Just a quick mention, with more to follow, about a fantastic trip we made earlier this month, to the mill in Lancashire where Ian Mankin cloth is woven. Proving that we really ARE still making things in the UK. Sixth generation mill owner, David Collinge, was very generous with his time and knowledge. He gave us a complete tour of the mill and we were staggered at the complexity and variety of cloth he produces. From the material used in to add cgi layers to motion pictures to police shirting and fine woollen suiting – the mulitude of fibres the mill can handle is really wonderful. Tinsmiths is concerned mainly with the natural fibres – cotton and linen – which, when woven on the smaller looms, produce characteristic stripes and checked Ian Mankin cloth, which has been the basis of Tinsmiths’ range from day one. This Autumn we will design a very obvious logo to use on our website highlighting these and other products made in this country.
A more in depth posting will follow this: in the meantime, David kindly supplied his own images of the mill (he also trained as a photographer) and here is a wide angle image of the “shop” floor.