Sacks are piled high with wool – everything from the fabulous curly locks of the Black Wensleydale and Teeswater to the more workaday fleeces produced by the region’s familiar Swaledale, Texel and Mule flocks.
Hand-scoured fleeces finish drying stretched over a platform of pallets and the old dairy building now houses machinery of a completely different kind – an 80-year-old small-scale carding machine that stands proudly next to a neat stack of beautifully smooth, but fluffy, wool, destined for a local builder who is using it for home insulation.
It is hard to believe that before Covid hit, wool was not even on the agenda for this farming family, but just 18 months on from being given 13 fleeces and trying her hand at needle felting, Lucinda Bird has thrown herself into a whole new business venture and, seemingly, nothing will stop her making it a runaway success.
Her vision is simple and that’s to find a home for every fleece. This may seem unbelievably ambitious, but the day I met her, she was buzzing with the news that in just one day she’d landed orders for 26 matted fleeces and 100 kilos of wool.
Lucinda is the first to admit that she is still on an incredibly steep learning curve that began with lockdown when her farm-based equestrian business had to be put on hold.
“Having been gifted some fleeces, and facing the boredom of lockdown, I washed a little bit and had a go at needle felting – which is becoming increasingly popular in crafting circles,” she said.
“My first effort, of course, was terrible but I kept going and quickly got better – so much so that my felted poppies opened my eyes to the possibilities. Sold on Facebook, they raised more than £2,500 for charities including the Royal British Legion.”
From there, Lucinda learned to dye and spin wool, bought a small drum carder and recruited a small army of crafters able to spin, dye knit or needle felt anything from a top-end jumper to a flock of table-top sheep. Not long after, she was contacted by a local saddle fitter, who ordered 10kg of wool for his business – an order that Lucinda vividly remembers, having to process it all on her small hand-turned carding machine.
It soon became very clear that if the business was to flourish, machinery would have to be employed, but finding something suitable proved an almost insurmountable challenge. “Small carding machines, that don’t need three-phase electrics, just don’t exist – something I feel will have to change if we are to pursue the option of small local businesses working with local farmers to meet different markets for wool,” Lucinda said.
“I had to visit some of our oldest mills in search of a solution and in the end had to opt for an 80-year-old version, which had survived as a demonstrator machine. It was a real leap of faith as not only did it set us back several thousand pounds, it understandably came with no warranty of any kind.
“Thankfully the seller offered to be on hand with engineer support and my dad is a great combine man, so when one of the belts broke in the early days, we quickly learned how to fit a new one and at the same time learned a bit more about how to work with and look after our geriatric work-horse.”
The old carder had to be craned into the farm’s old dairy parlour but has provided the power needed to really kick-start the business and six months later Lucinda is forging ahead with a staff of two, a shed full of 5,000 fleeces and a range of different markets in her sights.
One of the best bits of the whole endeavour has been working with her fellow farmers, she says. “We are all about buying and selling British wool – the more the better – and at the heart of this is giving farmers a price above the cost of shearing,” she explained. “The other key objective is to sell all grades of wool from the lustrous locks of some of our rare breeds right through to the tattiest fleeces that wouldn’t normally be worth a thing.”
For this reason, Lucinda is exploring different outlets for wool, with master saddle fitters and local builders using the wool for insulation offering real potential.
“It’s easy to underestimate how much wool lots of different users can get through,” added Lucinda. “Saddle fitters can get through 10kg a week and with my equestrian links, this is a market I have good access into. Using wool as insulation for local builders is also entirely feasible and builders love it because it is so easy to work with and doesn’t require any PPE.
“I already have a builder interested and he would potentially forward sell it to others. We’re just in the final stages now of perfecting it as a product but the new carding machine is doing a really good neat job creating the necessary
wool sheets.”
Of course, alongside these markets Lucinda is continuing to supply felting, spinning and rug-making enthusiasts worldwide. While she’s at pains to make sure she doesn’t use any imported products, she has no qualms about sending British wool abroad. “Sorting out the packaging and posting rates was another steep leaning curve but now we’re up and running, we have customers as far afield as the US and Canada,” she said. “We haven’t sent anything to Australia yet, but there’s still time!”
So far, although it is still in its infancy, the business has developed steadily but with larger orders starting to land and the carder working smoothly, Lucinda says she is now focused on hitting more sustained targets. Winter, she admits will be more of a challenge, when it comes to initial processing – given that all the fleeces will still be individually scoured as needed and by hand no matter what winter manages to throw at the team.
But Lucinda is not about to stop now and as I left she was heading to Ikea on the look out for some free-standing wooden racks to create a bespoke drying room in another abandoned part of the farm’s old dairy – with thoughts turning to how she can put her horse rug drier to another good use.
Pictured above: Lucinda Bird with her team: Charlie-Louise Clarke and Kaidan Wilson