. Wynne continued to love hats and would continue to trim clothes for herself, her 3 children, 6 grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren.

So what became of Henderson’s? Mr RC Henderson, the founder, died and the company converted to a public company in 1950 to pay his death duties. By that time hats were losing popularity. Profits were up and down and despite some improving demand in 1952 the company was put in receivership in December 1954. Some time after that the factory closed down. James, having put his age down by 10 years, went to work for Hoovers at Meadowbank where he happily worked as a Nightwatchman and cleaner. He finished each shift with a beer at West Ryde Hotel. Frank Nuttall finished his career managing Battersby Hats in Remuera NZ living there with his wife Nellie until their deaths.

Click on the photo to enlarge the Hnenderson's Hats signage on the Sydney city building near Central Station

The Henderson’s sign is still painted on the side wall and can be seen from Central Railway Station. The building was taken over by Police headquarters and Henderson’s was immortalised because the police affectionately called their new home “The Hat Factory”.

Rumours abound of the mercury seeping out of the floors of the old building…. Has it affected us?  There is a touch of idiosyncrasy or madness in all of the Cassidy and Davis descendants. As Auntie Pat used to say. “All are mad except me and thee.” The rest of the saying goes … “and I even have my doubts about thee.”

Some of the clan at the wedding of yours truely in 1977