Hattersleys

Contains a small collection of items used in promoting and publicising the firm of Hattersleys and its products.

T. S. Hattersley and Son Ltd was founded in about 1890. The founder, Thomas Sands Hattersley began making cricket bats at a small factory in Eccles, Manchester. Hockey sticks and tennis rackets were added to the range and the business flourished and expanded. Thomas Hattersley died in 1910 and the business was carried on by his son John.

The first lacrosse sticks were manufactured in 1912 in response to an increasing interest in the game from girls schools and the formation of lacrosse clubs, particularly in the Manchester area. Initially demand outstripped supply. Production was scaled down at the start of the First World War and the company focused on making crosses for the girls game. After 1918 the company's sole business was in the manufacture and sale of lacrosse products, and in particular the hickory crosse 'Viktoria' which became a benchmark in stick design.

Following the death of John Hattersley in [1944], the business was first managed by his wife Hetty (nee Rigby), and after 1945 by his brother-in-law Vernon Rigby. In 1959 the business was passed to Colonel Godfrey Rigby, a nephew of Vernon Rigby. He oversaw a large expansion in the firm's activities including the building of larger factory premises at Weymouth Road in Eccles in 1965, where the company has remained, to accommodate increasing demand from a resurgence in the men's game worldwide and increasing interest from the women's game in the UK and the USA.

Colonel Rigby died in 1984 and the company passed to his son Dr. J. A. Rigby. This was at a time when plastic lacrosse sticks were being introduced and Dr. Rigby forged an alliance between Hattersleys and STX of America, the inventor of the modern plastic stick. Hattersleys manufactured their last ever wooden lacrosse stick in 2014 and the company moved away from manufacturing to a trading company selling lacrosse sticks and equipment.

The papers were gifted to the University of Bedfordshire by Hattersleys on 2 December 2015, under Accession No. AWL2015/014.

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