Norfolk

Woolly Cushion Studio is a producer of natural wool accessories highlighting our wonderful British sheep breeds. Design inspiration is drawn from the Norfolk coastline and countryside. Woolly Cushion Studio is located in the pretty village of South Creake, where flinted cottages nestle along a shallow valley. The River Burn rises to the south of the village and flows through the centre of Creake, past North Creake Abbey ruins, Burnham Thorpe; where Nelson was born, and down to Burnham Overy where the river spreads into the many tidal creeks through salt marshes and out past the dunes at Burnham Harbour before entering the North Sea.

There has been a church on the site of St Mary’s for over a 1,000 years and most of what is visible today descends from Norman origin of the 12th Century. This beautiful church is one of East Anglia’s finest examples, with 22 carved and painted medieval angels adorning the roof, which were installed to celebrate the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.

1km south west of the village is the Iron Age Hill Fort at Bloodgate Hill which is one of the largest of six forts known in Norfolk. It was built by Iron Age warrior tribes in around the 7th Century BC, three or four hundred years before the Roman invasion; being circular with four metre deep ditches making this a heavily defended tribal centre. They kept small, hardy sheep similar to the Soay sheep of today, wool was plucked off by hand every year and either felted or spun then woven into woollen garments. The Iron Age people grew woad (blue dye), madder (red) and weld (yellow) for dyeing the wool.

Norwich, 30 miles from Creake, was once one of the richest cities in the country with skilled felt makers and a vast weaving industry fed by spinners from towns and villages. Yarn was woven into quality worsted twills and silk-figured woollens which were exported in enormous quantities from Great Yarmouth to Europe. Worsted cloth was spun from long stapled wool into a harder yarn to make finer, lighter cloth and named after the village located north east of Norwich.