Video shows journey of British wool from field to delivery

British sheep farmers feature in the new short film - ‘The British Wool Story’
British sheep farmers feature in the new short film - ‘The British Wool Story’

British Wool has launched its new short film "The British Wool Story", which takes viewers through the story of wool from the sheep in the field to the point of delivery.

Focusing on harvesting the wool, the film shows viewers the actual process of on-farm flock management, sheep shearing and the fleece collection process.

Richard Wilson, a fourth generation sheep farmer of Crimple Head Farm, Beckwithshaw, North Yorkshire, helps to tell the story.

The film demonstrates the level of physical work and skill involved in the work of sheep farming today.

The film starts out showing the work Richard and his team do while shearing sheep. After this process, the film portrays the skip and jump of freedom that the sheep feel as they are relieved of their heavy fleece in the warmer months of Spring and Summer.

The film follows on to look at the grading of the wool at the local depot - a vital process for British Wool, which has the most varied wool clip in the world.

Over sixty different pure breeds of sheep and even more half, cross and rare breeds require skilled graders to examine each and every fleece by hand and eye.

The wool is then scientifically tested in the Wool Testing Authority Europe (WTAE) laboratory to provide accurate data to those buying the wool for textile production.

Finally, the wool is sold at the fully computerised auction held in Bradford which clears approximately 30 million kilos of wool every year.

Once sold, the wool will be transported to countries across the world to be made in to high quality flooring, furnishings and apparel.

The film tells a three minute story of a journey taking over a year and involving many people, highlighting the work of British Wool and the naturally grown fibre’s key processing stages.

"Our unique story shows people the many processes that our sheep farmers and British Wool carry out to enable our fibre to be used in textiles," Graham Clark, head of marketing at British Wool said.

"Real people, like Richard, are doing this work every day and our film - which was shot across North Yorkshire and in Bradford and Wales – has captured this remarkable journey to help educate consumers."