Our Background

The background to Cambrian Mountains CIC goes back to 2008 when the King was a supporter and promoter of Cambrian Mountains initiative (CMI), one of 4 rural initiatives aimed at supporting and developing the upland farming economies of Mid Wales, Dartmoor, the Peak District and The North Highlands. During this time Cambrian Mountains Wool had permission to use under licence, a painting of the King’s, as its branding during its start-up phase. The branding has since been changed.

The King a attended the launch event of Cambrian Wool at Nanteos Mansion where the work of the winners of an international competition using Cambrian Wool were presented.

In Mid Wales the Initiative began work with local farmers to market lamb, and started to explore how best to make the most of wool. Seminars were commissioned, organised by Suzi Park of the Textiles Technology Project at Coleg Sir Gar, to try and find out what interest there would be in ‘doing something about wool’ and what that ‘something’ could be.

At the time of the project, under UK law, all wool was to be collected by the British Wool Marketing Board where it lost identity as Welsh Wool and became British Wool, unless special exemption is given for certain breeds. The only commercial scouring and spinning mill in Wales had recently been sold on the owners’ retirement and removed to Cornwall, leaving a gap in the Welsh supply chains.

The results of discussions were many and varied and the answer was still unclear. In the meantime, submissions were invited for products to carry the Cambrian Mountains label. For wool, makers had to be able to prove they used wool traceable to the region. Sue James of Llynfi Textiles had knitwear – using wool from Juliet Morris at Ystrad Farm – accepted into the scheme in 2011. A small working group was subsequently formed in autumn 2012 of those who had remained in touch and still doggedly talking about possibilities: Suzi, Sue and Juliet were joined by Carys Hedd and Jude Howard, and a little later by Lorraine Pocklington.

Still the wider answer remained elusive although it was agreed that the priority was making the most of the actual wool, rather than trying to set up Welsh processing facilities which would be prohibitively expensive. It was accepted that the best return for the region would be by commercial marketing of the wool to contribute to the raising of the profile of the Region generally; at the time, the legalities of the UK wool market meant that it’s impossible to increase returns directly to Welsh farmers for their wool as payments for any particular grade are divided across the whole of the UK.

An opportunity was presented in 2014 to carry out a Feasibility Study to look at the possibilities (if any) of bringing wool, produced in the region, back into Wales as yarns for knit and weave in commercial and repeatable (and traceable) quantities, so enabling wider access to it by the remaining weaving mills as well as individual makers and crafters. Carys left the group as she’d moved away and the remaining five, with the co-operation of the British Wool Marketing Board and Curtis Wools Direct, launched the study with a Challenge to designers to use the tops, yarns and fabrics that were trialled. The resulting collection was toured as an exhibition to gauge interest, with much success, and the report completed.

Roll onto February 2016 and Cambrian Mountains Wool CIC was at last incorporated with Suzi Park, Sue James, and Jude Howard as its Directors. Since then, Juliet, Jude, and Lorraine have moved onto other things but their input into the project were invaluable and key to its success. Thanks are also due to the Cambrian Mountains Initiative and its staff over time, particularly Carly Butler (now Cooke), Aled Jones and Nicole Aarons, and the continued encouragement of the BWMB, Curtis Wools and Melin Tregwynt.

In March 2021 Sue made the decision to ‘take retirement’ from Cambrian wool and for the short term Suzi was the sole Director of the company.

In December 2022 Suzi made the difficult decision to dissolve the Community Interest Company and change the status to a sole Trader. There are many reasons for that decision but it was mainly the only way she could see that she could keep the business afloat. She financed the next seasons fibre sourcing personally through family and friend donations. Suzi continues her ‘wool journey’ and expects that the business will go from strength to strength, raising awareness of our wonderful product and bringing further prosperity to farmers, makers and small industry in the Wales