241 years of weaving wool at AW Hainsworth
Established in 1783, British textile manufacturer AW Hainsworth has been buying Australian wool for more than two centuries for production at its textile mill in Pudsey, Yorkshire, and continues to do so to this day.
AW Hainsworth has an illustrious 241-year history, from clothing royalty to providing the fabric that covers the famous Woolsack in the British Houses of Parliament. Probably its most famous cloth is the bright scarlet uniform worn by the King’s Guards outside Buckingham Palace.
Underpinned by the company’s centuries of experience and commitment to quality, Hainsworth continues to be a market-leading manufacturer of premium woollen textiles. All under one roof at its mill in Yorkshire, it spins, weaves, dyes and finishes a wide range of woven woollen textiles for a diverse range of modern applications and industries.
The company manufactures apparel and interior fabrics for luxury fashion brands, stage and screen productions, ceremonial military uniforms, royal palaces, and magnificent homes and hotels. It makes snooker and pool cloth, interior fabrics for aviation and railways, traditional bed blankets and throws, and the felt used in musical instruments, and more.
“When I first joined the business in 2021, I was acutely aware of Hainsworth’s long and prestigious history, and how important it was to guard this as a ‘custodian’ of this amazing family business and West Yorkshire mill,” said Managing Director at AW Hainsworth, Amanda McLaren.
“We continue to build on this foundation, with a strong commitment to investing and building a bright future for all our stakeholders to enjoy.”
As a fabric design, manufacture and supply business, AW Hainsworth focusses on cutting-edge innovation and product development to produce top-quality products. The company is a Woolmark licensee.
“As a woollen manufacturer we are proud to carry the Woolmark certification for our fabrics, an extra guarantee of quality for our customers,” Amanda added.
Princess of Wales visits AW Hainsworth
In September last year, AW Hainsworth was honoured to welcome HRH The Princess of Wales, a keen advocate for UK textiles, on a visit to the mill. Coincidentally, Hainsworth in 1958 bought the textile firm William Lupton and Co from her great grandparents.
HRH The Princess of Wales is pictured here in Hainsworth’s state-of-the-art laboratory with a mannequin wearing a King’s Guard uniform made from Hainsworth cloth. In the laboratory, she also witnessed the team carrying out a flame test on a piece of Hainsworth’s personal protective equipment (PPE) fabric for firefighter uniforms.
Hainsworth Protective Fabrics
AW Hainsworth apparel – ECO-DRY (left) and the red tunic of the King’s Guards (right) – on display in November at The Woolmark Company stand at Milipol Paris, the leading trade show for homeland security and safety.
Under its Hainsworth Protective Fabrics brand, the company manufactures heat and flame retardant cloth for PPE uniforms worn by professionals such as firefighters, police and the military.
Hainsworth has been manufacturing protective fabrics since the 1800s. The British Army wore Hainsworth cloth since the early days of the business – soldiers wore red Hainsworth fabric at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, and when the RAF was formed in 1918 Hainsworth supplied the blue uniform cloth.
When the London Fire Brigade was formed in the late 1800s, Hainsworth was selected to supply its uniform cloth. At the time, its wool melton fabric was the ultimate in flame retardant fabric technology. Today, Hainsworth Protective Fabrics are worn by firefighters in Britain and across the world to Australia, and are highly valued for combining flame protection and strength with comfort.
“One of the main reasons why Hainsworth is so closely aligned with the equipment PPE industry is because of the Australian wool that we use at our mill,” Amanda said.
“Until 1987 in the UK and slightly later in Australia, felted Merino wool cloth had been used for the manufacture of firefighters’ PPE, but while it was undoubtedly a great fibre, a downside was that it held too much moisture and consequently would become extremely heavy and wet for the wearer.
“Now, thanks to advances in textile production and finishing, the many benefits of wool are making a comeback into the world of PPE, but with a modern twist. Hainsworth is delighted to be playing its part in ensuring that Australian Merino wool has a big future in the manufacture of firefighters’ kit.”
An example of this is Hainsworth’s ECO-DRY fabric, designed specifically for wildland firefighters. It was developed in 2012 in collaboration with the Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council (AFAC).
Wildland firefighters, like the rural fire service brigades in Australia, have distinct requirements and challenges in their role, as they have to walk across great stretches of land in very treacherous conditions while being exposed to extreme radiant and convective heat. If wildland firefighters do not have appropriate PPE they are at risk of developing heat exhaustion, endangering their and other lives.
“ECO-DRY is designed to be comfortable to wear as well as being highly flame retardant, and is woven from a combination of Merino wool, Lenzing™ FR and meta-aramid fibres. Merino wool wicks away moisture, which creates a steady microclimate between the cloth and the skin and helps the wearer to stay cool,” Amanda said.
“The resulting fabric is breathable and comfortable, giving the wearer the necessary mobility and flexibility while still providing maximum thermal protection. The wool also provides anti-microbial and anti-odour qualities, helping it to retain its quality for longer.”
ECO-DRY is the wildland fabric of choice for firefighters in South Australia and Victoria.
Hainsworth Protective Fabrics visit Downunder
‘Woolbrook’ at Teesdale in Victoria was visited in August by representatives from Hainsworth Protective Fabrics.
In August 2023, the Business Development Manager of Hainsworth Protective Fabrics, Jack Rowan, and Head of Technical and Innovation, Martin Haworth, visited Australia to attend the AFAC emergency management conference and exhibition.
The visit gave them an opportunity to meet with Hainsworth partners and suppliers (including AWI), show off the company’s protective fabrics, and speak to firefighters about the challenges they face in this market.
While they were in Australia, Jack and Martin also visited the historic wool-growing property ‘Woolbrook’ at Teesdale near Geelong in Victoria which supplies wool to AW Hainsworth. David Kay from Kaytex Trading, who has been purchasing wool for AW Hainsworth for more than 15 years, gave them an extensive tour of the farm.
Jack and Martin also visited EP Robinson in Geelong, Victoria, which scours all the Merino wool supplied to AW Hainsworth and have supplied the business for more than 30 years.
As a first time visitor to Australia, Jack says he gained great value from seeing the processes and expertise throughout the supply chain.
“We met people who are masters of the trade and have decades of experience working at companies that Hainsworth has been dealing with for generations,” Jack said.
“In order to continue delivering consistency and quality to our end customers, we rely on our suppliers to act as an extension of ourselves and to be our eyes and ears when anticipating our needs. Without their support we simply would not be able to achieve the high standards that our wool fabrics are known for.”
The 1800-hectare mixed-farming Woolbrook property is run by Lachie Morrison, who is the fifth generation of the Morrison family at Woolbrook. After a century in the Morrison family, Woolbrook was sold in 2018, but is leased back to Lachie by the new owner.
The importance of caring for the land has always been a high priority at Woolbrook. Lachie’s grandparents Janice (Jimmy) and John Morrison planted thousands of native trees from the 1960s-80s to regenerate the land and create a haven for Australian birds and wildlife. AW Hainsworth is a company that holds sustainability at heart, so this was reassuring for Jack and Martin to see.
Martin says it was a great pleasure to visit Woolbrook.
“It was obvious to see that the welfare of the animals was of paramount importance and also that there was a genuine interest from the woolgrowers as to the type of products we produce from the Australian Merino wool,” Martin said.
“For myself, the visit reaffirmed the importance of building and maintaining these long term partnerships between AW Hainsworth, our suppliers and the woolgrowers, so we can continue to receive the high quality supply of Australian wool fibre.”
More information:
www.awhainsworth.co.uk
www.hainsworthprotectives.co.uk
This article appeared in the March 2024 edition of AWI’s Beyond the Bale magazine. Reproduction of the article is encouraged.
