What happened to wool? Looking back at the changes in the industry and if it's making a comeback

Wool was, at one time, the jewel of fabrics. It was a well-respected product but, over the years its value has decreased. In this episode, we look at why. Is it a pricing issue? Is it a marketing issue? Emily Ashworth and Katie Fallon look back at the timeline to find out what changed.

Transcript

It's one month, and in this episode of the Father Guardian podcast with me, Emily Ashworth, FGS online editor and lifestyle reporter Katie Fallon look back at the history of the wool industry and discuss why it fell out of fashion, but how it's also having a renaissance in various different ways.
I want to just go over a few facts first.
Sheep have grazed the land in this country for thousands of years.
According to the NSA, there are around  million sheep and lambs in the UK, and the industry is worth approximately  million to the economy. There is thought to be more sheep breeds in the UK than more than anywhere else. And UK wool production peaked in , with a yield of around , tonnes of wool.
It's an industry which has, you know, such history and heritage and we believe it's time to really showcase that. So I hope you enjoyed this discussion. We'd love to know your thoughts, but here we go. Let's look back at the history of wool.

Hello, everybody, and welcome to
this week's Farmers Guardian podcast.
Hi, Katie. Hello. We
sat in the office, and we're here to discuss all things.
Wool, because it is wool week at week. It's wool month. That's really difficult to remember. It used to be. Will we think at some point or now, a month?
So we thought it would be a good idea to
sort of do a discussion,
podcast, which looks back at the history of wool. But there's always a conversation, I think, Katie, like, around,
we've got to celebrate World War back on the map, which we absolutely have to do.
But let's almost look back,
at where things started changing because you know, we know that over a long
period of time, it was the almost,
jewel of fabrics, if you will.
was all we had access to. So we thought it would be a good idea to look at a time line of wool,
pinpoint where things maybe, perhaps changed, look at breeds.
And then fast forward to now and look at what is actually happening in the wool industry. Because we know that it's been used for various and sometimes quite unique and diverse things. So she's going to start, she's got a very long list of notes. You can see we're about to have a history lesson. So we're going to we're going to rewind to
is that  B.C..
Yes I thought I was listening has got a lot of you know ways through it. So it's but well yeah. So just looking back briefly over history, I mean I'm sure it's a lot more depth and detail, but it kind of first came onto British soil in  B.C., introduced by
now. I'll put a print on for now,
Neolithic settlers.
Okay. Anybody who's listening in the sense that's wrong, you can. We tried. Yeah. So it's first century is obviously a long, long, long time ago. Well, sheep were introduced and then obviously with then can evolve,
and
people began spinning and weaving wool around,  B.C..
So
obviously the years passed, and by the time the Romans invaded in  B.C., the wool industry was already well established in Britain.
And we had our own native flocks and native breeds. So with the Romans, they brought over their own sheep, which were larger and had finer, more white wall than our native sheep. So those sheep, the Roman sheep bred with our sheep and different breed crossbred to develop obviously different wool, started to develop as well. And by the time the Vikings arrived and brought with them their own black faced horned sheep, the breeds then started to cross breed again, and these breeds formed the ancestors of our blackface like Scottish Blackface breeds, Swaledale and Herdwick breeds that we have today.
So they continue to evolve, and we've got so many different breeds of sheep in the UK across breeds, you know, from the Welsh mountains of Scotland. We've got so many different breeds. And this mixture, the different crosses is what makes, British wool clips so unique. Yeah, I think that's something for me as well. And I know that, I mean, you're of the same ilk of me.
We both kind of love history. Yeah. But this is the thing that sometimes I don't quite understand because there is so much history and heritage to the story of wool. Like, it's actually ingrained in our, country's timeline. It's ingrained in the land around us. Like, if you go up to the light district, you know, it's absolutely, you know, it's iconic in terms of you look at the landscape and what you're going to see.
Grays in the hills. It's going to be the head, isn't it? Yeah.
And I know that you've spoken to a lot of farmers, in the past about,
in fact, you did a podcast. When was it like earlier this year. Now it will be this time last year because I did it all for one month. Yeah, well, that makes sense.
Yeah.
But you know about those those specific breeds that are so synonymous with these amazing places and, you know, the light district is known around the world, yet we still are almost fighting to champion wool. Yeah. Like it's quite it's quite a two sided coin isn't it. Like this. All that story there. But we still not much value.
We still have to fight to get it. Yeah. In the men. Yeah. No. And that podcast that we did last year, I spoke with, Maria Benjamin,
John Atkinson and Zoe Fletcher, who have formed the Wool Library, and they've really tried to encompass everything we've sort of spoke about and created this initiative to try and push British wool to the soul of fashion designers and fashion makers, to try and show wool at its best and really show it as a valuable material.
Yeah. And when speaking to them, I remember them saying, Trivett wool
is great for X, Y and Z and I think it's blue face Leicester wool that all the different breeds and their wool clip has a unique,
product in itself and unique characteristic that makes it suitable for different things. I think it was blue science lesson that they said is quite similar to Merino.
Okay, so we really have like such an amazing diverse wool clip in this industry that can be used for different types of fashion products. And do you think part of this sort of issue is because of price? And when I say price, I'm not talking about, you know, there is an issue obviously, with the price that farmers are paid, for the wool.
But is this I mean, in my notes here, it says that there was a decline in the th century, you know, cheaper imports from Australia and New Zealand, changing fashion trends. But it's the same when you think about it. It's the same with food and the value that we put on food, you know, is it is it a price thing to people just not want to pay for something?
Do they change trends too quickly. So there's no point paying that amount. So one piece, I think fast fashion house will probably have a lot to do with why, you know, trends change so quickly. Yeah, people, I think we may be seeing the tide turn on it slightly. I think people well, and I'm probably guilty of it as well, is keeping up with the trends.
Yeah. And buying items that are fashion items that may be disposable and all that. Yeah. For that occasion. And then I never wear it again. And I think wools maybe got caught up in that, that people don't have
the same value on the wool jumper might be more expensive than it.
Synthetic. Yeah, yeah. Jumper from somewhere else.
It's a lot cheaper. Yeah. But instead of buying that product, that will be more expensive, will last longer and be more of an investment piece. I think people, you know, I don't necessarily
look into those investment pieces and just want something quick that's not going to cost a fortune, when actually if you pay a bit more in the beginning.
Yeah, it's going to
it's going to stay with you forever, as Neil were just talking before about, you know, if you turn the clock back to, I don't know, s,
England or something like that. And you had a family of  or  children that the youngest child would probably have a hand-me-down jumper, a wool jumper, you know, from the eldest child.
So it does have that longevity.
And I don't know about I mean, obviously I've got children and when they were babies,
that generation, you know,
grandparents, great grandparents,
they're still knitting those traditional baby blankets and they actually mean something as well. So it's not just a value in terms of, you know, like the monetary value,
and the kind of whole supporting the, the process of where that goes.
Confound. It's quite sentimental as well. So it's, it's got I've got some baby pictures that my grandma used to knit these outfits, and I look back and say, sort of a Wonder Woman. But actually there were, you know, it was
something that was sentimental and a lot. And that because it was made out of a quality. Yeah. Wool it stayed with went down the generations.
It passed down from next. Yeah. So yeah. No. And I think people are becoming more aware of the impact that fast fashion is having and going back towards. Like I myself see the benefit in. Yes and in more in certain pieces like, yeah, yeah. And they're going to last and. Yeah. And you also know that that's come from the met at the herdwick off the Lake District Fells.
And it has more value
I think again and this conversation comes up,
time and time again and it feels like we speak about it a lot. But is it a marketing problem. Because again, going back to the food conversation,
I don't know if you have the opinion that you should be buying kind of better, but less of it, you will was then put into a category of,
being well off, or will you have the money to do that?
And, you know, there's a whole other conversation to be had about the cost of living and how, you know, how much people need to live. That's a whole different podcast, which maybe we're not equipped to delve into that. But there has the comes a point, isn't there, where we have to be able to
look at the conversations that are going on in society, which is sustainability, climate change.
You know, maybe we all do need to step back from pressing on the Asos app and getting next day delivery. And it's so easy. Like you say, we're all guilty of it. But when you know if we are talking about climate change and, the environment and trying to be a bit more self-sufficient, then you can't because you get a better product, the more possible, can you?
And I'm actually looking here, you know, the, the benefits of wool.
And the one thing that always amazes me, even though, you know, I know this already, the concept that wool is,
the most likely forgotten the term for it. But, you know, if you are too hot, wool can actually cool you down if you are cold wool can hit you up like, that's pretty impressive.
It's biodegradable. It's said to be quite good for obviously if you've got, you know, small children with maybe sort of dry skin and things like that, like it's very sad. Yeah. So why are we not using it? Yeah. As much as Mr. Present. And it also not just fashion. It's the insulation and it's got so many other benefits to it.
It's
is why we're not using it at all.
Is it because of price. Because it's not valued within
the market that it's in. Obviously farmers aren't getting the right price for it. And that's got to start somewhere. It's not at the top. The decision makers in all these different industries where they will be used to, they not are they're not placing the value on it.
And yet that price is then dwindling down to the people who
deserve the most for it. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we've just got a few examples of what we have. What,
so what is useful now? Obviously, you know, it's still a big,
a big player in terms of the fabric used in the fashion industry.
I was looking before, if there are any if there are any real top designers that champion wool the most. And Stella McCartney did come up, but obviously she's quite.
We know that Stella McCartney is huge on, animal welfare and that side of things, but,
You know, regenerative agriculture,
wool
sustainability, antibacterial properties. This is all on this Ellen McCartney website. Naturally water repellent, fire resistant, long lasting.
So it's it's being used in the, in the top line fashion, industry, but also,
everyone will know Gareth Wyn Jones, he, help to promote a story from.
Last year,
putting fleeces down on grapevines. There was a story about a farm in a vineyard in North Wales.
And I, they were needing to cut chemical use, and they could use wool
as a kind of, substitute for that. And they found, actually that the grapes grew, immensely better. So it's been used for
all sorts of wild, wonderful things.
And if you're a farmer, I think,
if you're thinking about trying to diversify and things like that, it could just be something that you could maybe look into because
the story that the stories that we've got to share have got to count for something. Yeah, definitely. Well, it's natural product, isn't it?
can't go wrong with natural things can. It is going to have benefits in
not just fashion but in farming. And there's all these different uses to go,
it's got to outweigh the synthetic and managed things. Yeah, yeah.
We had a piece last week for, the start of a month, which looked at the king's involvement with wool. And we know that he has been a huge advocate for, wool in it's kind of superpowers for a very long time. So if you haven't read that piece or seen that piece, you can head to Farmer's guardian.com and check that out.
We would love to hear from anybody who has their own success stories with wool. Or any thoughts on this podcast we've talked about marketing. We've talked about price points. We've talked about getting the value back.
Both.
with wool in society, but also putting that value back on the farmers and the producers who obviously work extremely hard,
in terms of animal welfare.
So, yes, we'd love to hear from you and any thoughts on that. We hope you enjoyed a little brief history. Yes. So with it coming, I would dare say the dreaded word, but Christmas is coming and let me be in a bit more mindful about your gifts. What you're buying somebody, whether you know
just go for that nice wool.
There's lots of people who are trying to make amazing product, who are making amazing products from wool and celebrating the industry, the farms that make for wool and trying to go to the forefront. So maybe make buying something made of wool. Even putting a wool global on your Christmas tree. Plenty of, just small businesses. Yes.
Whole
British wool.
It really is something to think about in a world where there's such a focus on climate change and sustainability. It's time to highlight Woolf's place in all of that. Well, thank you for listening. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast on your favorite platforms so you never miss an episode. We'll be back again next week. So thank you again.
And goodbye for now.