A kilt is a type of knee-length men’s dress skirt non-bifurcated with pleats at the back, originating in the traditional dress of Gaelic men and boys in the Scottish Highlands. It is first recorded in the 16th century as the great kilt, a full-length garment whose upper half could be worn as a cloak. The small kilt or modern kilt emerged in the 18th century, and is essentially the bottom half of the great kilt. Since the 19th century, it has become associated with the wider culture of Scotland, and more broadly with Gaelic or Celtic heritage. It is most often made of woollen cloth in a tartan pattern.
Fulling, also known as tucking or walking, is a step in woollen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of cloth to eliminate oils, dirt, and other impurities, and to make it thicker. The practice died out with the modernisation of the industrial revolution.
Flannel is a soft woven fabric, of various fineness. Flannel was originally made from carded wool or worsted yarn, but is now often made from either wool, cotton, or synthetic fiber. Flannel is commonly used to make tartan clothing, blankets, bed sheets, and sleepwear.
Tweed is a rough, woollen fabric, of a soft, open, flexible texture, resembling cheviot or homespun, but more closely woven. It is usually woven with a plain weave, twill or herringbone structure. Colour effects in the yarn may be obtained by mixing dyed wool before it is spun.
Textile fibers, threads, yarns and fabrics are measured in a multiplicity of units.
The National Wool Museum, located in Drefach Felindre, Llandysul, Carmarthenshire is part of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales.
Helmshore Mills are two mills built on the River Ogden in Helmshore, Lancashire. Higher Mill was built in 1796 for William Turner, and Whitaker's Mill was built in the 1820s by the Turner family. In their early life they alternated between working wool and cotton. By 1920 they were working shoddy as condensor mule mills; and equipment has been preserved and is still used. The mills closed in 1967 and they were taken over by the Higher Mills Trust, whose trustees included historian and author Chris Aspin and politician Dr Rhodes Boyson, who maintained it as a museum. The mills are said to the most original and best-preserved examples of both cotton spinning and woollen fulling left in the country that are still operational.
Dre-fach Felindre is a village in Carmarthenshire, West Wales. It is located four miles south-east of Newcastle Emlyn. It lies at the confluence of three fast-flowing streams, the Nant Bargod, Nant Esgair and Nant Brân, where their steep-sided valleys open out into the Teifi Valley. In the 19th and early 20th century it was an important centre for the woollen industry and was given the epithet, "the Huddersfield of Wales". As the population increased, the villages of Dre-fach and Felindre extended and merged to form the present community.
Jayne Pierson is a Welsh fashion designer. She launched her début collection with On|Off at London Fashion Week in September 2009. She has designed for Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood. Her speciality is designing fashions for artists and actors.
Coldharbour Mill, near the village of Uffculme in Devon, England, is one of the oldest woollen textile mills in the world, having been in continuous production since 1797. The mill was one of a number owned by Fox Brothers, and is designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building.
Queensland Woollen Manufacturing Company mill is a heritage-listed mill at 42 & 42B The Terrace, North Ipswich, City of Ipswich, Queensland, Australia. It is also known as Australian Fabric Manufacturers Ltd and Boral Hancock Plywood. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 19 September 2008.
Granston is a hamlet and parish in Pembrokeshire, Wales. The parish was in the Hundred of Dewisland and includes the settlements of Llangloffan and Tregwynt, with Tregwynt woollen mill. Granston is in the community of Pencaer.
Melin Tregwynt is a woollen mill in the hamlet of Tregwynt in the parish of Granston, Pembrokeshire, Wales. A mill has stood on this site since 1819 taking fleeces from the sheep farms of the area, carding and spinning them into woollen yarn and then weaving the yarn into cloth and blankets. Today, the mill makes a line of upmarket blankets, cushions, clothing, and accessories.
The woollen industry in Wales was at times the country's most important industry, though it often struggled to compete with the better-funded woollen mills in the north of England, and almost disappeared during the 20th century. There is continued demand for quality Welsh woollen products.
Trefriw Woollen Mills is a woollen mill in the village of Trefriw, Conwy, in northern Wales, that has been operating since around 1825.
Solva Woollen Mill is a woollen mill in the village of Middle Mill, about one mile from Solva, Pembrokeshire, Wales, that has been in operation since 1907.
Rock Mill Llandysul, in Capel Dewi, Llandysul, Ceredigion, is the last woollen mill in Wales to be powered by a water wheel.
The Cambrian Mills was a complex of woollen mill buildings in Newtown, Powys, Wales, that operated from 1856 to 1912, when they were destroyed by fire. At one time the mill complex was the largest woollen manufacturer in Wales. The mills owed their success to the pioneering mail order business of the local Newtown draper Pryce Pryce-Jones. In the longer term they were unable to compete with woollen mills in northern England due to the cost of importing coal to power the machinery and the lack of rail links to their natural market in the south of Wales.
Kerry Woollen Mills are historic wool mills based just off the Ring of Kerry.
Meirion Mill is a woollen mill at Dinas Mawddwy in Wales. It operates as a tourist attraction. The mill is located on the site of the northern terminus of the defunct Mawddwy Railway.
