Another Textile Yarn by Jim Gregory

As many people know, I spent my working life as a Spinner of Yarns that were either Worsted or Woollen.  Production of yarn began at Wangaratta Woollen Mills in March 1923 and with that anniversary as a trigger, I present the following textile story, gleaned from the Yorkshire Post.

Let me begin by setting the scene.  The story takes place in Swaledale, one of the northernmost dales (valleys) in the Yorkshire Dales National Park and is the dale of the River Swale.

A meeting, held in Muker’s sole pub, the Farmers Arms, in the early 1970s was called to discuss the problem of unemployment.  Muker, with a population of 309, is one of the villages dotting the landscape of Swaledale.  The meeting decided that ladies could try hand-knitting garments in their own homes, capitalising on the dominant local resource; sheep.

The tradition of hand-knitting in Swaledale goes back hundreds of years to the time when Queen Elizabeth I set a new trend by wearing knitted stockings.  In the 19^th century even men used to knit on their way to work in the lead mines.

Sheep had been domesticated in the Yorkshire Dales since the Bronze Age (3 – 200 BC) and knitting, as a cottage industry, began in the 16^th century.  It is thought to hold the record for the longest domestic knitting industry in England.  The Yorkshire Dales is one of the five major regions in the British Isles that has developed its own distinctive traditional designs.

In Muker’s pub it was a David Morris and his wife Grizel, who were driving the proposal of reviving their cottage industry by hand-knitting traditional designs.  David had some garments made and hung on a wall in the main street.  They were bought by walkers passing through and the thing just escalated from there.

A shop was soon needed where visitors from many parts of Europe, along with America and even some from Australia, came to buy.  Prince Charles had visited the shop several times and in 2004 he came on a formal visit.  He bought gloves and placed an order for more.  When Camilla was seen wearing Charles’ gloves, the villagers made her a pair in her own size.  Prince Charles thinks highly of the traditional skills evident in Swaledale Woollens.  Today the 35 knitters use wool mainly from Swaledale sheep, but with some from Wensleydale and Welsh breeds for additional colour and texture.

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