Whitchurch Silk Mill shortlisted for major business award

Whitchurch Silk Mill has been shortlisted for a Made in Hampshire award at the Hampshire Business Awards 2023, which will be hosted by Alex Jones, presenter of BBC’s The One Show.

The mill has been producing silk for over 200 years and has been a living museum on the banks of the River Test for the last 35 years.

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It is the UK’s oldest working silk mill and the only place where visitors can see silk being woven.

The awards programme ‘recognises and celebrates the best in business and the people behind their successes in Hampshire’, according to its website.

The Made in Hampshire category ‘celebrates the excellence and diversity of production and manufacturing in Hampshire’ and is sponsored by Hampshire County Council.

The Weaver Tacklers at Whitchurch Silk Mill use Victorian and early 20th-century machinery to create artisan silk cloth, using traditional silk weaving skills including winding bobbins and hand twisting up to 10,996 ends of a new warp (warp is the long yarn that runs vertically across the fabric).

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Operations manager at the mill, Jess Bone, said: “Our team of Weaver Tacklers are our greatest asset. They work tirelessly on heritage machinery to ensure the craft of silk weaving is preserved and that the silk they produce is of the finest quality taking Whitchurch Silk to new markets around the world. We know Whitchurch Silk is exceptional and are so pleased it has been recognised in this way.”

Richard Thompson, chief executive of The Business Magazine Group, said: “The awards have received an extremely high number of entries, so many congratulations to those companies that have been identified as finalists”.

The event will take place on Thursday, November 30 at the Farnborough International Exhibition and Conference Centre.