Parts of historic hat works to be bulldozed
HUGE parts of a historic Stockport building are set to be bulldozed as part of a plan to build a new neighbourhood.
Town hall chiefs have approved proposals for a revamp of the former Battersby Hat Works on Offerton industrial estate.
The former factory site dates back to 1886.
Warrington-based Land End Developments plans to build 144 homes at the site where tens of thousands of hats were made every week in the factory’s heyday.
Of those, 89 will be ‘affordable’ - 62 per cent of all properties. Developers say 10 will be on offer for ‘affordable’ rent, while 97 will be for shared ownership. The remaining 55 homes will be for market sale.
There are currently 34 people employed in more than 30 commercial units at the site, but most of the buildings are empty.
Council bosses have vowed to protect those jobs and relocate people elsewhere across Stockport.
Battersby Hats once produced 12,000 felt hats a week and employed more than 1,000 people.
Business took a downturn in the second half of the 20th century and in 1996 Battersby merged with four other felt hat manufacturers - Christy and Co Ltd and T and W Lees Ltd, both of Stockport and J Moores and Sons Ltd, and Joseph Wilson and Sons Ltd, both of Denton - to form Associated British Hat Manufacturers.
Production at the Offerton site ceased altogether in 1997.
The factory was used as the first Hat Works museum in the borough before the exhibitions were moved to Wellington Mill on the A6 once it was renovated in 2000.
All locally-listed industrial structures, apart from a section facing Hemphaw Lane and another nearby block, will be knocked down.
The iconic water tower - described as a ‘local landmark’ - will be kept.
Emblazoned with a ‘B’ for Battersby, the water tower was built following a blaze at the factory in 1906.