timeline of tartan mills
In looking at our current commercial tartan mills, a curious thing struck me.
Wilsons of Bannockburn, as I understand, stopped production in 1924.
It makes sense in that the massive military demand for tartan (and cloth in general) ended in 1918.
However the 1920s were the very time when the large Highland Outfitters were booming in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and London and selling to a worldwide clientele.
So with Wilsons closed, who was providing the tartan in the Highland Dress purple patch of the 1920s?
Most of our currently familiar mills opened in the immediate post-WWII era (Lochcarron and Dalgliesh 1947, Strathmore 1949).
One candidate perhaps is A&J MacNaughton (Pitlochry) who had been weaving tartan rugs since 1835 (Queen Victoria is said to have bought one) but I don't know if they were also weaving kilting cloth. The current firm (House of Edgar) says that the WWII years were "prosperous" for the firm, but says nothing about the WWI years which presumably would be more so, if A&J MacNaughton were weaving kilting cloth for the regiments or other woolens for the military.
Proud Mountaineer from the Highlands of West Virginia; son of the Revolution and Civil War; first Europeans on the Guyandotte
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