Berkshire spinner weaves her way to county show
A lecturer from Berkshire College is gearing up to present the result of a phenomenal 500 hours spinning wool from 100 native breeds of sheep.
Linda Scurr, who lives in Cholsey near Wallingford, has spun the skeins to mark the 100th anniversary of the Newbury and District Agricultural Society and will show off her work for the first time at this month’s Royal County of Berkshire Show (19th-20th September).
Weaving enthusiast Linda is Chairman of the Kennet Valley Guild of Weavers, Spinners & Dyers and keeps a flock of Wensleydale, Jacob and Manx sheep.
A visit to the centenary Royal Welsh Show back in 2004 gave her the seed of an idea to mark the 100th birthday in a special way and so in 2006, she set herself this extraordinary challenge.
The ambitious project to track down often rare breeds became a three-year journey involving trips to agricultural shows the length and breath of the country to meet breeders, talk to breed societies and secure "promises" of wool.
On top of that came 100s of telephone calls and emails in pursuit of elusive samples, not to mention the staggering 500 hours of spinning the fibre into skeins (pronounced skanes) of loosely coiled lengths of wool – but that was probably the easy part.
"I don’t think anyone has done it before although when I was talking to breed societies they thought someone else was doing it which was slightly worrying. It was a nightmare at times just trying to locate the fleeces but I am a stubborn old mule so I wasn’t going to give up.
"It has taught me a lot especially about the different fleeces that I had not worked with before – for instance two really good fleeces to work with are hill breeds that no one wants – the Welsh Mountain and the Hill Radnor. You can work with fine wool like the Merino but it will take six to eight hours to spin whereas the heavier fleece will take just three.
"The colours are interesting too – there is the full spectrum from white and cream through to silver, grey, black, brown and ginger."
Local farmers have also helped source some of the fleece, Nigel Wernham, Chairman of Newbury and District Agricultural Society’s Sheep Committee has supplied wool from his Poll Dorsets. Fellow spinners have also helped create some of the skeins.
So has this determined lady achieved her goal? Well, visitors to Newbury will be able to find out when the visit Linda’s exhibition in the sheep lines at the Show where the skeins will be displayed in a giant 8ftx4ft cabinet along with fascinating information from all the breed societies.
As well as Linda’s fantastic display of skeins of wool from across the British isles, the sheep lines will be buzzing at the Show with a range of spinning demonstrations, fleece, fibre and jumper competitions – a spectacle not to be missed.
