Many will remember Fred Adshead as a proud Dentonian who followed the age-old advice: 'If you want to get ahead, get a hat!'

The stalwart Tory councillor and Christ Church lay reader, who had worked as a finisher in the local hatting industry, would always be seen out and about smartly dressed and wearing a bowler.

Fifty years ago he was nearing the end of his term of office as the Denton Council chairman - one of the last to wear the chain of office before the town became part of Tameside in 1974.

In November 1971, the ever-dapper Cllr Adshead and his ‘chairman’s lady’ Mrs Hilda Jarrett had a civic visit in their diary which must have seemed ‘tailor made’.

They were given a guided tour of Joseph Howe and Sons’ factory on Amelia Street, which at the time was one of Denton’s last remaining felt and woollen hat makers.

Founded in 1832, the firm still employed about 100 people and continued to export to Holland, Scandinavia, South Africa and Australia.

Read more about the Hats Off to Denton trail which gets under way this weekend here: https://www.questmedianetwork.co.uk/news/tameside-reporter/our-big-hat-reveal-at-the-create-centre-in-denton/

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