Cleator Kangol factory revamp plans submitted
Plans to convert a derelict hat factory into offices have been submitted.The Kangol factory in Cleator, west Cumbria, once employed hundreds of people and produced four million hats a year before it closed in 2009.Developer Cleator Mills Business Park has now submitted plans to Cumberland Council to refurbish the vacant site, now called The Flax Works, into offices. Kangol started production in the village in 1938 but left 71 years later when production was shifted overseas.
The site was established in 1800 as a flax mill, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, and was acquired by Kangol founder Jacques Spreiregen, a Polish First World War veteran.Kangol became a key supplier of berets to the British armed forces during World War Two.
Later the brand found favour with such disparate characters as Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, actor Samuel L Jackson, and hip-hop artists of the 1980s and 90s.The hats are now manufactured in the US and Eastern Europe, while just one mill building and a tower remain on the original site.The refurbishment project's architects said in a report that they would prioritise "preserving and enhancing its historical industrial character while meeting modern functional requirements".
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