We know that British manufacturing was the head of its game back in the day of the industrial revolution, and although we have seen massive closure of textile factories over the years its nice to know there are still a few around.
Abraham Moon & Sons founded in Guiseley near Leeds in 1837 is still manufacturing their cloth from pure unprocessed wool from South Africa and New Zealand, although it is a pity that they don't use home grown wool, it is still great that this process is still being carried out.
Process of Manufacturing wool at their factory
1. Dying - Using 500 different shades.
2. Blending - a process of mixing the different coloured wools.
3. Carding - Wool is lubricate with a little water & oil. The wool is combed through a series of rollers and wound onto a spool ready for spinning into yarn.
4. Warping - Cones of yarn are wound over a drum and a warp is made for weaving. Precise lengths of different yarn maybe required and up to 2000 threads maybe required for a single width of fabric.
5. Weaving - The yarns are woven together into intricate weaves to create stunning fabrics, with the capacity of weaving 30,000m of cloth a week.
6. Scouring Milling and Finishing - After weaving the fabrics are washed and any oils used in the carding process are removed. Fire retardant and water resistant treatments can now be padded into the fabric. The fabric is then pressed.
Another company called John Spencer is one one of the last remaining cotton mill factories, and in 1920's boasted over 100,000 looms. In 1991 a catastrophic fire almost destroyed the mill but it was turned around by David Spenser and developed into what it is today.
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