Conservation & Heritage Issue 50 Winter 2025/Spring 2026 - Flipbook - Page 33
The Unique Business of
Wendy Keith Designs
For forty five years Wendy Keith has been designing and producing beautiful handknitted shooting stockings and other country knitwear.
Her market is world-wide but focussed on British-based
companies such as Purdey, Holland and Holland, Wesley
Richards and others. Her success is based on a team of
knitters, living all over the country, who are able to knit with
four needles in the old-fashioned bespoke way of making
socks before the arrival of knitting machines. In addition,
her stockings have been much sought-after in high circles. For
over twenty years she has held the Royal Warrant to produce
kilt hosiery for HRH Prince Charles and, more recently
in his new position, HM The King. The achievement is
remarkable, but it gives rise to the inevitable question “How
did the business begin and then flourish in the extraordinary
way that it has done ?”
Over the years, inevitably, some of her original knitters
have passed on, but Wendy still has many who can put her
intricate, distinctive designs into a very marketable top-of-the
range product. Robin Keith died in the 1990s, but twenty
years ago Wendy re-married a Q.C. (subsequently a Judge)
and they live in a farmhouse overlooking a beautiful valley in
south Cornwall. Yes, from a studio surrounded by ponies and
retrievers, Wendy, supported by a tireless team, continues to
create exquisite, very traditional, knitwear.
Wendy’s father, Wing Commander Harvey Heyworth, was
a Battle of Britain fighter pilot and subsequently Chief Test
Pilot for Rolls-Royce. After the War he spent many thousands
of hours testing new jet engines to their limits. Wendy, who
was born in 1944, has inherited his spirit of adventure,
determination and total commitment. As a young woman
she studied French and Spanish at Lausanne University and
loved various sports, including hunting, skiing and tennis,
but in a serious road accident in the early 1970s she broke
her neck. Previously she had run successful businesses in
Knightsbridge and a top-class international estate agency. As
a mark of her achievements she had been invited to speak at
Women of the Year lunches, both home and abroad.
Wendy Keith
Wendy Keith
Designs Designs
Lengthy recovery post-accident led to her wondering: “What
can I do of a more sedentary nature ?” By then she had
married an Army Air Corps pilot, Robin Keith, who enjoyed
country sports like shooting; and it was on the shooting field
that she was challenged to make a pair of stockings. She took
up the challenge and found a wonderful old lady in Gosport
who had knitted socks for sailors during the War. More
orders followed; more specialist knitters were found. Very
soon she had signed up a whole regiment of knitters living in
places far afield. Shooting stockings, waistcoats, scarfs, and
mittens, all were grist to her mill. From her cottage home in
Hampshire Wendy did all the designing and further ensured
that the finished, hand-knitted products were top quality,
and properly dressed and bar-coded for the shop floor.
I
W
BY APPOINTMENT TO HM THE KING
AS DESIGNERS AND MAKERS OF SHOOTING AND KILT HOSIERY
By appointment to
His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales as
Designers and makers of
Shooting and Kilt Hosiery
Presenting
the finest Hand-Knitted
Presenting the fi
nest Hand-Knitted
Shooting Stockings and Kilt Hose.
Shooting Stockings and Kilt Hose.
Pres
Shoo
Bespoke designs to suit your taste
Bespoke designsBetowell
suitprepared
your taste.
for the exciting
shooting Season to come,
and
the
first in “The Field”
Be well prepared forbe
the
exciting
to
enjoy
the experience.
shooting Season to come,
ALL in
ENQUIRIES:
wkeithdesigns@gmail.com
and be the first
“The Field”
or call 01872 531767 / 01872 530165
to enjoy the experience.
ALL ENQUIRIES: wkeithdesigns@gmail.com
or call 01872 531767 / 01872 530165
Conservation & Heritage Journal
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