Stockport : Hat Museum (Part 1)
I’m not sure that I’m very interested in hats, so that’s something of a confession to start proceedings off with. However, there’s a free hat museum in Stockport that the council seems proud of, so I thought I’d go to see if I was captivated by the arrangement. And yes, I deliberately put that pun (cap-tivated in case it wasn’t obvious) in there in honour of my friend Nathan, who was very impressed with my hat based puns when I told him about my visit here. Actually, that makes like it sounds like he’s dead, but he isn’t. But, he’s one of those irritating people in life who is very good at puns as he’s quick witted, so I’ll take my hat off to him for that.
The council notes that “we re-opened in March 2024, and expect to be busy for several months, so we recommend that you pre-book your general admission tickets”. I slightly doubted exactly how busy a hat museum in Stockport would be, but I booked my free ticket on-line and turned up at opening time. There were two people booked in for the entire day, including me. Anyway, guaranteed a visit now amongst the throngs, the friendly team member mentioned what was in the museum. She mentioned that there was a dressing up area on a higher floor where I could try hats on, but I think we agreed without words that I wouldn’t be doing that.
There were no other visitors, which I found helpful as I didn’t want to be distracted with all this looking at hats. Here are some Mayoral hats from Mrs Clara Grant, the first female Mayor of Stockport. I won’t make a joke about politicians wearing many hats……
Some pith helmets, but I have no pithy jokes about that. At this point, I rather feel I should have asked Nathan for humorous content for this post as I’m struggling a little.
So many hats.
A mini, a little bit of a head-turner and excitement for those visitors that wanted some variety in their viewing experiences or for those who want to re-capture their youth.
More hats, although I have to say that a lot of this was just going over my head.
Yet more hats, although I understand that very much is the concept. I must admit, I did wonder about the viability of this museum as it is perhaps just a little niche. It was though well laid out and colourful, I can imagine some children would engage positively with it all.
Hatpins and even the museum didn’t try and list all of them.
What a way to die.
Protective hats. A family did come in just as I was leaving this floor, I was fortunate to get a head-start to take these photos with no-one else around though.
There’s a real story being told in this museum, I’m pleased that they’ve been able to get the financing to keep this site open. In fairness to the museum, the main part of this whole arrangement is the factory floor, located on the level below, and for my two loyal blog readers that will be the post that’s coming next. And no more puns in that one.
Although I will finish on my best hat based joke, although I think it’s the only hat based joke I know.
What did the hat say to the tie? You hang around here, I’ll go on ahead.
Right, moving on….
