We, Sarah and Harry Mayman, started the business in 2006 on our farm in Cornwall with a small range of 'kid mohair' socks for children and adults, but we soon realised that there was a serious shortage of high-quality natural wool and luxury natural fibre products supplying the UK market, so we started to develop ranges of wool duvets, blankets and pashminas.
to promote wool's remarkable qualities of sustainability, health-promoting promoting technical performance and luxury, and to propel the textile industry towards a more sustainable future.
We are fanatical about quality natural fibres – hence our strapline,
“The World's Finest Fibres”.
Quality
drives everything. We’re obsessive about finding the very highest quality in bedding, soft furnishings and clothing and our products often cannot be found elsewhere.
Value
for us means products that fulfil their promise, give long service and that really do make a difference to our customers’ lives.
Sustainability
of natural fibres is becoming better understood globally and their role in helping reduce toxic plastic pollution is ever more important.
Our fourth principle is Service
Our team is superbly knowledgeable friendly and helpful.
We go the extra mile to help and advise you – before, during and after your purchase.
Our story is a tale of wild boar, weedy fields, Angora goats and cold feet...
We moved back to Cornwall in 2002 after twenty years away, when we were expecting our third child.
In the depths of a cold, wet December, we bought the remains of a run-down farm: a house, barns and a few acres of impenetrable weeds and bog on the edge of Bodmin Moor.
Higher Hill Farm had previously been a successful wild boar farm – a good early example of farming diversification, but it had problems with escapees (wild boar were occasionally sighted in local woods for some years). Unfortunately, after the wild boar left the farm, most of the topsoil had gone too, leaving only stony ground, sucking bogs and head-high weeds.
With no experience of animal husbandry (except cats), Sarah took up the search for the right livestock to help us bring the land back into "good heart".
Having dismissed ostrich, bison, llamas, alpacas, cattle and 'normal sheep'(!) the only animals she thought that could live comfortably off our land were goats. And the only goat breed that couldn't jump over our fences were Angoras, the breed that produces the extraordinary lustrous fleece and fibre, 'mohair'.
It took only one winter in our freezing, draughty stone farmhouse to discover the amazing benefits of the Angora goats' fabulous fleece on our feet. The angora goat wool mohair is warmer than sheep's wool and, being soft yet hard-wearing, it makes the perfect yarn for very soft, warm and hard-wearing socks. The children didn't much appreciate Harry's reluctance to buy heating oil, but they became great fans of their "Momos", the Kid Mohair Explorer children's socks we designed ourselves and had knitted in Leicestershire… and so The Wool Company took its first steps.
About twenty years on and still on the farm, we know a great deal more about wool of all kinds than we did in 2006, and a lot more about goats, sheep, natural fibres and sustainability, but our passion for Mother Nature's technical fibre is as fresh as ever.
Our long term mission is to revolutionise the textile industry by championing the superior sustainability, quality, and ethical value of wool and other natural fibres. We are committed to promoting ecological resilience through regenerative farming practices and slow fashion, supporting economic sustainability by empowering small and organic farmers, and enhancing social well-being by bolstering local communities and traditional crafts. At The Wool Company, we strive to deliver unparalleled quality and service, ensuring that each product not only meets but exceeds the expectations of eco-conscious consumers.
Sustainability
We advocate sustainability. Sustainability has been a central plank of our ethos since we started in 2006.
In general, Sustainability can be seen as built on three constituent pillars: Ecological, Economic and Social.
Ecological Sustainability: We are working on our objective to get to net zero. Candidly, this is a work in progress with significant challenges. We have already taken many steps on our path to achieve net zero by 2029. We advocate for agroforestry silvopasture, regenerative farming, slow fashion, minimal use of chemicals, and reduce, repair, reuse, recycle. Our products are made using 100% wool, be it wool from sheep, goat, alpaca, camel or yak; or a very high percentage wool mix. We have always tried to keep the use of manmade fibres (especially petrochemical textiles) to an absolute minimum, usually none at all.
Economic Sustainability: We try to work with small farmers (having been one of these for a while) and organic farmers, who provide public goods in their farming practices, as well as wool, spinners and mills that provide local employment and whose policies avoid outsourcing.
Social Sustainability: We try to support small, commune run or family-led businesses both in the UK and abroad. UK sheep farming provides much-needed employment in poor rural areas and supports isolated communities and traditional ways of life.
Find out more about the three pillars of sustainability here: -
Guided by our four principles, we source as many of our products as we can from the UK and Ireland: our famous sheepskins are mostly very local; from the southwest of England, and our extensive range of wool blankets includes many from our Yorkshire-based blanket manufacturers where English woollen mills have been scouring and weaving for hundreds of years. But our quest for quality takes us to places such as Portugal, Italy, Austria, India, Nepal, China, South Africa, even as far as New Zealand.