Welcome to the Victorian Underground Project

For the people who have read some of the backstories of the Victorian Underground, you may recall us mentioning ‘insect hatting’. This was a variant of flower hatting, plant hatting and other types of ‘hatting’.

These were small gatherings of gentlemen who would meet up once a week to share their love of hat making and, in this case, insects.

The images in this collection were taken in a tiny village somewhere in Yorkshire. We have scant information other than the members met at a public house called The Golden Locust every Tuesday.

We also know that the gentleman in photograph #1 is Hamish Murray who is holding a now extinct insect which was known as a whipping willow. This must’ve been the experimental offspring of Mr Murray’s personal breed because it’s more than a thousand times bigger than what they normally are.

Enjoy your evening and we’ll be seeing you soon.

TVUP