The British Products Directory

Welcome to the 2nd newsletter of 2009.

Did anybody notice, how earlier in the year there was a drive to encourage people to Buy British and support local businesses - No I thought not.
This should have been high profile considering the state of the economy and our politicians should have jumped on to this.
However as usual British businesses have been ignored.

However to give a small taste of what's been going on, I have posted a couple of links below:

• In this brand new, five-part series, comedian Dom Joly, takes part in a unique experiment. First, Dom's home is stripped of everything not made in this country. Then, after surveying the damage, and compiling a shopping list, Dom embarks on a journey around the UK to see if it's possible to replace his foreign made possessions with British made alternatives in a bid to find out what, exactly, is made in Britain today. http://uktv.co.uk/blighty/item/aid/617690/displayvideo/hi
• An article in the Times by Libby Purvis
  Forget smooth talking, software and money manipulation — to restore our pride, we have to get back to making things http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/libby_purves/article6728120.ece

Website update.

If you have seen the website recently, I have now added a latest offers section.
This is a page of special offers which will change regularly to include Christmas, Easter, Mothers Day etc.

For those of you familiar with PHP, I wrote a small script to automatically 'un-display' (If there's such a word) each offer as it expires.

If you think you would find this script useful, please email me and I will send you the code.

On with the newsletter.

• Company Profile: Heathylee House Farm, Luxury British made Scarves, shawls and Yarn.

  Heathylee House Farm is a traditional hill farm set in the Staffordshire moorlands area of the Peak District.
  They Farm a variety of traditional and rare breeds amongst which are guanaco (Lama guanicoe) which is the wild ancestor of today’s domesticated llama. Classed as an endangered species the guanacos graze an area of SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) land as part of a trial in conjunction with Natural England. It is hoped that their grazing manner will create the ideal habitat for the ground nesting birds like curlew and lapwing.
  
  Guanaco fibre is one of the finest natural fibres in the world.It is finer than cashmere and 3 times warmer than wool.

• Latest sites: A few of the new sites added.
• Special offers and New Promotions: Special offers available through the directory - Please note that some of these are available for only a short time - so you need to be quick.

 

Members Slot

Heathylee Guanaco News

We are well into calving here at Heathylee House Farm. The guanaco have done well sorting out the good days from the bad and have generally held on to give birth between the showers. Guanaco don’t lick their young chulengo but rely on the sun to dry them out.If they were to give birth during a cold downpour then the youngster could get chilled.

We have invested heavily in a new prototype machine to enable us to handle the animals for shearing, reducing the stress on both sides. Shearing will start when we are given a run of good weather. As the fibre on guanaco takes 2 years to grow to a length suitable for spinning we house our animals during the winter after shearing to make sure that they don’t suffer any ill effects from donating their beautiful warm fibre to us.

Our prototype machine for shearing is designed and built in Wales.
Britain still produces the finest engineers.

We are still working on finding a British hatmaker to develop our classic range of guanaco fibre hats. Sadly, most of our felted hats are initially worked abroad and then finished in Britain. Stockport (a stones throw from us) used to be renowned for it’s fine hat making industry, however, a museum is all that remains. Health and Safety won’t allow them to turn the machines on, to demonstrate the art of hat making any more. Oddly, the same sort of machinery is still probably in use in far flung corners of the world where are hats are now made.

We are currently looking at blending this years fibre with a rare breed sheeps wool such as Corriedale to produce a more affordable range of knitting yarns. We still have some pure guanaco yarn available through our website www.heathylee.co.uk but supplies are almost exhausted. We also have a few British hand-woven shawls left from our Limited Edition.

If you would like your profile published here please email me:

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Latest Sites

Concept Handles - produce a range of standard and bespoke exterior door (push/pull) handles.
The complete range of handles are made from stainless steel, with a satin brushed finish.
Each handle is individually finished by hand.
Concept Handles

Primitive Angel - design and supply handmade rustic home decor accessories and personalised gifts.
All our products are designed exclusively by Primitive Angel, hand crafted by our highly skilled team.
We specialise in shabby chic, rustic style wooden decor and soft furnishings.
Primitive Angel

Millie Mac - a fantastic range of stylish handmade homewares and accessories for children and grown ups using contemporary fabrics.
Ranging from aprons and oven gloves to bags and bibs, brilliant as gifts - or to keep for yourself!.
Millie Mac