Makers

"If it wasna for the weavers, what would ye do? Ye wouldna hae your cloth that's made o woo'."  Exactly. And not just the weavers, either. If it wasn’t for makers, you wouldn’t have very much at all.

Tweed Mill

Morayshire

Meanwhile, on the banks of the Moray Firth, there is weaving afoot — inside a repurposed boat-shed of just the right size, on a loom built over a century ago. Read more

Weaving Studio

Mourne Mountains

Its name might be synonymous for melancholy, and its first loom was built by the local coffin-maker, but the cloth made here — little in the Isles so vital. Read more

Melton mill

West Yorkshire

The most dense, the most intensively milled, and the most heavily brushed woollens anywhere in the Isles — supplied to the military for over 200 years. Read more

Horn works

Lancashire

A cornucopia if ever there was one: shaping, and polishing cow horn — and, in so doing, making things like toggles for duffle coats — since the 1700s. Read more

Woollen mill

Inner Hebrides

Within the context of cloth, the Inner Hebrides are the other Hebrides. They're the Hebrides where you can have any colour you like, so long as it's sheep. Read more

Linen weaver

Outer Hebrides

Linen woven in the old traditions of Hebridean linen — which is to say, an original, one of a kind, against-grain endeavour, in the land of tweed. Read more

Woollen mill

South Wales

Sheep-rearing sorts began bringing their fleeces down into the coastal valley of the mill a couple of hundred years ago: the looms have clacked on ever since. Read more

Glove maker

South-west England

Every day, here in the crucible of England's glove-making tradition, a team of craftspeople busily enact the old adage about silk purses and sows' ears. Read more

Spectacle-frame factory

London

The very last spectacle-frame factory in Britain is a factory in many ways in name only: more a four-storey home of a few highly dexterous craftspeople. Read more

Flannel mill

North-east London

This place is most famous for flannel — mostly because this is where it was invented. But you don’t get far these days with only the tried and tested. Read more

Horn button maker

West Midlands

The premises might've changed, but what they make at the old West Midlands button-maker have changed barely even a jot since the American Civil War. Read more

Spinning Factory

County Donegal

When it comes to yarn of the Donegal variety, accept no substitutes: unless dyed and spun and carded and nepped and burred here, it just won't do. Read more

Woollen mill

Gloucestershire

Here be 200 year-old weavers of industry-leading saxony twills, double-cloths, cavalry twills, and a good many other to-be-reckoned-with jacket materials. Read more

Horn button maker

West Midlands

A cacophony of contraptions suggests things are going in the right direction at the newest button-maker in the Midlands. Full report soon — and for the moment. Read more

Hat maker

South-east England

The hat maker: top dog in the blocking, brushing, and brim-curling game since some time between the Napoleonic Wars and the American Revolution. Read more