London Wool

A 100% British wool blend created from the fleece of 16 different rare sheep breeds, totalling 598 fleeces, from the following city farms-Spitalfields, Mudchute, Surrey Docks, Vauxhall, Stepney, Wellgate, Lamboure, Woodlands Farm Trust, and Battersea Zoo.

The majority of London City Farms keep sheep as part of their educational programmes, teaching children and adults about the production of meat, cheese and wool. Sheep must be sheared for their wellbeing, the wool needs to be sold or disposed of. The amount of wool from each farm is too small to process commercially. This pilot project uses the wool collected from 10 London farms, a sizeable amount (1 ton), to be commercially processed.

The money raised from goes towards funding the London city farms and ensures this project continues as a bi-annual project.

All city farm sheep are sheared each spring. The fleece is then collected and taken to be graded at the Wool Board in Ashford, Kent. The graded wool is sent to Yorkshire for processing. It is scoured (washed) and the lanolin (natural oils in the fleece) is collected and either used in the beauty industry or the waste is used as fertiliser. It is then carded and spun into a 2ply light DK/sport weight yarn.