diff --git a/netlib/http/http1/read.py b/netlib/http/http1/read.py
index 93fca04ea..5783ec67d 100644
--- a/netlib/http/http1/read.py
+++ b/netlib/http/http1/read.py
@@ -9,6 +9,18 @@ from .. import Request, Response, Headers
 from .. import url
 
 
+def get_header_tokens(headers, key):
+    """
+        Retrieve all tokens for a header key. A number of different headers
+        follow a pattern where each header line can containe comma-separated
+        tokens, and headers can be set multiple times.
+    """
+    if key not in headers:
+        return []
+    tokens = headers[key].split(",")
+    return [token.strip() for token in tokens]
+
+
 def read_request(rfile, body_size_limit=None):
     request = read_request_head(rfile)
     expected_body_size = expected_http_body_size(request)
@@ -148,7 +160,7 @@ def connection_close(http_version, headers):
     """
     # At first, check if we have an explicit Connection header.
     if "connection" in headers:
-        tokens = utils.get_header_tokens(headers, "connection")
+        tokens = get_header_tokens(headers, "connection")
         if "close" in tokens:
             return True
         elif "keep-alive" in tokens:
diff --git a/netlib/utils.py b/netlib/utils.py
index 91da471b6..a2d8c97d0 100644
--- a/netlib/utils.py
+++ b/netlib/utils.py
@@ -177,18 +177,6 @@ def is_valid_port(port):
     return 0 <= port <= 65535
 
 
-def get_header_tokens(headers, key):
-    """
-        Retrieve all tokens for a header key. A number of different headers
-        follow a pattern where each header line can containe comma-separated
-        tokens, and headers can be set multiple times.
-    """
-    if key not in headers:
-        return []
-    tokens = headers[key].split(",")
-    return [token.strip() for token in tokens]
-
-
 def hostport(scheme, host, port):
     """
         Returns the host component, with a port specifcation if needed.
diff --git a/test/netlib/http/http1/test_read.py b/test/netlib/http/http1/test_read.py
index 974aa8956..5285ac1d2 100644
--- a/test/netlib/http/http1/test_read.py
+++ b/test/netlib/http/http1/test_read.py
@@ -7,11 +7,22 @@ from netlib.http.http1.read import (
     read_request, read_response, read_request_head,
     read_response_head, read_body, connection_close, expected_http_body_size, _get_first_line,
     _read_request_line, _parse_authority_form, _read_response_line, _check_http_version,
-    _read_headers, _read_chunked
+    _read_headers, _read_chunked, get_header_tokens
 )
 from netlib.tutils import treq, tresp, raises
 
 
+def test_get_header_tokens():
+    headers = Headers()
+    assert get_header_tokens(headers, "foo") == []
+    headers["foo"] = "bar"
+    assert get_header_tokens(headers, "foo") == ["bar"]
+    headers["foo"] = "bar, voing"
+    assert get_header_tokens(headers, "foo") == ["bar", "voing"]
+    headers.set_all("foo", ["bar, voing", "oink"])
+    assert get_header_tokens(headers, "foo") == ["bar", "voing", "oink"]
+
+
 def test_read_request():
     rfile = BytesIO(b"GET / HTTP/1.1\r\n\r\nskip")
     r = read_request(rfile)
diff --git a/test/netlib/test_utils.py b/test/netlib/test_utils.py
index f93156674..c4ee3c108 100644
--- a/test/netlib/test_utils.py
+++ b/test/netlib/test_utils.py
@@ -38,17 +38,6 @@ def test_pretty_size():
     assert utils.pretty_size(1024 * 1024) == "1MB"
 
 
-def test_get_header_tokens():
-    headers = Headers()
-    assert utils.get_header_tokens(headers, "foo") == []
-    headers["foo"] = "bar"
-    assert utils.get_header_tokens(headers, "foo") == ["bar"]
-    headers["foo"] = "bar, voing"
-    assert utils.get_header_tokens(headers, "foo") == ["bar", "voing"]
-    headers.set_all("foo", ["bar, voing", "oink"])
-    assert utils.get_header_tokens(headers, "foo") == ["bar", "voing", "oink"]
-
-
 def test_multipartdecode():
     boundary = 'somefancyboundary'
     headers = Headers(