With the weather heading into cooler months, we’ll soon be digging out our woollies! 24th September - 2nd October is ‘Wool Week’ and we found some fab woolly facts!..
• Britain is one of the largest wool producers, producing 70,000 tonnes per year.
• Payments to farmers have jumped to an overall average of 36.4p per kilo for their wool. That’s a 135% increase on 2020 prices, with a further price improvement to come.
• There is only one farmer in the UK (Lesley Prior) that produces Merino wool (a type of very fine fibre used for clothing).
• There are 45,000 sheep farmers in the UK. Employment in the sheep industry is worth approximately £290 million to the economy.
• 34 million sheep reside in the British Isles!
• Britain has more than 60 different breeds of sheep, 25 of which are rare breeds. That’s more than any other country in the world.
• There are only two wool scourers (the cleaning process that removes bits of hedge, grass and dirt from the wool) left in the UK.
• There are many shows that celebrate wool including
Yorkshire Yarn Fest in York, Woolfest in Cumbria and West Wales Wool Show just to name a few.
• It takes at least ten processes to get wool from sheep to cloth. They are shearing, grading, auction, scouring, carding, combing, spinning, weaving, dyeing and finishing.