Wool Sorting Past with Stewart Brothers.

In my last blog I mention Stewart Brother’s wool merchants formerly of Levenwick, Constitution Street Leith and then Galashiels who I became familiar with in 1967 they had a close working relationship with J & S this connection most probably began in the 1920s early 30s when one considers Stewart Brothers was founded in Levenwick and my old boss John “ Sheepie” Smith came from the closest village to the north, Sandwick where he began dealing with agricultural commodities such as wool.

 My direct contact was with the late Mark Stewart we would have a visit from him at least once a year to discuss wool matters such as fleece sorting and wool handling. In 1968 I had the privilege to assist Mark Stewart in the judging of a fleece competition held in our wool store. The competition was open to all types of wool, I had to unroll each fleece for Mark and he would explain by means of a British Wool Marketing Board fleece points scoring card what he was looking for in the characteristics of the fleece. At the end of the judging the points were added up, two fleece one Shetland and a Pettadale, a cross breed between the Romney and Shetland ended tied on the judges score card. I thought this was joint first however Mark said no we have to multiply the weight times the individual fleece score and the Pettadale was deemed the winner as it weighed 5lbs and the Shetland two pounds. I remember the comment from one older crofter to the other,” yon sooth man fishes we the owner of the Pettadale sheep when he comes to Shetland that is why he placed his fleece champion”!

 We had in place a valuation system with Stewart Brothers for each clip they received a farm or croft code from us on each sack or bale sent to them. The reason why this procedure was in place was due to the fact we at J & S had limited storage space and were unable to hand sort all the clips we took in, crofters and farmers also did not have the means to store the wool plus it was essential they required payment on the day. The sorting results would be noted on the purchase book page and that page recorded on the customer index card. When the individual came in the following season the previous year sorting results would be checked and depending on how the clip was sorted the price would be increased or decreased.

 Similar to clips sorted and valued by us Stewart Bros recorded each valuation after sorting the clip and this assessment help work out the price paid to the crofter in the following wool season. This method of handling changed in the early 1970s with the arrival of a wool press which meant more of the clips would be assessed by us. Shipping became easier with the wool press, gone were the days of trying to stow sacks on the small trucks to be transported to Victoria pier and at the north boat loading was by an on-board crane, sacks were placed in a cargo net often a bag or two would slip into the sea causing no end of trouble as they would be delivered back to us soaking wet. Our last sack shipment was September 1973 made up of 418 sacks plus 4 bales weight 12 ton – 7 cwt – 55 lbs.

The valuation of the clips by the actual hand sorting of the wool had certain advantages and to a lesser extent disadvantages. I dealt with why hand sorting of the Shetland fleece is essential in a previous blog however sorting the fleece meant that the finest sorted quality received a higher price and the poorer quality and soiled parts of the fleece for example daggings, excessive soiling ( peat), paint contaminated and wool damaged by poor storage. Spinners often said you would need 2lbs of greasy wool of the same quality to end up with 1lb of finished yarn to cover all the scouring, carding and spinning loss.

 From the wool buyers perspective this method of valuation meant the wool had to be handled once not like today where it has to be graded and then sorted meaning extra handling costs. Our parent company Nortura in Norway handled most of the wool produced there and on a trip to Bergen I met a Nortura employee a lady wool sorter on a croft visit and  discovered they pay the crofter on the finished sorted price.

One of the most positive benefits of us at J & S Shetland Wool Brokers working closely with Stewart Brothers meant that sorted wool either sorted there or by us could easily be dispatched to our customers on the mainland or orders taken from Shetland manufacturers to a spinning mill of their choice where ever that would be in the U.K. or abroad from their premises in Leith which was in close proximity to the docks.

Being the main wool broker on Shetland local knitwear companies would ask us to hand sort wool for them and instruct us to send it to the mills of their choice on the U.K. mainland. Looking back through the archives there was 10 such companies and were all knitwear manufacturers, sadly there are only 2 of those companies left. They would have their yarn spun to their own specifications at the mill of their choice, checking back through the archives the most used mill was T.M.Hunter of Brora, and to a lesser extent Pringle of Inverness and Wright & Jobson Galashiels.

  All the local manufacturers had their own marketing strategies but the brand that stood out for me was the Everest Knitwear range produced by T.M. Adie of Voe, they supplied the successful British Everest Expedition of 1953 with Shetland wool garments. In our company archives is records of transactions of hand sorted wool, black, moorit & white, starting in the 1950s for T.M.Adie and delivered firstly to spinner James Porteous Alva, Clackmannshire then with their closure in 1960 the spinning was carried out by Wright & Jobson of Galashiels. When I started in the wool store in 1967 I was shown the quality of wool had to be sorted for the Adie contract it had to be our finest number 1 sort. I remember being told that the under garments was a natural undyed Spencer weight yarn 2/28s Gala count and had to be spun from wool with the finest handle to ensure it was not abrasive. The outer garments were spun from natural undyed fawn the Gala count was 2/21s.

Not counting Stewart Brothers & T.M. Hunter there were another 12 companies made up of knitwear & weaving manufacturers and 5 wool mills, again sadly only 1 mill is left operating and 1 manufacturer. The only mill left that we supplied with Shetland Black and Moorit back in the 1960s is Snaeldan, they are based in a small town called Strendur located by a fjord. With the exception of T.M.Hunter the largest mill we supplied was Paton & Baldwin’s of Alloa.

At present we at Jamieson & Smith Shetland Wool Brokers in Lerwick handle over 80% of the local clip, according to Shetland trading standards figures, the remainder is shared by another 8 yarn producers who have their yarn spun here in Shetland or on the U.K. mainland, this is very encouraging as at one point fairly recently there were only 2 local companies involved with the production of Shetland wool.