Bondagers and the ‘Ugli’ Hat

Bondagers and the ‘Ugli’ hat
‘Ugli’ hats were made by generations of female farm workers to a standard design. Often brightly coloured, they protected the wearer against sun, rain and wind. Wicker stiffened the neck band and ties and nine hooped canes created a stiff hood.

Typically the ‘ugli’ hat was worn as workwear by women who were known as ‘bondagers’. They also wore a coarse woollen skirt covered with a striped apron or a jute apron called a ‘brac’, a cotton blouse, a woollen shawl and hob nailed boots. The term ‘bondager’ applied to female workers who worked for free. This was usually as part of an agreement between her husband and his employer to provide an unpaid worker for at least 21 days a year during the sowing and harvesting seasons. The bondage system – “that most degrading and mischievous system” – had disappeared by the end of the nineteenth century but female farm workers were still known as bondagers well into the 20th century. Based on a description written by Whitekirk SWRI in 1966.

Find out how Lilja Husmo made our replica Bondager’s costume by clicking here.