Fernhill Fleece & Fibre

24/02/2026

Announcement: Speaker at Fibre Experience on Saturday 21st of March from 12-1pm including Q&A

Talk: Silk Roads and the unexpected roll wool had in its creation by Alan Freeland
For thousands of years a network of routes connected China to Europe through mountains and deserts. Exotic goods, new ideas and peoples travelled these routes shaping cultures and bringing much wealth to merchant adventurers. Today we call these routes "The Silk Roads" after its most iconic product - Silk.

The talk covers the history, geography and culture of the Silk Roads and the unexpected role wool had in its creation.

Bio:
Alan is a fugitive from the world of IT where he spent his career.
Post retirement Alan spends his time discovering the world of Art and History and sharing his new found knowledge with others, mainly the UK later life learning group - the u3a, but also Probus and the Worshipful Company of Art Scholars.

For three years Alan ran a u3a group focused on the Silk Roads and Alan has travelled the Silk Roads from Xian in China, through Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and of course Uzbekistan with the iconic Samarkand, Alan’s travels also included Iran and Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia.

Alan also offers Silk Road themed tours of the V&A and the British Museum and uses high quality visuals to illustrate his talks.

This is a free Presentation thanks to Alan's generosity and one which will be sure to enlighten us all in the history and our love for WOOL

Please come along and meet Alan, he is not promoting any books of his own, and is recommending three other books by established authors for those keen to read:

Peter Frankopan The Silk Roads, for an historical perspective
Chris Alexander: A Carpet Ride to Khiva and Unravelling the Silk Roads, for a textiles perspective

https://fernhillfibre.co.uk/events/fernhill-fibre-experience-21st-march-2026

23/02/2026

FELT - let's see what can happen when we talk about felt on social media as I don't think we ever really mention it much on here as, in our opinion it's one of the best products made from our wool on so many levels - making use of fibres that are not suitable for the spinning machine, our felt is created from fibres that originate from the belly, Britch & cheek together with skirtings and tender fleeces that have a break in their staple length - solving a problem of "what to do with all fleece parts" when we create our batches of fleeces for spinning into yarns - available in 3 colour shades, our felt range starts as a pre-felt fabric at 120g/msq and makes an ideal liner for clothing, works well for quilting and offers a great alternative to synthetic wadding - our 300g/msq has usually been made from lambs wool so superior soft fleece, just a bit on the short side to risk spinning a weaker yarn. Our most popular weight has always been 500g/msq as a medium weight felt, it's durable, strong and yet super easy to whizz through a standard sewing machine to create a huge range of items that don't require the felt to have a memory - by this we mean it doesn't have a recoil function that all yarns maintain so this felt works well as a cut-and-sew fabric. Moving on up the scale our thickest pure felt fabric is 800g/msq and is heavy, thick, densely packed and very durable and a firm favourite for those looking for something that adds masses of cushioning - all are created from pure new wool with transparency throughout the smallest of processing chains as the wool is washed and felted, and then returns to our farm. With a limited mileage count, felt is truly amazing at storing carbon - wool is carbon and it's unique ability to be cut from the roll, sewn together with others felts, leathers, fabrics etc make it a great choice of material - 100% natural, biodegradable, none-flammable, anti static, thermoregulating, soft, strong, abundant and available from - we have our next processing date planned for March 2026 so if you wish to request your own range of felts, we are taking commissions today

22/02/2026

Delighted to welcome Kate here on Saturday 21st March for our Fibre Experience FREE Farm Open Day and if this workshop ignites something in you too, here is your invitation to sign up to this very special workshop: 10.30am - 12.00 - Herbs for Livestock and Farmer wellbeing - with Medical herbalist and farmer Kate Scott BSc (Hons) Herbal Medicine

Kate says “As a farmer and shepherdess I have always had a keen interest in self selection in ruminants, and when I studied herbal medicine it gave me a much greater understanding of how the phytochemicals contained in plants work within not just the human body but within animals too.

I started to understand how for example tannins help control worm burden with their astringent properties, and how other plant chemicals and micro nutrients in diverse pasture can help boost immunity within the flock or herd.

This 1.5 hour workshop workshop will encompass native British plants found in meadows, fields and hedgerows and explain how they can help ruminant and farmer health - we will then learn how to use them and make a simple herbal vinegar and salve, with a comprehensive handout to take home too”

The workshop is priced at £35 per person, which includes your freshly created jar of herbal medicine and salve to take home, plus a small contribution for administration and delivery - the workshop will take place at Kate's stall in our Hay Shed Venue, close to the café and toilets - more information about Kate and her products are below:

www.thedroversdaughter.com‍ ‍www.roundhillagriculturalconsultancy.com

‍ ‍© Kate Scott Bsc (Hons) Herbal Medicine MCCP 2026
Please note - Fibre Experience is a free event, we have 8 workshops that are available to pre-book - see linktree for details thanks

Fernhill Farm - An Arcadian Place to Stay

21/02/2026

Another fantastic date for your dairies - this lovely event grows every year, showcasing regional wool in a local market town setting

The Sodbury Yarn Over

Joining us again is Jen your one stop shop for fleece, fibre, yarn and tons of inspiration. Farming regeneratively on top of the Mendips their lustre wool is just the best ✨🐑✨.

20/02/2026

Box of beanies arrived this week and as it's still blowing chilly winds (with plenty of rain showers) over the tops of these hills, thought I might just let you all know that these brilliant beanies are back in stock in our shop - we now have two options to share too ... our original chocolate brown pure Shetland morrit beanie plus a new shade in our silky Silver Mist yarns - a blend of Romney and lustrous locks from our Best of British Six Lustre Flock - both are soft, kemp-free, triple folded and to be truthful, I have rarely taken the Silver Mist beanie hat off my head since the sample arrived in our shop in December - wearing many hats every day, this hat became my favourite instantly and does a good job at keeping the draft from blowing my brains to bits here on the lovely Mendip Hills - it's with much gratitude that I can share these with you as the true skill comes from lovely Zoe who made us a sample last Summer and is now in full swing producing more for us as and when we need them - another lovely wool story from our collection ... to buy our beanies please head over to www.fernhillfibre.co.uk and click to collect or pay for postage and these cosy creations will arrive in your hands soon

20/02/2026

It's that time of year again to share this fantastic funding opportunity so if you have your idea ready - check out this award

The 2026 Innovation in Wool Awards are now open for applications. Up to three awards are available with a total prize money of £30,000 to innovations that are commercially ready projects, or businesses, that include one, or more, of the following:

The award criteria is as follows.

🐑 Offer value to British wool farming.
🐑 Include British wool fibre.
🐑 Use British manufacturing.
🐑 Indicate the potential wool volume used in year one and future years scaling up volumes.

Entries closing date – 30th June 2026. See link for details https://innovationinwool.com

The Innovation in Wool Awards are brought to you by The Woolmen’s Company Charitable Incorporated Organisation, The Company of the Merchants of the Staple of England, and the Campaign for Wool.

19/02/2026

Ooooh ... Yesterday I was sent these photos by Andy who had our Lustre Flock ladies in the race for scanning so here goes with two important and exciting messages to share today : 1. Beautiful FLEECES are coming along soon as we are about to launch into our month long campaign to bring you 'Fibre Experience 2026', and what better way to start than showing a tiny sample of what is coming along as our new season wool clip ... actually it's wool that was grown in 2025, we are simply removing last years growth so they can start afresh with their new babies in tow, without last years coat on - lots more detail's about this soon. 2. TRIPLETS ... our scanning results have shown we have a bumper crop of lambs coming along again in April and with 51 triplets scanned, we know we are going to wish to re-home at least 51 lambs so now is your chance to pop along a request for your own starter flock and / or additions to your own fibre flock - we take great care to find suitable homes for our orphans and will have Romneys, BFL and Wensleydale crosses available - if you wish to send us a message, I shall be available on 07903584695 and please don't just ask us about price, as this is not the purpose of this message thanks, [email protected]

18/02/2026

This is a fabulous workshop if you love leather

There are 2 spaces available for my leather tote bag making course this Saturday 🙌 to book visit the courses section on my website- link in bio

16/02/2026

Last couple spaces available at our next event here this Wednesday 18th February from 10am - 3pm with delicious home cooked lunches included - a whole day dedicated to talking trees and livestock and the benefits of this co-existence thanks to , and - to book your space please see links in comments and / or head over to our website www.fernhill-farm.co.uk

13/02/2026

A simple idea that hopefully delivers lasting impact within all those who came to the top of the Mendip Hills National Landscape yesterday for our networking day - a beautiful day creating a safe cosy space to welcome a community committed to both plant and animal fibres, incorporating natural dyes from the countryside

Simple opportunity to meet new people with similar skills and ideas to share, learning who is our neighbour, how others can help us source materials, find solutions to reoccurring issues, add value to products, create employment opportunities, discovering new ways to teach ourselves something new, thinking new ways to share our knowledge

Key takeaways seems to be dream bigger, open our eyes wider, reach further within our South West corner, it's ok to ask for help as together we will build a bigger community of those committed to making a stance against artificial imitations

All this is said with a huge thanks to , and for helping us deliver our ideas here and special thanks to everyone who came and joined in throughout the day - the first dry day here for weeks, feeding our home bred herd of Angus at the end of this bright day lifted the energy ... we are ready to press repeat