Gwent Guild Visit to Wingham Wool, 14/07/2026

Seven of the Gwent Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers drove to Gloucestershire on 14th July, 2026 to visit Wingham Wool Work in their relatively new home in Berkley. We had a lovely day! We met up at the Berkley Castle Kitchen Garden Café for lunch and a wander around the castle’s walled garden before travelling down the road to meet Tom and Ellie Gough at ‘Wingham Wool’.

Originally based in Wentworth, South Yorkshire, Tom and Ellie set up in Berkley at the start of 2026. Tom explained how his mother, Ruth (maiden name ‘Wingham’), started the business ‘up north’ 40 years ago. Ruth taught hand spinning and knew how hard it was for spinners to acquire ‘raw’ fibre, and so she approached the mills in West Yorkshire to supply it to her customers.

As we know, many of our mills have closed over the years. The relationships Tom’s mother built in the early years enabled Wingham Wool to acquire these mills’ machinery. We were treated to a demonstration run of one of the 100 year old carders that had produced a (much admired) batt that morning. Tom and Ellie both expressed a preference for their old, dependable machines over the electronic ones commonly found in mills today - they certainly had a presence.

The 100 year old carder…

A beautifully crafted batt…

Ellie and Tom have a wealth of fibre knowledge between them that they were very happy to share. Ellie’s mother is an artist and Ellie certainly knows colour! There were shelves full of beautiful blends and hues.

And lots of undyed fibres from all over Britain and the rest of the world. From long staple lustre wool to yak and silk, and everything in between, we found everything there! Our visit was truly a sensory delight.

But if there’s a particular blend of fibre a customer needs, they can commission it through Wingham’s custom blending service. Tom demonstrated how this was done using the ‘gill’. This machine uses fine-toothed combs to repeatedly blend and align the fibres. We watched Tom produce two kilos of a commissioned mix of Gotland, light grey and mid-grey Masham, with grey Teeswater, in 3 passes. Each pass through the gill increased the subtlety of the mix.

Fibres loaded onto the gill…

First pass…

Final mix… beautiful!

Ellie and Tom were so welcoming and, despite being obviously very busy, extremely generous with their knowledge and their time - for which we were very grateful. It is wonderful to see their family business continuing, and to hear that founder Ruth still keeps a hand in on Tom and Ellie’s behalf, maintaining their business relationships with the mills in Yorkshire.

We left Wingham Wool Work feeling very lucky to have such a treasure trove of fibre so close to our Guild, and we wish Tom and Ellie continued and much deserved success. No doubt we shall be calling in again!

Review written by Andrea Hennessey; thanks to Liz Alford for organising the trip.