Tell us more about the Natural Herdwick Wool Rug

These Herdwick wool rugs feel beautiful, look beautiful and help to keep your home cosy. Each rug is handmade with 100% wool sourced from UK farms, which means, unlike many rugs on the market, it is made with all natural materials and is synthetic fibre free. Not only is that good for your home but it is also sustainable and more environmentally friendly too.  You can read about how we source our wool here.

Our rugs are rather special as each one is hand-woven on an old-fashioned wooden loom. The yarn used is made by spinning together wool from two breeds of sheep. The smiley Herdwick sheep and the frowny Texel sheep. They are two different wool types but when woven together, are a match made in heaven.

The undyed Herdwick wool fibres show off the range of naturally occurring grey shades, making each rug completely unique. Being a coarser fibre, the Herdwick wool also adds durability, quality and structure to the rug. Texel wool, on the other hand, is a traditional ‘white’ wool. It is finer and softer which helps to create a more tactile rug that your feet will love!

We're often told that Herdwick wool is too attractive to be stuck up the chimney as a Chimney Sheep. It's taken a while to source the expertise to weave the Herdwick wool into a rug. The wool is coarse and wiry, but by combining it with another Lake District wool, the softer Texel, we can at last bring you these artisan rugs.

This wool rug is beautiful, but is it also functional?

Have you only just met us? Of course it’s functional too! As you may know, we live and breathe draught-proofing and a rug can be a really great way of draught-proofing your floor. If you’ve got a house with floorboards, particularly wooden floorboards and floorboards in older houses, you might find that there are cracks. These cracks will most likely be letting in cold air.  Putting a rug down can be a great way to block those draughts and stop the cold air coming through your floorboards, making your home cosier and more comfortable. If you wanted to add an extra draught-proofing measure to the cracks in your floorboards, we recommend taking a look at our wool gap filler which is a great product to fill them with!

If you’re looking for other draught proofing options, we’ve got plenty of draught proofing options for your home (and lots of them utilising wool too!) including our best-selling Chimney Sheep® draught excluder, door draught excluders, window draught seal tape and more!

What are this wool rug’s eco-credentials?

If you are going to choose a rug, this one will be one of the most sustainable choices for your home. The fact this grey rug is made from 100% wool, a natural material, means that it is a much more environmentally friendly option than synthetic fibre rugs. Synthetic fibres are made from plastic and we are all well versed on the environmental issues around the manufacturing of plastics and the disposal of plastics. Wool, on the other hand, is a natural material that, in this case, comes from a sheep. Sheep need to be sheared on a yearly basis for their health and welfare making it a more ethical product with less of a carbon footprint than plastic fibres. Our rugs should last you many years but, like anything, it will eventually have it’s day and need to be disposed of. The great thing about wool is that it is 100% compostable so you can just put it on a compost heap and it will completely break down (no microplastics!).

We leave the wool undyed. Dying can be an energy-intensive process and the chemicals in many dyes can be harmful to the environment. The multiple grey hues of the undyed Herdwick wool have a natural beauty and make each rug so unique and versatile to suit many interior styles.

What are the benefits of having wool in the home?

Wool is a fantastic material to have in your home with a whole range of naturally occurring properties and a rug is a great way to include wool in your home in a stylish way! Here are some of the biggest benefits to have wool in your home:

• Insulating - wool is a hygroscopic fibre. As the humidity of the surrounding air rises and falls, the fibre absorbs and releases water vapour. Heat is generated and retained during the absorption phase, which makes wool a natural insulator.
• Breathable - wool fibres are crimped, and when tightly packed together, form millions of tiny pockets of air. This unique structure allows it to absorb and release moisture—either in the atmosphere or perspiration from the wearer—without compromising its thermal efficiency.
• Easy Care - the protective waxy coating on wool fibres makes wool products resistant to staining and they also pick up less dust as wool is naturally anti-static.
• Hypoallergenic – wool is not known to cause allergies and does not promote the growth of bacteria, mould or mildew. It can even reduce floating dust in the atmosphere, as the fibres’ microscopic scales are able to trap and hold dust in the top layers until vacuumed away.
• Flame retardant - thanks to its high water and nitrogen content, wool is naturally flame-retardant, and has a far higher ignition threshold than many other fibres, will not melt and stick to the skin causing burns, and produces less noxious fumes that cause death in fire situations.
• Absorbs VOCs – wool is able to absorb high volatile compounds – such as formaldehyde. These are in the air all around us, especially in new products and furniture, things that have been varnished, things that smell “new”.  The VOC’s bind permanently with the keratin in the wool fibre. Read more about it here.

You can read more about the benefits of wool here. We LOVE wool and use it in lots of our products including our Chimney Sheep draught excluder, our other draught-proofing items, our insulation, gardening products and even in our sleeping bags! Take a look in our shop here.

Have you got wool rugs of different sizes?

To ensure there is a rug suitable for every room, we’ve created our Herdwick grey wool rugs in a range of sizes. From small wool rugs for cosy rooms to large wool rugs for grand rooms, we have got a size to suit your home.

To shop the other rug sizes, please click here.

How do I care for this extra-large wool rug?

Our woven wool rugs are hardy (thanks to the fantastic Herdwick wool in them) but do require some simple care to ensure they stay looking and feeling lovely. Please use the following care instructions once your Herdwick wool rug arrives at your home:

• This rug is useable on both sides. We recommend flipping the rug every now and then to ensure your rug stays in good condition and to prevent any unilateral abrasion.
• To keep your 100% wool rug free from loose dirt, simply shake the rug out. If you need to vacuum the rug, please ensure you use a non-abrasive (without a brush) setting/attachment.
• Due to the woven nature of this grey rug, you may get a small amount of lint on occasions. This can be removed carefully with scissors.
• To remove fresh stains, spot the stains with a cloth and lukewarm water immediately.
• For a deeper clean we would recommend having it professionally cleaned.