When Margo Selby told a close family friend that she was trying to use more British wool, she learned that the friend's ancestors once ran the Wool Board, the body that became British Wool. Her new blanket, the Ackroyd Blanket, had its name.
Clippings related to the history of the Ackroyd wool legacy.
October is Wool Month, the point in the textile calendar when attention turns to the fibre and the industry behind it, and Selby's Ackroyd blanket arrives right on cue. Founded in 1950, British Wool is a farmers' cooperative representing around 30,000 producers across the UK. Its board is made up of elected farmers, each representing a different region. It gathers and grades their fleece, then sells it on to the global textile industry, where it ends up in everything from flooring to fashion.
Portrait of Margo Selby, standing alongside a loom weaving the Field Blanket in 100% British wool.
When a designer such as Margo Selby chooses that wool for a finished product, the effect travels back down the chain. Wool bought through British Wool's auctions or approved supply routes can be traced to its members, which gives customers confidence in where it comes from. Licensed businesses can also carry the Shepherd's Crook mark on approved products, a sign to shoppers that the wool is the genuine article. Every maker who takes it up adds to the demand that supports the value of a farmer's fleece. For a designer as celebrated as Selby, whose award-winning woven textiles are known for distinctive colour and pattern, it also shows the luxury interiors market what the fibre can do.
The Ackroyd Blanket by Margo Selby
"It feels really good to be working with British Wool," she says, and the blanket bears it out. Its yarn is 100% British wool from Shepley Yarns in the Pennine Hills of Northern England, chosen for its natural softness and durability. The design draws on Welsh blanket weaving, with a nod to Fair Isle pattern making, and shows off the full spectrum of colour that British wool can take. For a weaver known for colour, a fibre with that much range is a gift. The result is soft and graphic, rooted in country living, with a pop of neon. A Lancashire mill wove it using techniques honed across generations.
Side-by-side, the Ackroyd and Field Blankets by Margo Selby
Another Ackroyd deserves a mention here. Peter Ackroyd MBE, Chairman of the Campaign for Wool, died in July 2026 after more than fifty years of championing wool and British textile manufacturing. The blanket's naming was a coincidence, though a fitting tribute all the same.
The Ackroyd joins the Field Blanket, a collaboration celebrating British Wool's 75th anniversary, in Selby's British wool collection. Both can be seen, along with her weaving studio, at her showroom in Whitstable. Wool Month has been handed a very good excuse for a trip to the coast.
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Further Information:
The 'Ackroyd' and 'Field' Blanket by Margo Selby, woven in 100% British Wool, are available now.
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Image Credits:
Lead: The Ackroyd Blanket (detail) by Margo Selby.
All further images as credited in captions.