Coventry Cap

Yes, but that is not a Coventry cap as described above. Not with eight panels and a button on top. Just because someone is in Coventry or born here doesn't say that it is obligatory to wear the Coventry cap.

Norman Conquest. In the beginning I merely said that the majority of the working men wore a normal flat cap, I had never heard of a Coventry Cap until the late forties, I have yet to see one, or see a photo of a working man wearing one? Six uncles all wore flat caps and never a Coventry Cap mentioned throughout my first 17 years. Eight panels and a button sounds more like a cub cap, doubt a working man would wear one, never saw anyone in Bell Green wearing one. Not seen one on this forum?

My mother, born in 1928 and with families that had lived in Coventry since at least the late 1700s, has never seen a Coventry cap either. Her dad always wore the flat cap. Nevertheless, she, like so many other people, would respond almost automatically to a description of a person being a Coventry kid with "with a button in his cap".

Have just been lent a book entitled 'Coventry's Heritage' by Levi Fox Published 1947. There is a section re Coventry caps. 'More substantial was Coventry's trade in round woollen caps, which at one time were worn by all classes. The cappers first appeared in the city about 1450 and within fifty years won for themselves a wide reputation. They were recognised as a gild (sic) and had their ordinances approved in 1496. Customs records show that Coventry caps were being exported in Henry VII's reign and John Leland who visited Coventry about 1540 wrote that "the towne rose by makynge of clothe and capps" It then goes on to say that felt hats were soon made too when fashionable in Elizabeth I's reign and the cappers and feltmakers received a special licence from the Queen. The trade after a time became less popular and gradually declined in the seventeenth century. There is a picture of the Coventry Cappers' and Feltmakers company Arms, which shows 2 hats, both a bit like a flat type of bowler hat. There's also a section about the Coventry Dyers and the special blue dye and the quote 'True as Coventry blue'.

To add to this story I can recall going to work in the motor Industry in 1950s when the known Coventry Cap was worn by most older working gentleman. My granddad would always say you are not a true Coventry Kid until you have in your procession a cloth cap with eight panels and button on top. I have seen my relations wearing caps in a 1930s photograph and in the1960s my granddad insisted when his time came his Coventry Cap would go with him. There was more attached to the eight panel cap, it had to be made by certain manufactory, I don't know, it could have been made by Dunn & Co?

Tony 1, to add further, I'm not disputing what you say, but there are literally scores of old photo's of the twenties, thirties, on this forum, with men wearing cloth caps, they all look flat caps to me without panels or buttons, which Dunn's did make, maybe it's six of one and half-a-dozen of the other. Regards, kaga.

Was there any significance to the 'Coventry Cap' having eight panels? My dad used to say it represented the original eight city gatehouses. But as far as I'm aware there were twelve gatehouses. Maybe there isn't any significance and it was just the way they were made. Anyone got any thoughts?

This fine photo in Rob's collection shows a number of such caps as well as being a fine view soon after the Council House was built.

Years ago, all working class men all over the country seemed to wear a cap. Both my grandfathers wore them (brickie and tinsmith). I've never heard of the expression "Coventry cap" until a few weeks ago. But it was from a bloke in a pub who had been drinking a few pints with his mate. He was originally from Scotland (he said, despite having no such accent), and only came up with this Coventry cap business when I said I was a Coventry Kid. I thought he was trying to wind me up, so I let the subject drop and walked away.

My grandfather always wore a flat cap. After leaving the army post WWII he was a bus driver and when the omnibus came out he was the first to drive in Coventry without a 'clippie'. Before emigrating to Canada I was working in London and got talking to an old chap in a London pub who told me that in his youth you always could tell a Coventry Kid as they always had a cloth covered button on top of their cap; although he didn't actually use the term 'Coventry Cap'. I now find myself in the market for a flat cap, or three, and have been researching the whole issue of style, material, etc... as I would like something that reflects my heritage. My step father vaguely remembers talk of an eight panelled cap with a button on it being called the 'Coventry Cap' which jives with some of the discussion threads on this site, although again no one can definitively say one way or the other the origins or if the 'Coventry Cap' was a thing. I have been looking to see if there is a midland company that still makes flat caps, but there appears to be none left. I have however, found a family company in Yorkshire who still makes them by hand. Before I submit my order I am trying to find out if there is particular tweed pattern/colour that was preferred by Coventry folk or was it just a case of whatever was available at the time? Be much obliged if anyone can confirm one way or the other. Thanks in advance.

After getting into some debate on here about the cloth cap, I felt I wouldn't get in to further debate by mentioning about sewing razor blades in the peak of the cap slashing it across someones forehead, but since the tv series Peaky Blinders came on it's more published. In the fifties they changed the blades to the ties.

There was a something on the BBC news 'Midlands Today' at lunchtime about a company in Birmingham having full order books for Peaky Blinders caps. I have no knowledge of the Coventry Cap other than seeing it on the statue by the cathedral. I don't know anything about a Peaky Blinders cap either despite working with Brummies for many years and almost understanding what they said. I have been for a drink in one of the pubs I am told was featured in the series but that was a long time ago when I was younger, braver, and had plenty of big mates with me. Years ago I was told that teddy boys and football hooligans put razor blades in their coat collars so that anyone who grabbed them, particularly a policeman, would get a nasty cut. I have never seen any evidence of either, but an old policeman showed me a scar on his finger which he attributed to a teddy boy in the 50's.