User:Mossymam

Bow garrets were early domestic hat workshops situated near the home of the hatter. They were used in the hatting industry before the mechanisation of the processes which then enabled the industry to produce on a larger scale, forcing the industry to become mill based.

The structure normally takes the form of a single room, one or two storey brick built structure with a fire place downstairs and large workbench upstairs.

The name ‘bow garret’ has its origins in the structure itself and from the first process of preparing the fur in order to felt it. This was called bowing, a process where the fur was cleaned and separated using a hatters bow, a large wooden implement strung with cat gut. Garret means ‘room on top floor’, hence the name bow garret.

BowingLeft, an illustration showing the ‘bowing’ process of the fur, Penny Magazine, 1841

There would normally be a fireplace within the bow garret for the second process of the hatting industry which is called ‘planking’. This is where the fur is formed into a felt and eventually into an unfinished hood which forms the basis of a hat.

The planking process usually happened on the ground floor and required hot water and a large open container called a kettle, which is why a fireplace was required to heat the water.--Mossymam (talk) 13:46, 12 October 2013 (UTC)