Back on a winter’s evening in 2005, a meeting at the Finisterre workshop led to a unanimous decision to place wool at the centre of Finisterre’s fabric development. The pinnacle of our ambition was to develop a legitimate UK fine fibre supply chain that would take British wool to the masses. With the fire lit, it took two years of stoking and detective-like research to eventually lead us to Lesley Prior, the guardian of the last twenty eight Bowmont Merino sheep on the planet.
Eight years after Finisterre first met Lesley, the Bowmont Merino flock is now close to 250 sheep strong, producinga yield of around 700kg of fibre a year. After a lot of hard work and meticulous care, the dream of producing a superfine Merino wool in the UK is now a reality.