Cotmarsh Tannery

​
The journey we have been on to add value to our wool, led us to explore how we can produce high quality, fully traceable (down to the individual cow) veg tanned leather from our cattle hides.

The UK used to lead the world in producing leather. There was a tannery in almost every town and on this expertise we built the reputation for British shoes and saddlery. Since Chrome tanning became the standard way to make leather and tanneries became more industrial, our standing in the leather industry quickly declined and now only a few tanneries exist in the UK, even fewer veg tanneries. Traditional oak bark tanning is now classified as critically endangered on the Heritage Crafts red list. We are in danger of loosing the knowledge from the country completely as the last tanning experts retire.

Our leather will be made to produce our own leather goods, but also to supply brands looking for hero collections that want a true transparency along the leather supply chain, and for artisan leather workers and makers. In the future we'd like to be able to offer farmer returns, enabling farmers to generate another income stream from their cattle enterprise.

Our micro-scale tannery is an important part of the field to fibre story and knowledge exchange we are building on the farm and James hopes to support the creation of other micro tanneries, to help re-invigorate a heritage craft,that once was a burgeoning part of British enterprise.

​

For more information visit www.cotmarshtannery.co.uk