I often get asked about the history of our blankets so here is our story…
Our proud Exquisite wool blanket history starts here in New Zealand and extends to a woollen mill in England, A. W. Hainsworth, that dates back to 1783.
In 1893 A. W. Hainsworth started buying NZ wool. This is proudly displayed in a logbook at the Yorkshire mill. Our family wool buying business, Yaldhurst Wools, Christchurch, buys wool from the same farm featured in that logbook, along with other wool sourced from South Island farms. Some of this wool is exported to the mill in England.
This specialist, English textile mill has supported the NZ wool industry for all those years, making not only woollen blankets but fabrics for furnishings, clothes, royal and military ceremonial dress, woollen caskets, snooker, and pool table cloth, to name a few beautiful woollen items made using NZ wool. A.W. Hainsworth also supports wool scours in NZ by always having the wool scoured prior to shipment.
Yaldhurst Wools long association with the mill allows me at Exquisite wool blankets, which I established in 2008, to supply beautiful woollen products, from our NZ wool bedding blankets and throws to the Natural Legacy Wool Caskets, with 3 fleeces of NZ wool in each casket. Together we are proud supporters of NZ wool and it is exciting to see the next generation of our family members share our passion for wool. Over the years members of the Hainsworth family have spent time at Yaldhurst Wools learning about the wool supplied to their family mill and what goes into growing top quality wool fibre.
If it were not for mills in the UK and Europe who value traditional qualities of craftmanship and integrate them with the latest innovation, NZ would struggle to sustain a wool industry.
We all need to stand by each other in NZ and if a product is made from NZ wool, get behind that business, support them and think great, there is another business using wool.
The campaign for wool, a multi-national, cross-industry coalition was formed to raise the profile of wool, let us all work and support each other to ensure a better future for wool.
"Live Naturally Choose WOOL" Natures Wonder Firbre.
