Hunter's Tweeds' Charles Inness on the fascinating history of estate tweeds

Recently I had a beautiful suit made by Susannah Hall tailors. The combination of the cut and the tweed make a suit that is as comfortable to wear as a pair of jeans and an old jumper. The cloth is from Hunter's of Brora, famous for estate tweeds. I asked Charles Inness, owner of Hunter's, to tell me about their fascinating history. (See below for links and further reading).

GF: Please tell us something about yourself and Hunter's.

CI: My name is Charles Inness and I am a Director of Hunter's of Brora trading as Hunter’s Tweed, a family business, that was purchased by my father in law, Mr Geoffrey Minter, about 10 years ago when the company was placed into receivership. He was interested in keeping the brand alive and was encouraged to get involved by His Royal Highness Prince Charles. Since then, my wife and I have taken over the company and we are now the sole owners of Hunter’s Tweed. 

The company was originally founded by Thomas Hunter in Wick in 1901 and a few years later the company relocated south to the small town of Brora on the east coast of Sutherland.

A selection of Hunter's tweeds

GF: What background do you have in the tweed industry?

CI: I personally have no background in tweed or textiles but before taking on the company I was the factor (manager) of a traditional Scottish Sporting Estate and as a result spent a lot of my time wearing tweeds, as did the stalkers and keepers on the estate.

GF: Does the name 'Hunter's Tweed' derive from the hunting background to the cloth?

CI: The short answer to your question is that our brand name originated from Thomas “Hunter”.However here is some more background -

To answer this question I really need to give a bit of a potted history of tweed. Tweeds are distant cousins of clan tartans - each identify a group of people, but a tartan would represent members of the same family whereas tweed signifies a group of people who live and work in the same area.

Tweeds are also fairly modern, with the first estate tweeds being created in the1840’s. During the Victorian era Scotland became a hugely fashionable place to go after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert bought the Balmoral Estate. One of the first things Albert did was design a Balmoral Tweed for use by the stalkers, ghillies and keepers on the estate. This was one of the first real estate tweeds. 

The result of this royal patronage of Scotland was that the aristocracy, in this case mainly the English aristocracy, followed in their droves, purchasing Highland estates. Each wanted their own unique tweed. One of the old traditions of the Highlands had been the provision by the chiefs of clothing for their retainers in the clan tartan, however these new owners and tenants of the Estates did not have the right to wear tartan thus the estate tweed was used instead.

A secondary reason for the design of tweeds was to provide act as camouflage for the stalkers while out hunting deer on the hill. Each estate tweed would utilise the natural colours of the local landscape. Over the years Hunter's became synonymous with estate tweeds and was sometimes referred to as “The King of Tweeds” due to the quality and longevity of the material, which was normally a heavy weight (700gms) cloth. It was tested in the best possible environment; by a lifetime of hard use by the lairds, keepers, stalkers and ghillies on Scottish sporting estates.

A somewhat US version of a tweed-clad shoot

This is why Hunter’s products tend to revolve around the traditional pastimes of stalking, shooting and fishing carried out on a Scottish sporting estate and I suppose also my connection to tweed in the first instance having run such a place. 

But having said all that, we are also a forward thinking company and are utilising many modern techniques that bring us completely up to date. While we still acknowledge the importance of our traditional market we are also moving into new and interesting areas. We are now into what could perhaps be called “urban camouflage”, providing the modern gentleman or lady with lighter weight tweeds. These are made into high quality clothing which retains the sense of tradition that Hunter’s represents, while utilising modern techniques in design and manufacture.

Links
Hunter's of Brora Tweeds
Susannah Hall tailors

Reading - Scottish Estate Tweeds, published by Johnstons of Elgin