Patrick Grant: Why I Love Wool

Clothier and Great British Sewing Bee judge Patrick Grant explains why nothing beats nature’s magic fabric…

I fondly remember going to school in long grey wool socks, my tie neatly knotted and sitting perfectly in the “V” of a woollen jumper. I can vividly recall the smell of wet Harris Tweed on the top deck of the number 23 bus returning home on rainy days from senior school in Edinburgh. I’ve always liked wool.

And I’ve always quite liked sheep. I see them from my window most days, mooching about in the fields that stretch out to the south towards the Bowland Knotts. We’ve loads round my way: the famous Swaledale (the dale is just a few miles from me); texels (solid beggars); mules and cheviots (hardy as hell); and a small gang of incredibly friendly zwartbles, including our much loved but sadly now departed Hugo, whose son Norman has happily inherited all of his father’s friendliness. Right now it’s tupping time, so the lads have got their sexy harnesses on and the ladies their painted rear ends.

I’ve twice in recent years rescued sheep stuck in fences, which makes one feel like a useful man. I have a much thumbed copy of British Sheep & Wool, a comprehensive guide to the 60-plus breeds of sheep we have in the UK (more than any other country, making us top sheep nation for diversity). It was produced in 2010 by what was then the British Wool Marketing Board (now British Wool) and is a most useful almanac for the amateur sheep fancier, containing, unsurprisingly, everything you’d ever like to know about our sheep breeds, and the qualities (fineness, staple length, colour, crimp etc ) of the wool they so generously produce.

Like a lot of folk, I also really enjoy the great British countryside. And while I love a field of wheat as much as the next person (or former Prime Minister), it’s the rolling green pastureland and craggy upland hillscapes that really get me. Without sheep, the UK’s 35,000 sheep farmers would have no reason to look after our hill country as they do.

But most of all I like how wool feels to wear. My most treasured pieces of clothing are almost all woollen; my first ever Savile Row suit – a 13.5oz charcoal wool herringbone (from Smith & Co), cut and sewn at Norton & Sons when I first started working there back in 2005 (still fits, just); my godfather’s old British Warm coat; a 20-odd ounce barathea dinner suit of my dad’s that saw me through the final years of school, two degrees, and lots of other fun times in between. I’m swaddled in the stuff now as I sit typing in my study on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales. There is snow on the top of Ingleborough (which I can see from my window) and I was always brought up (by Scottish parents) to heat the person not the home; socks, trousers, jumper and cardie, all wool. At Community Clothing we make amazing woollen products (I know because I’ve been using the same mills for this stuff for 20 years now), and they’re a pretty big chunk of what we sell, especially at this time of year. Much of it is merino – hailing mostly from Australian and New Zealand, but all spun and woven or knitted here in the UK – however we’re also rapidly increasing the number of products we sell made using British wool (UK spinners including Laxtons and Shepley Yarns are producing increasingly great yarns with local wool), meaning every step in the creation of these garments, from fibre growing to finished garment, happens here – something we and our customers are enormously proud of. The CC cardie I’m wearing today is made from a mix of blue-faced Leicester and masham, spun by Laxtons in Bradford, and knitted and linked in Hawick in the Scottish Borders, a region rightly famous for the fabulous quality of its jumpers (as well as its tweeds).

Wool is a wonder material: it grows naturally, needing nothing but grass and good farming; it is naturally hypoallergenic and anti-bacterial (so won’t smell like synthetic fibres do); it is hydrophilic, so draws moisture away from the body (equally helpful in clothes as well as mattresses – my Harrison Spinks mattress has several layers of wool and I’ve never slept better). Wool is also supremely biodegradable. Stick it in the ground and it will soon disappear to nothing. Worms, bugs, bacteria and all sorts of critters find it delicious and nutritious, which means that whether it ends up in the earth or the sea, it naturally turns back into soily goodness. You can’t say the same for synthetics, which can hang around polluting forever. Obviously moths love wool too, but the simple way to stop them is to wear (or shake, or brush) your clothes regularly.

For comfort, durability, versatility and beauty, man has never bettered what nature has created. I love wool. It’s magic.

Patrick Grant’s campaigning clothes brand Community Clothing supports local clothing and textile manufacturers across the UK.

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This article is from Idler #107, January/February 2026 – out now.

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