A range of cotton bed linens has been launched exclusively in Harrods – and it’s the first to be entirely British-made for decades.
Peter Reed’s ‘Albion’ range, which is part of their ‘Made in England’ collection, is the result of a collaboration with English Fine Cottons.
We worked closely with the prestigious bed linen brand to develop the fabric, helping to forge a manufacturing supply chain so it could be produced in the UK.
English Fine Cottons’ Tracy Hawkins explained: “Cotton sheeting for bed linens have had to be imported into this country since the demise of Britain’s cotton industry. When we re-established cotton spinning, we knew much of our work would be in re-linking the supply chain. The challenge was to find a manufacturer that still had looms big enough to make the larger cotton sheeting needed for bed linens.”
Re-establishing the links
A country-wide search led us to Heathcoat Fabrics, a 200-year-old textiles manufacturer in Devon that had the required machinery.
Once woven, the fabric – made 100% with our extra-long-staple (ELS) Supima cotton yarns – is bleached and finished at PW Greenhalgh’s factory in Rochdale.
The luxurious duvet covers, sheets and pillowcases are then made-up at Peter Reed’s base in Nelson, Lancashire.
True British heritage
The provenance of the range is reflected in its name – Albion is the oldest known name for the island of Great Britain. Peter Reed has injected more British heritage and tradition into the simple and classic design with the addition of five rows of matt cording.
Historically, servants could identify which bedlinens to use for their employers’ beds by the number of rows of cording stitched on them. Linens with just one row were meant for beds downstairs in the servants’ quarters, and those with five went upstairs for the Lord of the manor.
You can see the cording being added to an Albion pillowcase in the video below, which we filmed on a visit to the factory.
Sean Clayton, general manager at Peter Reed, said the 150 year old brand, which holds a Royal Warrant, is going back to its roots with the Made in England collection. He said: “We’re very proud that we are using only English elements to produce Made in England. The yarn, the weaving, the design, the finishing and the making-up all find their roots here. Only the raw cotton itself comes from outside these shores. But that’s only because we don’t have a tropical climate!”
English Fine Cotton’s Supima cotton comes directly from the Californian farms of one of the world’s foremost growers, J G Boswell and every cone of cotton yarn we produce is fully traceable.
Great news for Britain’s cotton industry
Our general manager, Andy Ogden, said: “We’re really pleased we were able to support Peter Reed in producing the fabrics. The quality is outstanding and it’s testament to the high standard and quality of our cotton yarns. “The success of this project is great news for the UK’s cotton industry, too – another aspect of manufacturing to be back up and running.”