Work begins to redevelop former Kangol factory

Work has begun to redevelop a former hat factory that has stood empty for 15 years.

The Kangol factory in Cleator, west Cumbria, once employed hundreds of people and made four million hats a year before it closed in 2009.

However, the site may employ significant numbers of workers once more, with new offices and industrial space planned.

Cleator Mills Business Park, the developer behind the project, said 400 people could potentially be employed on the 2.6 hectare (6.5 acre) site.

"We create the buildings and we believe that people will come to those places," Mark Walker, the firm's managing director said.

Kangol first opened its doors in the village in 1938, but the factory closed 71 years later after production was shifted overseas.

About 100 students from Manchester University’s school of architecture are coming up with ideas for refurbishing the oldest part of the site - a derelict sandstone building.

According to Dr Richard Morton, senior lecturer at the school, the building provides a challenge in how to "embrace all of the low-carbon opportunities".

"[The challenge is] how we can think about low-carbon in terms of the way you heat and cool, how you make really good quality architecture?

"When you have a fantastic building like that, we can reuse buildings like this to achieve fantastic spaces as well."

Jody McQuiston, owner of dog training business Cumbria Canine Services, has moved into an already-refurbished part of the former factory.

"It will be really good for us," she said.

"It will be great to have other businesses around to all link in and work together."

Kangol hats - and berets - 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 being manufactured in the US and Eastern Europe.

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