Here is a wonderful article we'd like to share with you about Gotland Sheep and Gotland Lamb Fiber (used with permission) from the Ashford publication THE WHEEL.  Please note the Gotland Lamb Top we carry isn't actual Scarborough but very good quality and terrific value.  We share this interesting article with you for general knowledge about Gotland.

 

About two hours from Wellington in New Zealand, there lies a secluded hill country farm. It is green and quiet. remote from the industrial world. It would have been a landscape much appreciated by J.R.R. Tolkien, writer of The Lord of the Rings. Much of his most heartfelt writing describes such places. However, the real link between this farm and Tolkien's epic had to wait until the creation of Peter Jackson's faithful film adaptations of Tolkien's books.

 

This rolling land was marginal as far as much agricultural activity was concerned, but when Cheryl and Barry Eldridge bought it about twelve years ago, they felt that it deserved far more than simply smothering it with dark rows of pine trees. They had creativity and ambition to drive them far beyond their simple lack of farming experience, and looked beyond the square of the normal placid white sheep that form such an iconic part of New Zealand's landscape. These Gotland sheep had been brought to New Zealand from Sweden about 20 years ago, but the elegant and fine-boned breed. traditionally farmed for their pelts, were not particularly sought after here in the pragmatic south. What the Eldridges noticed, however, was that these silver-grey sheep produced wool that was unusually soft and lustrous.

 

The Gotland sheep historically originate from an island off the coast of Sweden, and their unique silken fleeces were perhaps adapted to keep out the keen north wind which scours this cold land, This region is also an historical origin of another kind, where a people who could be both pirates and Edoras - the Golden Hall of the Horse Lords of Rohan, created on At Sunday near Ashburton farmers developed a culture and a new guttural language which sang tales of heroes and of dragons - and became Old English, and therefore the main source of inspiration for Tolkien, professor of AngleSaxon at Oxford University. Cheryl and Barry decided to develop and strengthen the traits that led to the shining Gotland fleeces. They specialised in wool production rather than the traditional pelt production, and their aim was to develop a fibre suitable for worsted spinning and worsted fabric. They took ten years to create the special wool brood of what is now a unique flock of 1000 animals - the Stansborough Gotland sheep. The line of sheep has been kept pure, and there have been enough semen and embryos frozen to provide the wide gene pool essential for future research and development.

 

 

During these years of experimenting and trialing, the brownish colour lent to the fleece -and subsequent fabric - by the brownish tips and guard hairs associated with the pelts of the original Gotland sheep, has been modified and removed. Cheryl personally sorts every fleece into three shades of grey as the sheep are shorn, taking her inspiration from the environment. The wool of the sheep comes in dark grey, medium grey and silver grey, and within these pre-selected tones there is a whole greyscale spectrum which creates the marvellous, almost metallic sheen. The yarn is better SPUD as fine worsted, and then it is combed to enhance the lustre. The demand for the fibre - especially in this post-Middle-Earth era - exceeds supply, and Stansborough are also currently unable to sell any yarns.

 

 

The fibre can be woven, knitted and felted, and all processes are used to produce the unique Stansborough designs. If woven, then the yarn is taken to the Stansborough weaving mill in Wellington. The looms at the mill weave their own strands of history. They date from the early 1890's, and are two of only four of this particular design which remains in the Australasian region. They are amongst the first mechanical looms ever designed. They add rather than detract from the general impression of intense individual involvement in production, as each loom can take up to two days to hand thread before weaving.

 

This intensity of involvement in all parts of the process between farm and garment results in products that are utterly distinctive. Years were spent in the development of the undulating twill-derived weave, and the resulting fabric has a unique handmade and natural feel, quite different to other mass-produced commercial products. The fabric has beautiful draping qualities, enhanced by the careful- sometimes done by hand - finishing to emphasise the lustre, drape and handling.

Throws, ties, scarves, wraps and jackets have been fashioned from the gleaming Stansborough fabric, as well as other knitted, felted and woven products, for discerning fashion, interiors and tourist markets. The Eldridges also work with individual designer stores around the world, developing and designing specific lines for them.

 

 

It was in New York, of all places, that the weft of the Stansborough fabric became interwoven with the warp of The Lord of The Rings masterpiece films. The mission of the costume designers for the movies was to stay as true to the spirit of the book as possible. It wasn't just a matter of getting some woven grey cloth to make cloaks for the hobbits and their friends. Tolkien had been exact in the requirements for the elven cloaks. The designers needed wool that would flow like silk, be both opalescent and translucent enough to reflect and absorb the colours of the surrounding environment so as to conceal small hairy footed beings from the most unfriendly eyes of all.

Above all, the fabric and garments must be part of the realistic backdrop of the Quest, and refer to the physically and expressively different cultures and histories invented by Tolkien out of his broad and unique knowledge of the literature of pretechnological North-West Europe. He filtered such cultures from Viking, Celtic and Anglo-Saxon history, to be used for his Elves' Dwarves, Men and Hobbits, so that the filmed characters had to also be readily identifiable with the culture they were representing. Tolkien - and therefore Peter Jackson - highlighted the rustic agricultural nature of this invented time, so that clothing had to use the natural fabrics and strong weaves as would have been crafted in this loosely medieval setting.

 

 

The immortal Elves - although of immeasurably ancient culture - had made the decision to live within the natural environment of Middle Earth. Even the greatest of them all - Galadriel - crafted and wove fabric for her people, ...and for the precious cloaks, the most important garments in the whole trilogy.

So the LOTR costume designers were anxious to find a 21st century fabric that would fulfil all their requirements - of drape and gleam and roadworthiness!

It came to pass that Stansborough fabric samples just happened to be on display at the right time, in the right area of New York. to be viewed by the hungry eyes of the movies' costume designers. They realised immediately that here was the stuff for the cloaks given by the Lady of Lorien to the ragged Fellowship wanderers. It took them a little more time and a certain amount of incredulity to get over - before they discovered that the soft grey fabric with the metallic glimmer was actually crafted and produced two hours up the road from their Wellington base in New Zealand.

This was a challenge that the Eldridges rose superbly to, and which showed the value of the meticulous and careful development of their chosen industry over the preceding decade. Within three months, Stansborough pushed the boundaries of their production process. with their mill producing over 1000 metres of fabric. Despite the intensity of this manufacturing process, the resulting garments still looked handmade and individually crafted, add

ing that authenticity that is so much a feature of the films. This was due to the small runs and careful overseeing of every part of the process between the sheep and the cloak.

 

 

In the original cloaks, the yarn was finely spun, and was tough and easily handled. They certainly needed to be durable, because although they never went to Mordor, they did travel over much of New Zealand. The Stansborough fabric was also used for Gimli the dwarf's tunic, soldiers' mantles, good jackets for the hobbits to attend firework displays in, and even in the robes of the Ringwraiths.

The doors of the world have been opened to Barry and Cheryl Eldridge and their Stansborough woollen products because of The Lord of the Rings films, and the interest generated by the internationally admired authenticity and high standard of costume and properties in the films.

Meanwhile, in the green valleys of Stansborough farm, the unique flock

pretty grey sheep continue to browse the hillside, serenely unaware of their links woven with the rest of the world.

 

 

 

 

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