Moons

Abraham Moon and Sons was established in 1837, the year Queen Victoria came to the throne. Abraham Moon was a clothier of standing in Guiseley who supplied local families with yarn to weave on hand looms in their own homes. In 1868 he had a three storey mill built on Netherfield Road, a few hundred yards from his house, chosen for the soft water beneath it; those same springs are still used for scouring today.

The original mill burned to the ground in 1902 and Isaac Moon rebuilt it larger, on one floor, which is why it is a vertical mill: every process from raw wool through dyeing, blending, carding, spinning, warping, weaving and finishing happens on the one site. It is one of very few such mills left in Britain.

The Moon family sold out in 1920 to Charles H Walsh, the designer and mill manager, who borrowed 33,000 pounds to buy the shares; the current chairman John Walsh is the fourth generation of that family. The customer list runs from interiors to Burberry, Paul Smith and Ralph Lauren. Moon bought Bronte Tweeds in 2009 and renamed it Bronte by Moon in 2013.

A cloth spun and woven under one roof behaves consistently, roll to roll, which matters when a suite has to be cut from more than one piece.