The Woolfenden Family of Dane Bank, Denton
The founder of the Woolfenden family hatting business in Denton was Joseph Woolfenden I who was born at Broadoak Farm, Radcliffe, Lancashire, and he was baptised there on the 2 Jun 1776.
His parents were Joseph Woolfenden and Betty.
He married Mary Rothwell at St Mary's Church, Radcliffe, on the 25 Nov 1798 and she was born at Lumb Carr, Holcombe, Bury, Lancashire, in 1775/76.
Joseph Woolfenden I died at Denton on the 30 May 1853, aged 77 years, and his wife Mary Woolfenden née Rothwell died at Denton in 1842, aged 66 years. Their descendants, partially based on the 1851 census, are:
In 1841, Henry Layland Woolfenden I was resident next door to his father, Joseph Woolfenden I, with his wife and two children, and he was described as a Hat Maker, the address being Dane Shutt Bank. This area of Denton is now known as Dane Bank but other variations are Dane Shot Bank, Dane Shut Bank, Daneshot Bank and Dean Shut Bank.
It seems that Joseph Woolfenden I took little or no part in the actual hatting business, preferring to leave this to his sons while he cared for the farming side of the business. According to the company's own literature, J Woolfenden & Co was established in 1830.
The above data shows that Joseph Woolfenden I moved to Denton with his family sometime in 1819 or 1820 to live at Dane Shot Bank Farm. The 1841 and 1851 censuses both show Joseph Woolfenden I to be a farmer and the latter census informs us that at the age of 74 years he was farming 46 acres and employing two labourers. Both censuses show all the sons to be hat makers.
An extant bow garret is situated in the backyard of a house on Market St, Denton. This is listed as a domestic hatting workshop, Grade II, List Entry No. 1419033. Another bow garret was situated on Two Trees Ln, Haughton Green, but this is no longer extant.
By the 1861 census, the sons Thomas, aged 57 years, Joseph II, aged 50 years, and James, aged 42 years and a widower, are resident at Dane Shot Bank. Henry Layland, aged 53 years, is resident on Thornley Ln, which is nearby on the Denton boundary with Reddish, and Elias Woolfenden, aged 40 years, is resident on New Rd. With the exception of Thomas, the sons are described as being hat manufacturers. Thomas is a farmer of 30 acres employing 13 men and 1 boy, which suggests that, although the farm has shrunk in area, it was being intensively worked. The 1861 census also records that Joseph Bassnett, aged 63 years, of Denton was a hat manufacturer resident at Dane Shot Bank. He was married to Ann Woolfenden, aged 61 years. On the 11 Jul 1866 Joseph Bassnett stepped down as a partner leaving Joseph Woolfenden II, Henry Layland Woolfenden I, James Woolfenden and Elias Woolfenden as partners.
In 1869 the Woolfenden hatting family became connected by marriage with the Howe hatting family of Denton when Mary Ann Woolfenden married Joseph Cooper Howe at Christ Church, Denton. Mary Ann Woolfenden was born at Denton in 1846 and she is the daughter of James Woolfenden and Sarah Downs who were married at St John’s Church, Manchester, in 1846.
By the 1871 census, Thomas, aged 68 years, is a farmer of 28 acres employing 4 men and 1 boy at Dane Shot Bank Farm on Windmill Ln. Henry Layland, aged 64 years, is a hat manufacturer resident at Dane Shot Bank, Windmill Ln. Joseph II, aged 61 years, is a hat manufacturer resident at Dane Shot Bank, Windmill Ln. James, aged 53 years, is a hat manufacturer resident at Dane Shot Bank, Windmill Ln. Elias, aged 50 years, is a hat manufacturer resident on Windmill Ln. From the above addresses it can be deduced that Henry Layland, Joseph II and James are resident at the three houses opposite to Dane Shot Bank Farm on the other side of Windmill Ln (High Bank).
The 1870s witnessed the death of three of the Woolfenden brothers:
The 1881 census shows that the Woolfenden family had, by this time, given up the family home at Dane Shot Bank Farm and Joseph Weir, aged 54 years, is farming 28 acres. James Woolfenden, aged 63 years, is a hat manufacturer employing 150 workers and he is resident at Dane Bank. Elias Woolfenden, aged 60 years, is a hat manufacturer resident at 2 Dane Bank. By 1887 the three partners in the family business were James Woolfenden, Elias Woolfenden and John Woolfenden. On the 31 Dec 1887 James and Elias Woolfenden retired and the business continued with John Woolfenden and Thomas Woolfenden, who was a new partner. In effect, control of the business had passed to the next (third) generation.
In 1891, James Woolfenden, aged 73 years, is resident at High Bank and other family members still occupy the other two houses at High Bank. Elias Woolfenden, aged 70 years, is resident at 2 Dane Bank. In 1897/98 and again in 1898/99, Thomas Woolfenden, a Justice of the Peace, was the Chairman of Denton Council. This Thomas Woolfenden (born 1851) belonged to the third generation and he was the son of James Woolfenden. On the 6 Mar 1899 he performed the opening ceremony for Denton Town Hall, which had originally been the free library that opened in 1889.
In 1901, James Woolfenden, aged 83 years, is resident at High Bank and Elias Woolfenden, aged 80 years, is resident at Dane Bank.
Finally, the business passed into the control of the fourth (and last) generation. By 1934 the business partners were Tom Wilfrid Woolfenden, Henry Layland Woolfenden II, Ellis Taylor Woolfenden and Frank Woolfenden. On the 24 Nov 1934, Tom Wilfrid Woolfenden retired. By 1942 the business partners were John Albert Woolfenden, Ellis Taylor Woolfenden and Frank Woolfenden.
J Woolfenden & Co, Silk & Felt Hat Manufacturers
In c.1836 a depression began in the hatting industry but it seems that this did not affect Denton until c.1841.
At this time, the industry in Denton was still family based and families without work found it difficult to move away to seek work because of restrictions on their movements.
Tithe apportionments for Haughton and Denton were completed in 1845 and 1849, respectively and those for Haughton list six hat manufacturers (Henry and James Booth, Joseph Howe, John Mallalieu, John Peacock, Ashton Yates
and Luke Taylor, while Denton lists none. In Denton, Joseph Woolfendale (Woolfenden) I of Dane Bank is described as owning his own croft.
However, this must be contrasted with the 1841 census return that states that his sons were, indeed, hat makers. This suggests that the embryonic family business
was still very much a cottage industry at this stage of development.
It is understood that the small two-storey extension (with external steps at the rear to the first floor) at the west elevation of Dane Shot Bank Farm was built in 1861/62 and this signalled an expansion of the hatting business but the original purpose of this domestic workshop was not recorded. It is likely that the first floor was a bow garret used for preparing the loose raw fibres of the fur by a bower, while the ground floor was used as a planking shop where hat bodies were prepared. At this stage these were cone-shaped felted and shrunken hoods. Another possibility, because of its fairly late date of construction, is that it was used for stiffening and proofing purposes. However, Middleton (Middleton, Thomas, 1936, The History of Denton and Haughton, Hyde) states that the firm only made hat bodies that were stiffened and proofed elsewhere, before being returned for finishing.
Initially the firm specialised in the manufacture of fur, silk and black soft felt hats and then velour hats. Later, they expanded the business to manufacture ladies' and children's hats in fur, felt and velour.
Thomas Woolfenden died in 1872, aged 70 years, and in the following year the four hat-making brothers began to expand the business. To the east of Dane Shot Bank Farm, near the railway line, they built their original hat works. This was brick built, three-storeys high that boasted a clock and the inscription 'J W & Co 1873'. Subsequent additions included of a brick-built, two-storey edifice of 6 by 2 bays, with a basement and chimney, and a two-storey edifice of 4 by 6 bays. However, an engraving of the site shows several other buildings as well.
Additionally, the Woolfenden family built houses for themselves and rows of terraced houses for their workforce, which ranged along High Bank, Windmill Ln (Dane Bank), Daneshot St and Joseph St. They provided a shop at 1 Daneshot St (south end) and a hostelry at 17 Daneshot St (north end) called the Dane Bank Hotel. The result of this building activity was a close-knit industrial hamlet for the manufacture of hats.
View looking west along Windmill Ln in the direction of the hamlet of Blue Stone, early 20th century.
The level of the lane was lowered here in the 1840s to allow the London & North Western Railway, Stockport–Guide Bridge Line, to cross over the lane behind the viewpoint. This required the construction of the substantial stone retaining wall on the right.
The terraced houses were built by the Woolfenden family to be rented to the employees of their hat works and the hat-works chimney stands behind the houses. The Woolfenden family resided at High Bank off the picture to the left.
Earlier names for Windmill Ln were Dane Shot Ln and Dark Ln. The short Bluestone Rd had not been constructed by this time but it is unusual in that Windmill Ln is at both ends of it.
The back of the row of eight terraced houses and the Dane Bank Hotel on Daneshot St (Dane St), 1947.
The Dane Bank Hotel is on the right and a grocer’s shop is at the opposite end adjacent to Windmill Ln. The houses are fenced off from the railway by old railway sleepers stood on end. The hotel was replaced by a new one, with the same name, on Windmill Ln in 1940.
In 1901 the publican was Josiah Bowden (59). He was resident there with his wife Hannah Clews (58), daughter, May (20), and niece, Maud Rhead (16). May was a barmaid and Maud was a housemaid. Josiah died on the 21 Mar 1905, aged 63 years, and his wife then became the publican. However, by 1911 Albert Kinder (50) was the publican and the shopkeeper at the grocer’s shop was Miss Eliza Millichip (47).
Slater's Directories, Denton, for 1903, 1909 & 1911 listing J Woolfenden & Co
Supplementary family details
Company closure
The firm of J Woolfenden & Co closed in 1935 when it was sold for £6,550 to the Dane Bank Estate for re-development.
On the 30 Sep 1942 the company was dissolved by mutual consent.
The partners in the business at this time were Ellis Taylor Woolfenden, Frank Woolfenden and John Albert Woolfenden.
A brief new use for Woolfenden’s Hat Works
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor on the 7 Dec 1941 and Hitler’s declaration of war against the United States on the 11 Dec 1941,
American soldiers began to be stationed in England. Some of these were billeted in part of the disused hat works.