Here, we share the story of a visit to British Wool in October 2025 by the Yorkshire Farmers Gathering – an initiative to connect members of the county’s working farming community aged 50-plus.
Our latest Yorkshire Farmers Gathering could not have landed on a better day. British Wool are celebrating their 75th Anniversary, and the visit coincided with one of the live wool auctions which saw the most intense level of competitive bidding in the last decade with prices at their highest since the end of 2016. I think we all now consider ourselves good luck charms for the wool price!
We were warmly welcomed by Gareth Jones, Head of Member Engagement, and his team. Gareth gave us a great insight into the history of British Wool and how they work to get the best price for this brilliant product on behalf of their members.
We also heard about the County Representatives who provide a vital link between British Wool and the sheep farming community – with our very own Philippa Gray representing the West Riding.
After watching the live auction with a cup of coffee we then moved into the depot to see how the grading and start of the wool processing takes place. The sheer scale of the buildings and volume of fleeces in enormous bales and bags was awesome to see.
Our guide through the depot itself was Ian Brooksbank, who manages the Bradford depot. They have a small team of graders who look at every single fleece that comes in to assess quality and type. The speed at which this is done was mind-blowing, given that they sort into over 60 different grades.
We learned a whole new vocabulary for assessing fleeces depending on staple length, cotts and kemp, amongst many other characteristics to be considered.
Ian showed us some of the very few black Blue Faced Leicester fleeces, currently the most valuable at auction. We were able to feel the difference between a lustre wool and mountain wool, as well as the other four main styles of British Wool.
Heads spinning with the scale of the operation as well as the fine detail considered at every step, we then enjoyed a presentation from Louisa, from British Wool’s Marketing Team. It was fascinating to see how and where British Wool products are promoted, and how they work with certified British Wool brands to showcase their products.
During a delicious lunch we were able to fire questions at Gareth and Ian, and continue to watch the buoyant auction sales! The wool is offered for sale unprocessed, as raw fleeces in bales making up individual lots of eight tonnes each.
One of my key takeaways that I hadn’t realised before the visit is that British Wool don’t buy the wool directly from farmers, but auction on behalf of their members throughout the year.
With around 90% of wool reaching their depots by October, but only 25% of the clip auctioned by this time, the value of the wool isn’t known until all the wool has been sold at auction, hence the payments reaching farmers 12 months later.
It was also interesting to hear of British Wool’s new initiative to offer traceable wool, so if a producer wishes to manufacture blankets from only Yorkshire wool for instance, they can now provide this to buyers at auction.
After lunch we moved to the Haworth Scouring plant, one of only three in Europe. We saw the long and hot scouring lines that remove dirt and grease from the fleeces, and then followed through to the combing processes that produce huge lengths of beautiful soft wool.
The site covers eight acres and the combing side of the facility can produce up to 150,000kg wool tops per week, whilst the scouring part of the business can accommodate up to one million kilograms of wool per week.
We finished off in the on-site laboratory that runs testing services on the wool they handle, plus all sorts of other fascinating fabric investigations.
It was an amazing day, everyone came away truly bowled over by the complexities of transforming fleeces straight off farm into wool, ready to be used in a panoply of gorgeous products.
We wish British Wool every success for their next 75 years trading, and urge everyone to buy more British Wool. A big thank you to British Wool and Haworth Scouring for giving up so much of their time to share their work and knowledge.
What is the Yorkshire Farmers Gathering?
A new initiative of the Yorkshire Rural Support Network at the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, the Yorkshire Farmers Gathering has been set up to give more senior members of the county’s working farming community the chance to meet up, off-farm and in likeminded company for industry visits.
The Yorkshire Farmers Gathering is essentially a social club for people who still have active farming minds, who are still involved in a farm business, perhaps have more time to get off farm and welcome the chance to be immersed in current industry intrigue.
The initiative has the potential to help tackle social isolation and loneliness in the community by reconnecting farming people and creating opportunities for likeminded people to perhaps forge new friendships.
Read about some of the Club’s recent visits: to Drax Power Station, here, Heck Food, here, Metcalfe Farms, here, and British Sugar’s Newark factory, here.
