This article has been supplied by Cecil William Miles (son of Ann Stratfull
& Walter William Richard Miles)
The Tring Stratfulls & The Luton Hatting Industry.
"Luton is the centre of the hatting and straw-plaiting
industries in England."
Funk & Wagnall Encyclopedia 1979
This was already the case in the mid 19th century. Several
second generation Stratfull's are listed as straw plaiters in and after 1851.
While the Grand Junction Canal provided a living for large
numbers of men in Beds. & Bucks., the Luton Hat Trade depended largely on
the labour of young women, who were trained to produce plaited straw by the yard
and many of whom continued so working into their old age. In my visits with my
mother (Ann Stratfull born 31 January 1882), before WWI, it was a common sight
to observe the dexterity of these women.
This is how it worked; an agent would visit the area and
distribute a quantity of dyed straw to each worker in her home, with
instructions as to pattern, width and how many yards. The first stage was to
split each straw by passing it through a cutter as per the photos on this page.
This example of a cutter must be over 100 years old and must have had a name.
Then the plaited straw was picked up by the agent and the few pennies earned
paid. The rest was up to the Luton factory.
These plaiting relatives lived in a compound (not on the canal).
There was Aunt Betsy, who lived alone and was stone deaf; her sister next door
married to "Uncle Tom Cherry", retired from an executive position in
the Canal company. Another aunt and uncle had a son who had the unusual
occupation as groom to Lord Rothschild's four-in-hand zebras. It must have been
an amazing sight when this equipage set off from Tring to London and into
Buckingham Palace.
Photos of a straw cutter.
Front
Back
The name on the cutter is D-GREEN - could this have been owned by Druscilla
Green (great aunt of Ann Stratfull).
This straw cutter was given to Cecil
William Miles by Ethel May Stratfull (b. 25 November 1915 d. 11 November 1980) -
this was one of two that she had.
