Building a traditional tannery at Cotmarsh Farm

Taking an enterprising approach to on-farm diversification, British White cattle breeders James and Katie Allen have undertaken an innovative project to build one of the UK’s only traditional oak bark tanneries, alongside a tanning and natural fibre education centre, at Great Cotmarsh Farm.

James and Katie Allen farm 170 acres on the North Wessex Downs, keeping herds of British White and Longhorn cattle, as well as a flock of Portland sheep

Katie and I spent ten years grazing for other landowners across the Cotswolds before we were fortunate enough to buy Great Cotmarsh Farm, a 170 acre grassland farm at the foot of the North Wessex Downs, at the end of 2022. Over that time, Katie has built up a successful knitwear business starting from learning to sew, to becoming an award-winning designer and maker with her collection being on sale in Liberty London as part of a collaboration with the Crafts Council. She is passionate about the importance of natural fibre and reconnecting fashion to the soil.

The farm came with around 15 barns of various sizes as the previous owners had housed their cows for six months of the year due to the land being heavy clay. Never having put an animal in a barn, we weren’t quite sure what to do with them. Not long after we bought the farm, we were had a rare night out and, over a beer, I said I fancied turning one of the barns into a traditional tannery, making leather from cattle hides to return to farmers. In typical fashion the response I got was “go on then”, and so started a journey.

I had no idea how leather was made, not a clue. Over the next couple of months, I got lost in the depths of the internet watching YouTube and flicking through social media. Somewhere along the line I got my first big break when I stumbled across a tanner called Matt Richards (Traditional Tanners), in the US. Matt has a micro-tannery in Oregon and has been tanning hides for decades. Following the broad adoption of Zoom during Covid he decided to run an online Zoom tanning course, to which I signed up for the first one.

The course included everything you needed to make a 30cm x 30cm piece of leather; he even sent out a piece of deer skin to tan (though I swapped in one of our sheepskins). Over a period of a month there were one or two Zoom sessions a week, going through each step of the tanning process. Matt has an incredible breadth and depth of knowledge, and he was happy to share it.

Traditional Tanners, run by Matt Richards in Oregon, USA

Tanning leather is a multi-step process with the key one being the actual tanning of the skin/hide. In traditional tanning, this preservation step is done using extracts from tree barks and other natural materials, though in the last 100 years that method has mostly been replaced by chrome tanning. Just over halfway through Matt’s course, you put your prepared skin into tannins for the first time. The only way of describing the change in the soft, swollen, white skin over the first couple of hours is ‘magic’! It quickly starts to take on the look and texture of leather, and over the next couple of weeks in the tannins it becomes the leather that we recognise. Walking away with a proper piece of leather after a month hooked me, and then things started to evolve rapidly.

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 fine British shoes and saddlery. Since chrome tanning became the standard way to make leather and tanneries became bigger and more efficient, British standing in the leather industry quickly declined until now when only a few tanneries exist in the UK, and 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 losing the knowledge from the country completely as the last tanning experts retire.

In 2023, I chanced my arm and applied for a Churchill Fellowship travel scholarship to support me in setting up a traditional veg tannery. The Churchill Fellowship was set up from money donated by everyday people right across the country when Winston Churchill died. Today, the Fellowship give out travel scholarships annually for people to travel abroad, to gain knowledge and bring it back to the UK. The subjects that people research are humbling, including in my cohort such things as “Improving palliative care for teenagers and young adults”, “Addressing social isolation among asylum seekers in the UK”, and “Prevention of suicide in care-experienced children and young people”. Amongst titles like this, my “Developing a micro-tannery model to vegetable tan British cattle hides” seemed a bit out of place, but rather surprisingly I was awarded the scholarship.

James' scholarship led him to an internship at Matt Richards' Traditional Tanneries in Oregon, USA

So, in 2024 I spent five weeks travelling to four different countries to visit 12 tanneries. My first trip was to spend three weeks as an intern at Matt’s tannery in the US. This was an incredible experience, and one of the best things I have ever done. Matt is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet, and he was incredibly generous with his time and knowledge. The three weeks were very hands-on; for example by day two I was running ten cattle hides through his large fleshing machine and by the end of my time there we had produced my first leather from cattle hides. It was so helpful to see what our tannery might look like and the work that was involved to run a micro-tannery, and also a lifelong friend was made.

Concieria Il Ponte, Italy

In September, I visited the international leather fair in Milan. This was an eye-opener, as I had never though about the worldwide scale of leather as a material, or thought about the technology and money involved in the footwear industry. The main purpose of this visit was to speak to traditional veg tanneries and line up visits for later in the year. The last two trips were almost back-to-back in November. I spent a week visiting traditional tanneries in Switzerland and Germany. Then, fittingly, I spent my final week of travels in the tannery district of Italy visiting two tanneries a day. The knowledge I brought back from my travels cannot be understated. The three weeks with Matt took my knowledge of leather tanning from basic to the level where I could be confident to start a tannery. Visiting so many different tanneries gave me insight into how to build my own, what things to think about, what mistakes to avoid, and how to design one that would work for me.

I got another big break in 2023, when the UK leather industry generously gave me a grant to fund probably the best veg tanning expert in the country to be a mentor over three years. Barry Knight started on the tannery floor in his teens and is now technically retired, but still travels the world advising tanneries. With his involvement, I now have the confidence to produce high-quality leather.

The tannery project has hugely evolved since that first conversation over a beer two years ago. With Katie’s passion for wool and natural fibre, and our joint passion for education about fibre, we have started to have schools, colleges, and universities visit the farm to see the journey of natural fibre from the field to product. Katie put in an 800-plant natural botanical dye garden last year, and we have aspirations of building a small-batch natural dye kitchen for farmers and makers to dye up to 30kg of wool at a time. The tannery will not only be a key part in this education about the importance of natural fibre to the next generation, but it is also going to be a hub for other micro-tanneries and would-be tanners to come see how it is done and gain some experience, and as an equipment sharing centre, as some of the key bits of equipment cost more than £50,000 and are only used for a few hours a month at the scale I am tanning at.

The big news at the end of last year was that we were successful in applying for a FiPL grant to build the tannery building and a classroom on the farm. This was a pivotal moment as it meant that the tannery had gone from an idea to a reality. Building work started the first week in January 2025 and will be complete by the end of March. I have some of the kit that is required to get the tannery up and running, but still have more equipment to find money for. I am hoping that the expensive machinery will be funded through a Heritage Lottery grant, and I am running a ‘Sponsor a tank’ fundraising drive to get the equipment I need to start tanning in the meantime.

There has been a huge amount of interest in getting the tannery up and running with a lot of offers of help and support, which has been inspiring. One thing that was unexpected was that I had initially only planned to tan hides to leather, but I am now having to reconsider that given the number of enquiries I have got for people wanting hair-on hides done. Currently it isn’t possible to get them done in the UK, the problem being that the machinery required to do full skins is bigger and more expensive. This would be solved if the Heritage Lottery grant comes off and would enable me to do hair-on-hides, or, as part of the machinery sharing hub, another tannery could tan hair-on.

It has been an incredible journey that started with a beer and a throw away comment, but we are not the sort of people who don’t chase our dreams.

To learn more about James Allen’s Churchill Fellowship travels, you can read his blog on the Cotmarsh Tannery website. To keep up with its continued progress, follow the tannery on social media @cotmarshtannery and subscribe to their newsletter: www.cotmarshtannery.co.uk/newsletter-signup.