Creating fully traceable, Yorkshire yarn from rare breed sheep

You may have read stories in the media recently about the plight of sheep farmers who are forced to burn their fleeces after shearing, as they are worth so little money.

Three UK business owners are looking to change all of that by proving there can be a much more positive solution. 

Who are we ?

Edward & Laura Sutcliffe, have been running their hilltop farm above Heptonstall in West Yorkshire for 10 years but they had a problem. Every year they have to shear their flock of rare breed Lonk sheep and then they have to do something with over 100 fleece. The price of British wool has plummeted over the past decade to almost no value whatsoever. The sheep have to be sheared for welfare reasons and that fleece has to go somewhere. Sadly, many farmers are now resorting to burning them. Ed & Laura had been selling theirs to the British Wool Board but the amount they received back last year barely covered the cost of servicing the shearing equipment.

Meanwhile, Nic Corrigan was designing and knitting woollen garments from her studio, also in Heptonstall. Becoming increasingly concerned about the environmental damage caused by the fashion industry and trying to produce low impact clothing, Nic began to investigate how and where her yarn was produced. And it was quite an eye opener. Just because a yarn was labelled as British, she discovered that it might have been half way around the world for processing and dyeing before it came back to this country.

One day Nic was using Instagram for promotion of her business, Whitehall Studio, when she discovered Ed’s account. His post said he was in Hebden Bridge and was trying to find uses for his fleece. Little did they know they actually lived less than a mile apart. Nic sent Ed a message and that’s when things got really interesting. Maybe the answer to both of their problems was literally on their doorstep?

Then, through an online community of Machine Knitters that Nic ran, she was introduced to Dr Zoe Fletcher, a lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University and a renowned wool researcher with a PhD in British Wool. Zoe was an expert on all 72 breeds of British Sheep, the different qualities of the yarn and how to get it produced into yarn for knitters. It felt like the final piece in the jigsaw!

Meet the Farmers

  • Michael Holmes

    LONK BREEDER, BURNLEY

  • Alan & Neil Greenwood

    LONK BREEDER,

    TRAWDEN

  • Westalls

    LONK BREEDER, BURNLEY

  • Dave & Angela

    WFW BREEDER, KENDAL

  • Karen Lucas

    WFW BREEDER, HOLME MOSS

  • Ann & Rachel Godschalk

    WFW BREEDER, BARNARD CASTLE