Fine silk accessories might be delicate, gossamer things, but they’re not light work to make. Each scarf, tie or pillowcase is the product of toil and experience, their patterns and colours brought into being by perfectionists who know their crêpes de chine and chiffons like the backs of their hands. Such is the case with Beckford Silk , a Cotswold family business established half a century ago. ‘What we produce,’ explains octogenarian and family patriarch James Gardner, leaning over a winch-dyeing machine, ‘really matters to us.’

The company’s story is an inspiring one. It was founded in 1975 by James and his wife, Marthe, in the small Gloucestershire village of Beckford, where it remains today. The couple had met when Marthe, originally from France’s Haute-Savoie region, came to E

See Full Page