MEET THE SHEEP (AND US!)
Our range of Southdown bedding is special – the finest luxury duvets, mattress covers and pillows. Of all the types of wool in the world, only British Southdown wool really excels in bedding.
This is because of the very dense nature of the wool which gives it a “cloud-like” bouncy texture. The technical term is “loft”. Yes, other wools are used in duvets – for example Merino and Texel, but these alternatives do not have the same loft and have been described as “flat” and simply don’t offer the same physical characteristics that give our duvets their wonderful feel.
Now the story gets even more interesting – only British Southdown wool is used in these quality duvets. New Zealand or French Southdown wool does not exhibit the same qualities we are looking for. But here’s the thing. We are a member of the Southdown Sheep Society.
From this, we know that there are only about 3,000 pedigreed Southdown ewes currently living in the UK, one of which we proudly present here. You can see from her stubby legs, Southdowns are small sheep and their fleeces yield only 2-2.5kgs per shearing which is roughly equivalent to one fleece per single duvet per year.
So what we are saying is there is a severe limit to how many of these duvets can be manufactured annually and once they are sold, there are no more until the next year.
We send our wool to a little village called Miagliano, situated in the Biella region of Italy and just outside of Milan. Miagliano only exists because of wool and the fleeces have been washed, scoured, processed and milled there for more than 2,000 years.
All our research showed that this was the only place where our precious wool would be scoured to the optimal condition for our duvets. The village is located in the foothills of the Italian Alps, sited so that for centuries the wool has been washed in the crystal clean water from the mountains. The original mill is there in good working order.
The duvets are then made by a small co-operative syndicate, family businesses who have worked side by side over the generations in the Biella aread. And then the finished products are finally shipped back to us at Marsh House, completing the circle and demonstrating a fully traceable process from lambing, shepherding and shearing through to the manufacture of a totally natural product designed to give you a really good night’s sleep and one during which you will not lie awake counting sheep. Pure wool, provenance and pure pedigree.