The list of Denton hat manufacturers given in the table below is based on the Denton telephone directory for 1899-1900 and the list of the British Felt Hat Manufacturers’ Federation for 1902.

Hat manufacture reached a peak in the Edwardian Era but during the First World War there was a significant loss of domestic and overseas markets. Throughout the 1930s market conditions did not improve as motor car use caused more informality of dress. During and after the Second World War the industry went into severe decline. In 1966 the Associated British Hat Manufacturers Ltd (ABHM Ltd) was incorporated in a merger of the five largest surviving firms in the North West, namely:

Trade marks of the three Stockport hat manufacturers who merged with ABHM Ltd are illustrated below:

ABHM Ltd was a holding company and its purpose was to rationalise an industry that was facing a declining home market and foreign competition. Following the merger production was concentrated at the Christy factory in Stockport and the Wilson factory in Denton. In 1980 ABHM Ltd sold the share capital of Christy & Co to Cadogan Oakley Ltd of Bradford, West Yorkshire, for £1.2 million. This resulted in all remaining hat production being centred at the Christy factory in Stockport but the decline continued and this factory was closed in 1997 with the exception of the felting process that remained in Stockport. Operations were then consolidated at Witney, Oxfordshire, with Compton Webb*. In 2011 the department store, Liberty, acquired Christy & Co and Compton Webb. In the meantime, J Moores & Sons Ltd and Joseph Wilson & Son Ltd were wound up in Feb 1977.

In 1921 the Denton Hat Co Ltd was the last of Denton’s hat companies to be founded. It created the popular ‘Attaboy’ hat and it closed in c.1976.