News – December 2025

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Wednesday 17th December 2025 – Walk – Dunham Massey Park

Hardy members of the Knutsford Rex Probus Club walking group welcomed the start of the Christmas holiday season with their traditional festive walk around one of our local parks, this year it was the turn of Dunham Massey. Hardy? As can be seen from the attire the group had to face pretty poor weather conditions, however an excellent lunch beckoned at the Swan With Two Nicks where a good number of members/ partners joined the happy walkers

Thursday 11th December 2025 – Club Meeting – Speaker, Rupert Battersby with a presentation entitled ‘Battersby Hats of Stockport’.

In a slightly disconnected way, Rupert started his talk by showing a group picture from his education at Warrington’s Bruche Police Training Centre prior to his own career with the Cheshire Constabulary.

This was a precursor to a short family archive with family weddings as the link taking us back through the years to the mid 19^th century when the Hat business began in a building called ‘Beaver House’.

The business grew steadily despite fierce competition over the years and larger premises were acquired in Stockport’s outskirts at Offerton. By the early 20^th century Edwardian era the business had become massive with the Offerton site covering several acres. In 1906 the business was interrupted by a huge fire but a vast effort by involving the staff and local trades people they managed to get back into limited production within 6 weeks.  By this time the Battersby family were well accepted into middle-class English society and travelled extensively in the UK and France.  In an attempt to expand the business further they bought a factory during 1907 at Conty in the Somme Department of northern France. This facility came with a nice house and they built further accommodation to house some of the Stockport workers who went to Conty to introduce modern production methods to the French workers.

The First World War was a pivotal era for the Battersby family and their business. One major event in 1915 was the death of the business founder, William John Battersby, from natural causes. He left £59000 in his Will.  James Battersby one of his sons, returning from New York, was shipwrecked on the Lusitania off Kinsale, southern Ireland in May 1915. Nearly 1200 people were lost but miraculously James survived and returned to Stockport. In 1917 Edgar Battersby was wounded during the Battle of Arras and was taken to a field hospital prior to being moved to what was deemed further safety but he disappeared totally and his eventual whereabouts were never discovered.

After World War One, things changed dramatically!  Fewer people were wearing hats. Particularly felt hats. So production volumes declined. The French factory at Conty was sold and the company concentrated its efforts using new techniques at the Offerton factory in Stockport.  These new processes involved some rather toxic chemicals and the River Mersey suffered greatly from the waste from Battersbys and other factories along its course.  Profit margins narrowed and the market declined.  The company tried advertising and even encouraged ‘worker morale’ with free train trips to Blackpool for the whole workforce.

World War 2 saw the family move their living arrangements away from the industrial areas near Stockport to the more leafy part of Cheshire in Knutsford. Their massive house on Toft Road would also become a billet for service personnel under requisitions from the War Office. As well as British army officers American army officers were included as part of General Patton’s US contingent.

After the War things gradually returned to a normal life but for hat making the decline continued, processes became outdated and by 1956 only one member of the Battersby family was involved with the business. They sold some of the buildings to facilitate the purchase of Woodrows Hats in London but 10 years later Battersbys Hats and other names amalgamated to become ‘Associated British Hats’.   Nowadays the main factory has been converted into flats and stands as a testament to a glorious past.

In his time, Edgar Battersby had been a keen amateur photographer and, through wider family connections, Rupert has managed to acquire 15 boxes of Edgar’s glass plates containing about 750 images depicting life during the company’s heyday.  To wind up Rupert’s presentation he kindly hosted a lively Question & Answer session which included an interaction with our guest, Ian Greenhough, whose own family were previously hat makers in nearby Denton and traded as ‘Attaboy Hats’.

9th December 2025 – Annual Christmas Lunch

It was unfortunate that the original 35 diners had shrunk down to 27 due to illness, accidents etc.. Despite the low attendance, the meal was very good and well served compared to last year. There was good food, great company and a massive Apple Crumble for those who had dared order it!

4th December 2025 – Walk – Mobberley Area

The weather on the day proved to be somewhat dreich and there had been rumblings about cancelling the walk, however the spirit of George Mallory prevailed and the Group set out on a 4.5-mile circular walk.  Andrew Allen led the walkers from the Bull’s Head, Mobberley heading north around the cricket ground past the Church Inn before striking west across open fields, braving the attention of bullocks and into Stubbs Lane before crossing Newton Hall Lane and turning north again onto Graveyard Lane where a coffee stop was made at the Quaker Graveyard, next to friend Keith Trafford’s place. The flag was up even though he is in OZ. Turning south we headed south towards Antrobus Bridge near the old Frozen Mop and talked fondly of roaring fires and whiskey in our coffee. Eventually returning to the Bull’s Head to be joined by a good number of members for an excellent lunch.