This week’s Peeps into the Past is doffing its cap to National Hat Day on Friday, March 28 with this remarkable photo of a very hat-heavy photo of a fair in Farnham’s Castle Street.

We’re unsure of the date but would hazard a guess that it's during the First World War as there is a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) stall on the left and tellingly, very few young male faces in the crowd.

The image is worth looking at closely as there is a lot of detail. There is a large funfair further up the street and a military band around a bus on the right.

There are also plenty of hats on display - in fact, Peeps can only see a single uncovered head in the crowd. Can you spot him? Even the children are wearing headwear.

There are plenty of homburg and bowler hats on show, which by the 1910s had replaced the top hat as the gentleman's hat of choice - but had not yet been usurped by the 1920s fedora boom.

There are a good few flat caps too. These tended to be worn in more casual or work settings - though do not necessarily denote a lower social class. The casual setting of the fair shows nobody was out of place.

The children pictured - all of whom would be in their 110s if still alive today - are wearing decorative bonnets, while many of the women are donning attractive bowlers with peaks either shortened, upturned or downturned. It is a shame we cannot see their myriad colours.

Most women are noticeably also wearing fur and men woollen jackets - revealing the fashion of the day but also, perhaps, the time of year.

There is also a good scattering of sailors’ caps on show - one assumes worn by Naval officers and ratings on shore leave.

At the entrance to modern-day St George’s Yard on the right is a sign for Watney Combe Reid & Co and hanging from the building in front is a sign for Reid’s Stout.

A leading brewery in its day, Watney Combe & Reid acquired the former Farnham Brewery Co Ltd in 1888 and ran a depot from Castle Street, serving pubs across Farnham and the surrounding area.

Beyond the brewery depot, there appears to be a military band performing in front of a tram car - an odd sight given Farnham’s historic lack of tramways. An ancestor of Castle Street’s present-day orangerie buildings?

Visible fairground rides include swing boats and an ornate carousel - not dissimilar in size or appearance to the wonderful Victorian steam carousel still in operation at Hollycombe Steam in the Country in Liphook - the steam visibly puffing out of the carousel’s central chimney.

The aforementioned VAD stall can be seen on the left. The VAD system was founded in 1909 with the help of the British Red Cross and Order of St John and by the summer of 1914 there were more than 2,500 Voluntary Aid Detachments in Britain, each mustering volunteer nurses to care for wounded Tommies.

In front of that is the aforementioned ruffled gentlemen missing his hat - in case you hadn’t spotted him.

A few baseball caps and bobble hats aside, today’s equivalent scene would see far fewer hats on display. There is though one committed Farnham local doing her bit to keep the great and good’s heads covered for special occasions.

Beverley Edmondson Millinery is going as strong as ever after relocating from The Borough to Mead Lane - and its eponymous founder has a unique perspective on the evolution of hat-wearing over the decades.

In a blog post some years ago, Beverley noted that, less than 100 years ago, “if you weren’t wearing a hat, you would be looked at as either ‘deranged, penniless or drunk’”.

Hats were status symbols, storage spaces, and even tools for drawing lots, she added. “You would not leave home without a hat, if not on the head then certainly tucked beneath the arm.”