A Royal Initiative

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 four rural initiatives aimed at supporting and developing the upland farming economies of Mid Wales, Dartmoor, the Peak District and The North Highlands. 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.

Sorting Welsh from British

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, the answer remained 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.

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 raising the profile of the region generally. At the time, the legalities of the UK wool market meant that it was 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.