Visit to Melin Tregwynt, a Welsh wool company

In a remote, wooded valley near the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales lies the Melin Tregwynt Woollen Mill. Whilst on holiday in Wales during the springtime last year, we armed ourselves with a sat nav and drove through green, winding country lanes to see the mill at work and visit the shop. I like to support local, independent businesses and people making handmade products so I'd bought a few products online. I was really impressed with the quality of the items and the personalised customer service, such as handwritten tags and free postcards which came with the order, so much nicer than just a printed delivery note.

Melin Tregwynt Mill

Melin Tregwynt is a white-washed wool mill with sky blue woodwork surrounded by trees and a little stream, which surprisingly used to power 4 mills in the valley. The mill has been owned by the Griffiths family since 1912 but there has been a mill there since the 17th century, when local farmers would bring their fleeces to be spun into yarn and woven into fine Welsh wool blankets. We had a look at the small exhibition about the history of Melin Tregwynt, before walking around the mill to see some of the staff at work weaving the mill's modern take on traditional Welsh designs. On the way out you get to see the fantastic old water wheel which is no longer in use.

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Mill shop

Next stop was the shop opposite which sells Melin Tregwynt products and a range of Welsh gifts. It was so good to see the products close up, rather than viewing them on a website or in a catalogue. If I'd had the money, I would have spent rather a lot but I was sensible and just limited myself to a few things. As you'd expect quality comes at a price so some things were definitely out of my price range unfortunately. I was very excited to see that they were selling sample bags at reduced prices though and treated myself to one of those.

The fabric is used for a wide range of items such as homewares, clothing, furniture and accessories including:

[pullquote]Simple in spirit, satisfying in quality and timeless in design our Welsh woollens can be found in hip hotels and design-led stores worldwide, and on television and film.[/pullquote]

• Cushions
• Throws and blankets including pram blankets
• Slippers
• Hats and scarves
• Coats and skirts
• Bags and purses
• Lampshades, furniture such as a range of chairs
• Owl doorstops

Cafe

The coffee shop is next door to the shop and is  open 7 days a week. It serves light lunches, locally-baked sponge cakes, barabrith and welsh cakes and drinks. We'd bought our own picnic so had to resist the tempting smells as we walked back to the car park. We settled ourselves on a picnic table by the stream and watched the birds flitting through the trees.

Walks

Unfortunately, we had other plans for the afternoon so couldn't take advantage of the “spectacular beaches, cliffs and coastal footpaths all within five minutes easy walk from the Mill” but we will do some more exploring next time we visit.

Have you ever been to Melin Tregwynt or another woollen mill?