BBCIt was once the fabric of choice for millions but will wool survive among a world of synthetic offerings? Farmers and experts focused on the fibre believe it can flourish with a little help.
A low-rise warehouse just off a busy road heading out of Bradford city centre may not be the place you expect to find what some consider one of nature’s greatest bountys.
Stepping into the unassuming British Wool site on Canal Road, you swiftly realise everything is made of this natural fibre – from the reception carpets to the kitchen curtains.
The agricultural aroma of sheep permeates the air.
Thousands of huge green sacks line the walls labelled with the name of the farmer who sold the fleeces, waiting for expert graders to sort them.
British Wool, the UK’s national body for sheep farmers, is celebrating its 75th year.
The organisation is still headquartered in this corner of West Yorlshire because it was once the wool capital of the UK.
Known as Worstedopolis during the 19th Century – after the high-quality yarn the city specialised in – Bradford produced around two-thirds of England’s wool as it boomed off the back of a growing textile trade.
But the fibre has seen a decline in value as the world switched to synthetic alternatives.
In 1950 fleeces sold at £14 per kilo. Today they are sold at £1 per kilo – a price which doesn’t even cover the cost of shearing.
Annis Bowker is a farmer in the Craven village of Earby. She says wool farming runs at a loss.
“We currently get contractors in to take our fleeces off and we’re able to do that in a day, half a day, with two men shearing,” she says.
“But that is costing more than what we get for our fleeces.”
Andrew Hogley, chief executive at British Wool, says very few farmers in the UK cover the cost of shearing with current wool prices.
“That’s the bare minimum that they need to achieve,” he says.
“But I am optimistic that with demand improving and supplies from some of the competing nations around the world contracting – so New Zealand for example, their supply of wool has shrunk quite significantly over the last two or three years – that’s leading to better supply and demand dynamics and driving some improved prices, which will feed through to better returns for our sheep farmer members.”
Mr Hogley believes the government could do more to support the wool trade.
“In New Zealand the government has mandated that any government building project has to use New Zealand wool and that’s carpets not just for government buildings but things like social housing,” he says.
“If we could specify British wool carpets for our public sector that would make a significant difference to the supply and demand dynamics.
“We have a crazy situation where, particularly in social housing, carpets are ripped up after everything. If you put a quality product in in the first place, it will be able to stay through multiple cycles.”
Since 1950, British Wool has taken in more than 2.5 billion kilos of the product it is named for through its depot networks, according to Billy Hewitson, head of operations.
“We can track every farmer’s wool straight through the whole process, through intake, grading, packing, the auction system, where we can bring more value to the farmers,” he says.
“Every single fleece needs to be handled and a decision needs to be made. It’s a huge thought process that the grader goes through and they need to get it right to ensure quality is there for our buyers.”
Once the wool is sorted and graded it is sold on to buyers who take it to one of two factories left in western Europe that can process wool; Haworth Scouring in Bradford and Chadwick in Dewsbury.
That scoured wool is then spun and dyed before going on to manufacturers, designers and knitters.
Patrick Grant, best known as a judge on The Great British Sewing Bee, is a fashion designer who makes and sells woollen goods under the Community Clothing brand.
He promotes wool because it is sustainable and environmentally friendly and believes customers are becoming “more aware of the negatives of synthetic clothes”.
“It used to be that all our jumpers were made of wool. Now our jumpers are 10% wool, 90% synthetic or 50% wool, 50% synthetic,” he says.
“Customers don’t like the environmental damage, the pollution, the oil – obviously all of those synthetic fibres, whether it’s acrylic or polyester, they’re oil-based fibres, so there’s a terrible pollution footprint when the garment is produced.”
When we meet he is wearing a cardigan made of British wool, spun at Laxtons in Baildon and knitted in the East Midlands.
“During its life, if this wool jumper sheds fibres, it will naturally biodegrade. And we’ve now got a huge problem with plastic microfibres working their way into our water, soil and food supply chains,” he says.
“At the end of its life, when it is eventually worn out, with synthetic clothes, it’s either incineration or landfill. Whereas this, a natural wool jumper or a natural wool garment, will completely biodegrade. So there are so many benefits.”
According to a House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee report from 2019, textile production contributed more to climate change than international aviation and shipping combined.
Mr Grant believes the attitudes of buying cheap and buying often are starting to change.
“You can buy a cheap jumper that’s advertised vaguely as being sort of wool, from as little as £10, but people are thinking, ‘I know that this is bad stuff and I would rather pay a little bit more for something good’,” he says.
“As consumers we have to recognise the way we spend our money can do good things. So if you choose to spend your money on products that are made locally out of locally produced materials, you are putting money straight back into your local economy.”
