The shovel hat was a style of hat formerly associated with the

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

clergy, particularly

archdeacon An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denomina ...

s and

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

Description

William Alexander Vanity Fair 21 November 1895

The hat was usually made of black

beaver Beavers (genus ''Castor'') are large, semiaquatic rodents of the Northern Hemisphere. There are two existing species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers are the second-large ...

or felt, and had a low, round crown and a wide brim, which projected in a shovel-like curve at the front and rear and was often worn turned up at the sides.Cumming (ed.) ''The Carlyle Encyclopaedia'', FDUP, 2004, p.428Picken, ''A Dictionary of Costume and Fashion'', 2013, p.167 Like the

tricorne The tricorne or tricorn is a style of hat in a triangular shape, which became popular in Europe during the 18th century, falling out of style by the early 1800s. The word "tricorne" was not widely used until the mid-19th century. During the 18th ...

it was a development of the low-crowned broad-brimmed hats fashionable in the later 17th century. Along with the bishop's

apron An apron is a garment worn over other clothing to cover the front of the body to protect from liquids. They have several purposes, most commonly as a functional accessory that protects clothes and skin from stains and marks. However, other typ ...

and

gaiters Gaiters are garments worn over the shoe and bottom of the pant or trouser leg and used primarily as personal protective equipment, in particular against snakebite. They are also commonly used to keep the bottom of the pant-leg dry when hiking ...

, the shovel hat was an instantly recognisable accoutrement of senior Anglican clergy between the 18th and late 19th century, although it was also worn by

parson A parson is an ordained Christian person responsible for a small area, typically a parish. The term was formerly often used for some Anglican clergy and, more rarely, for ordained ministers in some other churches. It is no longer a formal term d ...

s and less senior figures. By the mid 19th century it was already seen as somewhat traditionalist or old-fashioned: Carlyle coined the term "''shovelhattery''" to attack hidebound orthodoxy in the Church of England. The term "''broad-brimmed''", occasionally used to describe Anglican churchmen in the 19th century (particularly the Evangelical party) was also derived from the shovel hat.Bradshaw (ed) ''The voice of toil: nineteenth-century British writings about work'', OUP, 2000, p.51 In the 1849 novel '' Shirley'' by

Charlotte Brontë Charlotte Nicholls (; 21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855), commonly known as Charlotte Brontë (, commonly ), was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë family, Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novel ...

, chapters 1 and 17, the clergyman Mr Helstone is described as wearing a "

Rehoboam Rehoboam (; , , ; , ; ) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the first monarch of the Kingdom of Judah after the split of the united Kingdom of Israel. He was a son of and the successor to Solomon and a grandson of David. In the account of I Ki ...

, or shovel hat". In the 1855 novel ''

The Warden ''The Warden'' is a novel by English author Anthony Trollope published by Longman in 1855. It is the first book in the ''Chronicles of Barsetshire'' series, followed by '' Barchester Towers''. Synopsis Mr Septimus Harding is the meek, widowed ...

'' by

Anthony Trollope Anthony Trollope ( ; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among the best-known of his 47 novels are two series of six novels each collectively known as the ''Chronicles of Barsetshire ...

, the archdeacon, Dr Grantly, wears a shovel hat and in Chapter 6 it is suggested that the Bishop might be worried that should reformers get their way they could end up making shovel hats and other associated Anglican raiment illegal.

References

{{Hats Hats Anglican vestments Religious headgear

Description

See also

References