Then we run our little boat into some quiet nook, and the tent is pitched, and the frugal supper cooked and eaten. Then the big pipes are filled and lighted, and the pleasant chat goes round in musical undertone; while, in the pauses of our talk, the river, playing around the boat, prattles strange old tales and secrets, sings low the old child’s song that it has sung so many thousand years…
Three Men In A Boat (To Say Nothing Of The Dog), Jerome K. Jerome, 1889.
I found this photo along with some others that were definitely from York, at a car boot sale.
Fabulous hats, either knitted and felted or woven. Also ‘sporting’ jumpers, V, polo and crew necked. The jumpers look to be cream, natural colour wool – and are more likely to be machine-knitted although it’s possible one or two were hand-knitted. The hats look to be different colours; some with darker brims than their main bodies. Although the gent front left’s hat is all one colour.
The men’s collars make me think we are looking somewhere between 1910 – early 1920s. It’s clearly a studio photo. I can’t be sure whether they were the rowing club, or participants in a special event on the river. But anyway – some documentation of early 20thC sporting clothing that would otherwise have been lost to us forever.
PENELOPE HEMINGWAY 
2 replies on “Fabulous Hats!”
Wonderful hats! I’m wondering whether the two wearing polo neck sweaters served in the Navy since that style was very common there and continued to be so into and beyond the second world war. And interesting to see how many of them have the neck of another undergarment showing underneath the sweater and also underneath their shirt.
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The Rowing Roosters, or the Coastal Cockerels! Lovely little image – though it’s always sad when the photograph has come adrift from its owners/family/history, and all you have are the faces staring out at strangers.
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