Our loom
Newburgh Handloom Weavers uses a Thomas Kennedy handloom, built in Galashiels around the end of the 19th century. The Kennedy loom has two flying shuttles which can produce fine tweed in Twill, Herringbone and Houndstooth amongst others. Our loom is a traditional wooden loom, non-mechanised, which works by one hand throwing the shuttle, one hand beating the cloth and both feet working the treadles to change the shed. These types of loom were common pre-1920’s and require a great deal of skill to produce an even cloth and to balance the loom.
What we do
Our loom weaves very high quality woollen tweed in a variety of designs and colours, all of which are entirely hand-woven. We produce short lengths of single-width tweed on our Kennedy loom capable of producing cloth up to 45” wide. We are weaving traditional tweeds using Scottish wool, dyed and spun in Scotland, supporting a traditional industry which goes back generations. Jimmy has learned to weave in this way, being taught by master weavers, and is now passing on this sense of tradition and pride to Erika, who is continuing this legacy. We are honouring and reviving tweed production as it used to be and producing cloth which is every bit as high quality as that produced on modern looms. Together we are hoping to build a long-term sustainable business based on tradition and traditional skills, involving a sense of heritage and love of wool, and where Jimmy can pass on his skills and knowledge to Erika to continue producing tweed in this time-honoured way.
