About Lily Warne Wool

Lily Warne Wool is a mother and son partnership founded and based at Twig Farm, our small family farm nestled on the edge of Dartmoor in Chudleigh, Devon where we keep a flock of pure Greyface Dartmoor sheep.

Our inspiration derives from our great-great-grandmother, ‘Lily Warne’. She was a sheep farmer at the turn of the 19th Century, just outside Chagford in Devon. She not only bred these wonderful Greyface Dartmoor sheep, but also turned the fleeces into wonderful garments just like we do today.

Only a few years ago we were spurred into action and decided to have the fleece from our first couple of Greyface Dartmoor sheep manufactured into our own wool. With the help of our grandmother Lily Warne Wool soon transpired. So keeping it local, our fleece is taken to a local Woolen Mill and spun into Aran wool which is now used by our local ladies to create our wonderful products both at the on farm studio and in their own homes in the community.

Our products can now be found throughout the UK and Lily Warne Wool has become a leading figure in the Devon Wool industry – pioneering the importance and excellence of 100% pure Devon Wool. We look forward to welcoming you into the Lily Warne community and keeping you updated with the news from the farm, the flock and the family.

Our Wool

Our sheep are Grey Faced Dartmoor which is a rare breed indigenous to Dartmoor itself. We also use wool from our Blue faced Leicester to soften the Grey Faced Dartmoor as its a very strong wool.

The Greyface Dartmoor wool boasts tremendous strength as a yarn, this makes it ideal for both felting and crocheting. Aran is a lovely chunky wool as the knitters out there will know.

BBC Countryfile

In November of 2014 we had the pleasure of filming with Adam Henson and the film crew of BBC Ones Countryfile. This was a big step for us and it helped to show millions of people across the nation the excellence of Pure Devon Wool and the Greyface Dartmoor sheep when the piece as aired in November. Interviews with BBC Radio Devon and other organisations were subsequently held on the farm and we were able to educate people on our ‘Farm to Yarn’ process. We now look forward to featuring on BBC’s Escape to the Country in the Autumn and working with Cotswold TV on a joint wool based project.

Awards

We have been very humbled by the amazing array of awards we have gained as we develop and are happy to be working with some fantastic charitable, agricultural and entrepreneurial organisations as a result – most of which can be found on our Friends page.

Paula and Lewis Steer