Harris Tweed
Harris Tweed is cloth that has been woven by foot loom by island weavers in the Outer Hebrides at their own homes.
It is legally protected by the orb trademark which means that it must be exclusively made in the islands. This ensures that the wool used has been dyed and spun locally.
Known in Gaelic as Clò Mhòr (big cloth) or Clò Hearach (Harris Tweed) it evolved from the traditional labourous practice of hand carding raw wool to tease and stretch the fibres which were then spun on a spinning wheel. The coarse yarn was woven on a very basic hand operated loom.
Waulking the tweed was a community or family affair with people scouring the tweed to clean it then pounding it by hand to raise and tighten the fibres. In the Hebrides this work was carried out exclusively by women. (Curiously, the menfolk of the Gaelic emigrants to Canada after the Clearances participated in the waulking).
To alleviate the boredom of the long, repetitive task a Gaelic work song or òran luaidh was sung to accompany the rhythm of the tweed pounding.
From 1846, Lady Dunmore took the tweed to a new level by marketing tweed from weavers in the Isle of Harris around her high social circle. Its high snob value grew with refined ladies around the cities eager to participate in the new fashion.
Spinning mills opened up in Stornoway around the turn of last century revolutionising the cottage industry. But often yarn and tweed manufactured in the big mills was falsely passed off as genuine Harris Tweed prepared on the croft - a tactic which cheated work off the home weaver and his family.
From 1910 the Harris Tweed Trade mark protected the village-based industry by insisting it should not be produced in factories. The tight restrictions against the mill were relaxed in the 1930s and Harris Tweed was produced like wildfire with millions of yards exported from the Hebrides annually.
The Hattersley single width loom introduced by island landlord Lord Leverhulme in the early 1920s is still in general use. However, many weavers prefer the bicycle-pedal operated double width loom which though bigger is much lighter to operate.