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Makers

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"If it wasna for the weavers, what would ye do? Ye wouldna hae your cloth that's made o woo'." Exactly. And not just the weavers, either. If it wasn’t for makers — and this lot are the best in the Isles — you wouldn’t have very much at all.

Tweed mill: Morayshire; Meanwhile, on the banks of the Moray Firth, there is weaving afoot — inside a repurposed boat-shed of just the right size, on a loom built over a century ago. More

Weaving studio: Mourne Mountains; Its name might be synonymous for melancholy, and its first loom was built by the local coffin-maker, but the cloth made here — little in the Isles so vital. More

Melton mill: West Yorkshire; The most dense, the most intensively milled, and the most heavily brushed woollens anywhere in the Isles — supplied to the military for over 200 years. More

Horn works: Lancashire; A cornucopia if ever there was one: shaping, and polishing cow horn — and, in so doing, making things like toggles for duffle coats — since the 1700s. More

Woollen mill: Inner Hebrides; Within the context of cloth, the Inner Hebrides are the other Hebrides. They're the Hebrides where you can have any colour you like, so long as it's sheep. More

Linen weaver: Outer Hebrides; Linen woven in the old traditions of Hebridean linen — which is to say, an original, one of a kind, against-grain endeavour, in the land of tweed. More

Woollen mill: South Wales; Sheep-rearing sorts began bringing their fleeces down into the coastal valley of the mill a couple of hundred years ago: the looms have clacked on ever since. More

Glove maker: South-west England; Every day, here in the crucible of England's glove-making tradition, a team of craftspeople busily enact the old adage about silk purses and sows' ears. More

Cotton mill: Lancashire; Cotton. There’s nothing you can’t do with cotton — not least when you have the finest cloth-brains in the country on the case. More soon — but for the time being.

Spectacle-frame factory: London; The very last spectacle-frame factory in Britain is a factory in many ways in name only: more a four-storey home of a few highly dexterous craftspeople. More

Tweed mill: County Donegal; Untraditional traditional Donegal tweed woven here, with two men — father and son — side by side, weaving cloth on looms in a shed beside the family home. More

Flannel mill: North-east London; This place is most famous for flannel — mostly because this is where it was invented. But you don’t get far these days with only the tried and tested. More

Knitwear maker: South-west; Handiwork — lots of it. Hand-looming, hand-framing, and hand-linking: slow and steady ways to make fittingly handsome jumpers and scarves and socks. More

Brass foundry: West Midlands; The metallurgists of the best buckle maker in the Black Country: a region steeped in metalwork since Judas Priest. The full write-up is on the way — and until then.

Cashmere mill: West Yorkshire; Making things with the extraordinarily fine hair of the cashmere goat calls for some extraordinarily clever contraptions — not least the aeons-old teasel-gig. More

Shirtmaker: Kent; With specialism, sometimes, comes exceptionalism, and here, over three narrow floors, cuffs, collars, and sleeves of imperious quality are cut and sewn. More

One-man mill: North-east London; With his fleet of restored bygone-era looms, there’s little the one-man mill can’t do, or risk life and limb attempting. Full write-up soon — and in the meantime.

Worsted mill: West Yorkshire; The Heavy Woollen District might no longer be centre of the woollen world, but the one or two of the mills still standing there have never had it so good. More

Horn button maker: West Midlands; The premises might've changed, but what they make at the old West Midlands button-maker have changed barely even a jot since the American Civil War. More

Jersey maker: Leicestershire; The best jersey begins down in the basement, and down in the basement today, among row on row of knitting machines, it is very cold. More

Spinning factory: County Donegal; When it comes to yarn of the Donegal variety, accept no substitutes: unless dyed and spun and carded and nepped and burred here, it just won't do. More

Pattern-cutter: North London; The maestro. Cutting at the top for half a century brings the nous and skill and confidence of truly accomplished craftsmanship. More soon; this for now.

Woollen mill: Gloucestershire; Here be 200 year-old weavers of industry-leading saxony twills, double-cloths, cavalry twills, and a good many other to-be-reckoned-with jacket materials. More

Sample room: North-west London; Unassuming premises, the sample-room in north-west London, and yet vital — putting out the cleanest samples and small runs for the best part of a century. More

Cap maker: County Donegal; Simple and superior scalp-wear has been made at this place — slap-bang among the very best makers of tweed north-west Ireland — for quite some time. More

Horn button maker: West Midlands; A cacophony of contraptions suggests things are going in the right direction at the newest button-maker in the Midlands. Full report soon — and for the moment.

Hat maker: South-east England; The hat maker: top dog in the blocking, brushing, and brim-curling game since some time between the Napoleonic Wars and the American Revolution. More

Outerwear factory: North-east London; Meticulous cutters and unflappable seamsters coalesce around reassuringly regimented tea-breaks for some of the best-made jackets and coats around. More