Our loom
Newburgh Handloom Weavers uses two Thomas Kennedy handlooms, both built in Galashiels around the end of the 19th century. The Kennedy looms have two flying shuttles which can produce fine tweed in twill, herringbone and hounds-tooth amongst others. Our looms are traditional wooden looms, non-mechanised, which work by one hand throwing the shuttle, the other 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 looms allow us to weave very high quality woollen tweed in a variety of designs and colours, all of which are entirely hand-woven. We produce short lengths (from 10m up to 40m) of tweed on our Kennedy looms capable of producing cloth up to 1m wide. We mainly weave traditional Scottish tweeds, supporting an 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. We are building a long-term sustainable business based on tradition and traditional skills, involving a sense of heritage and love of wool, and where Jimmy is passing on his skills and knowledge to Erika and together they are producing fine tweeds and cloth in this time-honoured way.
