Denton Hat Mills, Abbotsford
The former Denton Hat Mills factory complex is a large and important 19th century factory complex, comparable to similar establishments in England and America. By the 1880s the Denton Hat Mills company was a leading exporter of hats to the other Australian colonies. The existing polychrome brick factory was built c1888, replacing the factory which was established on the site by James Hobson Turner, a local tanner and Collingwood Town Councillor, in 1874. It is an example of a very early extant factory complex, its chimney stack dating from c1890. Portions of the Nicholson Street section may date from as early as 1888.
The former Denton Hat Mills factory complex has historical significance for its associations with the hat making industry and clothing trade in Melbourne since 1874. The factory rapidly grew to be one of the suburb s largest, reflecting the prosperity of the Denton Hat Mills company. Three early prominent hat manufacturers, James Hobson Turner, Thomas Shelmerdine and Thomas Davison were associated with the Mills, as well as the important merchants, importers and warehousemen, George and Leader Stevenson and, from the 1890s, the brothers John and George Bruce, principal partners in Victoria's leading softgoods house, Paterson, Laing and Bruce.
The Denton Hat Mills complex has architectural significance for its associations with the important Melbourne architect, William Pitt (1855-1918), who designed some of Melbourne's most notable buildings, including the Princess Theatre and the Rialto and Olderfleet Buildings in Collins Street. The Denton Hat Mills is one of a number of significant large factory complexes designed by Pitt. It is thought to represent some of his earliest extant factory designs, predating his 1890s work at Foy and Gibson and the Victoria Brewery and his 1909 work at Bryant and May. The Denton Hat Mills complex is of scientific significance because it was Australia's first steam-powered hat factory and one of only ten percent of all Victorian clothing factories of the 1880s which boasted powered/mechanized plant. The imposing building remained a hat factory until 1971.
Location: 48-60 Nicholson Street, Abbotsford, Vic.
James Hobson Turner, his wife Susannah, and James Miller, a rope manufacturer, purchased the land in June 1870. Councillor Turner from 1872 onwards then established a large workshop opposite his tannery in Nicholson Street. The hat factory was a further logical step following the skin washing and tanning, using raw materials of wool, rabbit fur and leather which were cleaned and treated on the premises. By 1877, a brick factory had been constructed on the site and Thomas Shelmerdine (the son of a Lancashire hat manufacturer), Thomas Davison and Robert Simon were the new manager-lessees, whilst Turner continued ownership. Business improved as the community came to accept locally manufactured hats rather than demanding imported hats.
By 1879, the factory was owned by well-known businessman George Stevenson, of George and Leader Stevenson, merchants, importers and warehousemen. After originally being known as the Fayrefield Hat Factory, in 1880 the building became known as the Denton Hat Factory, perhaps after the town of Denton, near Manchester, which is known for its hat manufacturing industries. Advertisements of the time suggested Denton's was Australia's first felt hat factory, producing both soft and hard felt hats and being one of the few Victorian clothing factories using mechanised plant. In 1881, the new owners expanded the factory including the construction of the chimney stack. The factory rapidly expanded with the number of employees increasing from 12 in 1874, to 70 in 1876, 120 in 1883 and 208 in 1887, with a turnover reaching 30,000 pounds per year and processing of thousands of rabbit skins and hundreds of bales of wool annually. Edward Shaw was the mill manager and resided in a brick cottage beside the Nicholson Street complex.
By 1882, Shelmerdine had left to build Collingwood's second hat factory in Trenerry Crescent, Abbotsford in the newly-subdivided Dight's Paddock.
In 1887, the firm was restructured to enable the buy out of the existing hat manufacturing business of Patterson, Laing and Bruce, known as the London and Paris Hat Company and based in North Fitzroy. The company directors of Denton Hat Mills were George Stevenson, and John and George Bruce, with the Bruce brothers being large shareholders in the mills. John Bruce was president of the Softgoods Association, the Warehouseman's Association, the YMCA and the Melbourne Hospital. Following John Bruce's early death in 1901, George succeeded him as the chairman of Denton's.
