Start untangling these knots of Welsh weaving and you’ll find the threads taking you back to the middle ages. For centuries, spinning and weaving were part of Welsh domestic life, turning wool into blankets, shawls and clothing to keep families and communities warm – and to tell stories with distinctive regional patterns, too. By the 1890s, this national craft had become a booming industry, with over 300 woollen mills in the South West pocket of Wales alone, at a time where the entire population was around two million.
Today, there are just a handful of working woollen mills left in Wales. Changes in technology and the market, competitors popping up across the English border, a lack of succession in place for family-run mills, antiquated machinery prone to breakdowns and a lack of expertise available to repair them has meant that over the years, the impact on the industry has been significant, resulting in an industrial decline of the national craft.
And yet, the love for authentic Welsh weaving seems to be growing. In part, it’s thanks to slow fashion and ethical consumption movements that prioritise long-lasting, well-made products from independent, community-led businesses. But it’s also from an increased consumer desire to celebrate history, heritage and storytelling.
This past season, the men’s Welsh rugby team walked onto the pitch in a jersey that featured the traditional Brethyn Cartref design – a homage to Welsh blankets. Literally translating to ‘home cloth’, Brethyn Catref is to Wales what tartan is to Scotland: a lasting woven identity that visually signals place, family and community that’s made to be seen, celebrated and passed down through generation after generation.
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Blankets made at Melin Tregwynt
But this importance of generational legacy isn’t just held close by those who own and admire the blankets – it’s also known and felt by those who make them. On the mending tables at Melin Tregwynt, Wales’s longest continuously operating woollen mill, you’ll find Alwyn – one of the women who checks every single woven product for flaws by hand. For more than 30 years, Alwyn worked across the table from her mother, Jean. Then Alwyn’s daughter came to join them too, meaning that at one point, there were three generations of women working in the same room together. Jean has since passed away, but her photo now hangs on that mending room wall, honouring her legacy and impact to all who worked with her and all that she created.
