Featuring Lovat Mill

One of our favourite mills and also for our customers.  Utilising their own dye house Lovat Mill create stunning tweeds with a rich depth of colours which in our opinion are a work of art. 

Located in Hawick (pronounced Hoyk) on the Scottish borders where weaving began centuries ago as a cottage industry using wool from local sheep, the abundant supply of water from the River Teviot and, of course, the skills of artisan craftsmen and women.

By the late 1800’s, as new dyestuffs and loom types evolved, weaving in Hawick developed into a thriving industry supplying wool cloths to many new international markets. 

Lovat Mill offer an excellent stock supported range to cater for most situations.  We offer a small selection on our website but we would like to make their full range available to you:

Teviot - medium weight, Kirkton - Medium Weigh,  Ettrick Heavy Weight, and Heritage Coatings.  If you would like garments made up in any of these cloths just choose special cloth B for the Teviot & Kirkton and C for Ettick and Heritage Coatings. Type in the cloth code or name into the notes at the bottom of the order form. Otherwise, contact us and we can work on an order for you together.

Click here to view Lovat Mill's Full Range

Highgrove Tweed Shooting Jacket in Ettrick Tweed 

Lovat Mill and the Birth of 'Tweed'

The term “Tweed” was coined quite accidentally in 1826 as the result of a misread label on a shipment of woven wool “Tweels” – the Scots dialect word for twill – from weaver William Watson & Sons of Commercial Road, Hawick, to a London cloth merchant. The word “Tweel” had perhaps not been written clearly on the label but to the merchant “Tweed” made complete sense as these fabrics were chiefly used in those days by gentlemen for shooting and fishing, with the nearby river Tweed being a fashionable destination for such pursuits.

With the misunderstanding then being perpetuated by the customer reordering another consignment of “Tweeds”, William Watson chose not to correct the mistake. Realising he had a fantastic name for his product, and recognising the branding opportunity, he promptly adopted the term as a description for his mill’s high quality sporting cloths. In modern times William Watson would have been well advised to register copyright on this new product, however 200 years ago there were few such considerations and use of the word soon spread all over Scotland and, ultimately, throughout the World.

Now generally recognised as “The Home of Tweed”, Lovat Mill is proud to be the torch bearer of William Watson’s legacy, continuing the manufacture of this unique product into the 21st century.

Lovat Mill now stands just a few metres from where Watson’s mill once stood.

View Lovat Mill Cloths at Bookster