Marling & Evans

Undyed natural wool and English flannel

Marling & Evans traces its cloth-making to the late eighteenth century in the Stroud valleys of Gloucestershire, once the heart of English broadcloth. The Marling family were among the valley's great clothiers. Samuel and Thomas Marling bought Ebley Mill in 1840, and at the Great Exhibition of 1851 their black superfine cloth won a gold medal. The name itself dates from 1920, when Marling & Co merged with P.C. Evans & Sons of nearby Brimscombe.

The mill has had to fight for its life. The Stroud mills closed in the 1980s and the name later moved north, to Upper Mills in Slaithwaite, outside Huddersfield, where the River Colne runs around both sides of the buildings. In 2012 the business faced closure until a local businessman stepped in to save it, and in 2015 the Biella weaver Lanificio Angelico took it over. Italian ownership has kept an English mill weaving English wool.

It is a small, specialist weaver with a big reputation. It has made cloth for Ralph Lauren, Burberry and Hackett, and it wove the tweed for the English Tweed overcoats made by Permanent Style and Private White VC. It works with close neighbours: its yarn is spun by Z Hinchliffe at Denby Dale and its cloth is finished by W T Johnson in Huddersfield.

Marling & Evans is best known for undyed wool. The house weaves fleece from British sheep in the colours the sheep grew, including Shetland, Jacob and Welsh Black, each in its natural shade. The mill says it uses only British wools, dyes and natural finishes, with no chemical additives, so no two bolts are quite alike. Alongside the undyed range it weaves flannel, lambswool and a covert twill.

That is the ESG story in its simplest form: wool from British farms, spun, woven and finished in one corner of West Yorkshire, and in much of the range no dye at all. The mill does not publish formal certifications, so we quote none.

We like Marling & Evans for texture that reads across a room. The cloth has a dry, matte face and real body. It cuts cleanly, holds a lapel line and softens with wear rather than tiring. Our Haddington Black Jacket is cut from Marling & Evans cloth: double-breasted, fully unlined and made to measure in Sydney. Ask to see the current Marling & Evans cloth at your fitting.