Lancashire Life isn’t one of our regular magazine subscriptions, but we sometimes pick up a copy if something catches our eye on the cover. We actually live in Todmorden, West Yorkshire – but we’re very close indeed to the Lancashire border (it actually used to run through the town centre here until the mid 19th century) – so there are often places that we’re familiar with or new potential destinations featured that are within easy reach.
In this November’s edition it was the article entitle ‘Lancashire’s Material Wealth’ that made it a ‘must buy’ copy. The write up features friends Bernard & Jill Laverty, the Directors of David Whitehead & Sons based in Parbold, Lancashire. The article touches on the company’s long & interesting history including its textile heyday in the 1950s era when great names such as Sir Terence Conran, Henry Moore, Marian Mahler and Jaqueline Groag produced designs for them.
We first met Jill & Bernard after they read one of our post’s featuring a huge haul of vintage fabric we’d acquired. The couple were researching their company archives including the fabric designs that were once stocked by David Whitehead & Sons. Production of them had long since ceased at this point.
Jill in particular was caught by the bug and, having invested much time and money over recent years, they’ve now actually begun to re-launch some superb classic designs taken from these archives. We went to a wonderful celebration lunch at Windermere Boating Club a few weeks ago to mark the event.
Production will stay in Lancashire – the highly-regarded textile printers Standfast & Barracks of Lancaster undertaking the work. The modern textiles produced are lovely quality – we were able to have a good look and feel at Windermere! It’s quite early days for the new range, so media exposure like this article is going to be essential. We’re confident that there’ll be huge demand for them and are really excited to see where the designs are going to start popping up!
