Fox Brothers & Co is a clothmaker based in

Wellington, Somerset Wellington is a market town in rural Somerset, a county in the west of England, situated south west of Taunton in the Somerset West and Taunton district, near the border with Devon, which runs along the Blackdown Hills to the south of the tow ...

, England. The company is one of the few working cloth mills still producing cloth entirely in England since 1772, although the present company was incorporated in 1996.

History

Fox Brothers originated in the clothier business of the Were family of Wellington. Their headquarters were at Trade Court, South Street, Wellington; they also owned two fulling mills. In 1768, Thomas Were's 21-year-old grandson Thomas Fox (1747-1821) joined the company, becoming partner in 1772 and sole proprietor in 1796. He introduced the FOX cloth mark and changed the name of the company (Fox Brothers from 1826). Thomas and his wife Sarah Smith, built in 1807, then lived in,

Tone Dale House Tone Dale House (or Tonedale House) is a Grade II listed country house built in 1801 or 1807 by Thomas Fox in Wellington, Somerset, England. Wellington lies west of Taunton in the vale of Taunton Deane, from the Devon border. Tone Dale House, ...

, Wellington - the house is still lived in by Ben Fox, five generations later. During the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

the company brought wool sorting, spinning, drying and weaving under one roof. It once owned nine

mill Mill may refer to: Science and technology * * Mill (grinding) * Milling (machining) * Millwork * Textile mill * Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel * List of types of mill * Mill, the arithmetic unit of the Analytical Engine early ...

s, including

Tonedale Mills Tonedale Mills, together with the neighbouring Tone Works, is a large textile mill in Wellington, Somerset, and the largest in South West England. Owned for over 200 years by members of the Fox family (see Fox Brothers), it was most famous for the ...

and Tone Works, and employed nearly 5,000 workers. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

it won a

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

contract to provide of

khaki The color khaki (, ) is a light shade of tan with a slight yellowish tinge. Khaki has been used by many armies around the world for uniforms and equipment, particularly in arid or desert regions, where it provides camouflage relative to sandy ...

coloured cloth for military puttees. Fox Brothers makes wool,

worsted Worsted ( or ) is a high-quality type of wool yarn, the fabric made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from Worstead, a village in the English county of Norfolk. That village, together with North Walsham and Aylsham, for ...

, cashmere and was the original creator of

flannel Flannel is a soft woven fabric, of various fineness. Flannel was originally made from carded wool or worsted yarn, but is now often made from either wool, cotton, or synthetic fiber. Flannel is commonly used to make tartan clothing, blankets, b ...

for use in suitmaking and held the Trademark for 'Flannel' up to the 1950s. The company uses

loom A loom is a device used to weave cloth and tapestry. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads. The precise shape of the loom and its mechanics may vary, but th ...

s which are 50 years old and maintains a

pattern A pattern is a regularity in the world, in human-made design, or in abstract ideas. As such, the elements of a pattern repeat in a predictable manner. A geometric pattern is a kind of pattern formed of geometric shapes and typically repeated l ...

archive dating back to its foundation, said to be 'one of the most significant textile (company) archives in the British Isles'. Fox Brothers has made cloth for the suits of several famous people including flannel for

Bob Hope Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in more than 70 short and feature films, with 5 ...

, chalkstripe for

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

and Prince of Wales check for the

Duke of Windsor Duke of Windsor was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 8 March 1937 for the former monarch Edward VIII, following his abdication on 11 December 1936. The dukedom takes its name from the town where Windsor Castle, a ...

. Hollywood legend

Cary Grant Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904November 29, 1986) was an English-American actor. He was known for his Mid-Atlantic accent, debonair demeanor, light-hearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing. He was one o ...

was often photographed wearing Fox Flannel, at a time when leading men were expected to provide their own wardrobe for the films in which they starred. Fox Brothers has won two Queen's Awards. The first was won in 1966, the year the award scheme was founded, for their

export An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is an ...

sales. The second was in 2006 in recognition of them manufacturing the world's lightest weight wool and cashmere flannel. The company released new versions of one of their 1782 pattern flannels for the Autumn/Winter 2007 season, using all British wool.

Present

In June 2009, investor

Deborah Meaden Deborah Sonia Meaden (born 11 February 1959) is a British businesswoman and TV personality who ran a multimillion-pound family holiday business, before completing a management buyout. She is best known for her appearances as a 'Dragon' on the B ...

who features on ''

Dragons' Den ''Dragons' Den'' is a reality television program format in which entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to a panel of venture capitalists in the hope of securing investment finance from them. The program originated in 2001 in Japan, where it is k ...

'', purchased a majority stake. Meaden grew up in the area, living from the factory, while Meaden's husband went to school with two members of the Fox family, the original owners. With Managing director Jack Hudson looking to retire, in November 2009, Douglas Cordeaux and Meaden bought the company, with Meaden taking 80% and Cordeaux 20%. Cordeaux, formerly of

Pepe Jeans Pepe Jeans London is a denim and casual wear jeans brand established in the Portobello Road area of London in 1973, and now based in Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Spain. Carlos Ortega was the CEO, and owns more than 20% of the company. History Pepe ...

, today functions as Managing Director. Meaden is not involved with the day-to-day running of the company, but devises business strategy. Meaden will attempt to consolidate the firms established position in Japan,

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

and the UK, whilst expanding into the United States market. The company currently employs twenty five people, an increase since Meaden and Cordeaux became joint owners. In 2011, Fox appointed two full-time apprentices to ensure traditional skills are handed down to a new generation. One will complete his apprenticeship at Fox; the second apprentice will split his training between Fox Brothers and Jack Wills. The company presently supplies designer

Ralph Lauren Ralph Lauren, ( ; ; born October 14, 1939) is an American fashion designer, philanthropist, and billionaire businessman, best known for the Ralph Lauren Corporation, a global multibillion-dollar enterprise. He has become well known for his co ...

Gieves & Hawkes Gieves & Hawkes () is a bespoke men's tailor and menswear retailer located at 1 Savile Row in London, England. The business was founded in 1771. It was acquired in 2012 by the Hong Kong conglomerate Trinity Ltd., which was in turn purchased by ...

, and

Savile Row Savile Row (pronounced ) is a street in Mayfair, central London. Known principally for its traditional bespoke tailoring for men, the street has had a varied history that has included accommodating the headquarters of the Royal Geographical ...

tailoring houses, Huntsman, Dege & Skinner, Anderson & Sheppard and Henry Poole, the official founder of

. The company collaborated in 2010 with shoe retailer Clarks to make cloth for its classic desert boot for the Spring/Summer 2010 season. and

Mackintosh The Mackintosh or raincoat (abbreviated as mac) is a form of waterproof raincoat, first sold in 1824, made of rubberised fabric. The Mackintosh is named after its Scottish inventor Charles Macintosh, although many writers added a letter ''k' ...

included a stylish raincoat made from Fox fabric in the collection on display in their first ever shop, opened in London's prestigious Mount Street at the start of 2011. Lock & Co., founded 1676, is using Fox cloth extensively in its 'Lock & Roll' men's wear collection for Spring/Summer 2011. All but one of the caps in the collection are made from Fox cloth, following the success of the Autumn/Winter caps made from Fox fabrics, which it launched in 2010. In October 2011, Fox Brothers and a network of British manufacturers launched 'The Merchant Fox', a website selling British-made luxury goods with proven provenance.

References

{{Authority control 1772 establishments in England Textile manufacturers of England Companies based in Somerset

History

Present

Further reading

See also

References