Aerial view of the Upper and Lower Mills, Balbriggan 1958
Manufacture
Charles Gallen is today an independent partner in the Samuel Lamont Group. We have the largest household textile making-up facility on the island of Ireland, and produce all manner of textile products, including tablecloths & napkins, sheets & pillowcases, blankets, handkerchiefs, and a variety of housekeeping materials including aprons & quilted products, tea towels, and gusset bags and bedspreads.
Our experienced and flexible factory has made white labelled ranges for multitude of international brands including QVC, Comic Relief, Emma Bridgewater, Liberty of London, Nicholas Mosse, TJ Maxx, Victoria & Albert Museum, Brown Thomas and many others.
We have an in-house embroidery facility, and can produce fine identification details for individuals, defined locations and brands.
Please contact us with your requirements.
Care of Irish Linen
Never tumble-dry linen as this can over-dry the fibres and makes ironing more difficult. Linen naturally dries quickly anyway. So spin and line dry. Always iron linen when damp, first on the wrong side to eliminate creases and then on the right side if you wish to enhance the fabric's natural sheen.
Corporate Gifting
Irish Linen is an exceptional gift to offer delegates and visitors - the broad range of products allows a wide band of price categories to fit any budget. Personalisation adds a finishing touch.
Souvenirs of Ireland
Charles Gallen Irish Linen is widely available through retail outlets all over Ireland. Our finest linens have a comprehensive display on our online website www.givans.co.uk – Givans is the name of Londons finest linen store which was located on the Kings Road for over a century, and has a wide selection of bedding and kitchen textiles, of both Irish Linen and other fabrics.
Through 150 years of linen manufacture, Charles Gallen has seen many transitions in the manufacture of Linen.
The two elements in weaving are the ‘Warp’ – a beam of thousands of long spans of yarn, that are fed into the loom – and the ‘Weft’, another length of yarn that is threaded through the warp yarns to weave and give stability to the fabric.
From the early hand looms, on the left – this is a ‘Jacquard’ loom for weaving Damask Fabrics – where the weft is located in a shuttle which is discharged from side to side by the hand and innate timing of the weaver to the early powered looms, shown in the central photo – mechanised and driven by a controlled flow of water into the Factory Millrace – these are ‘Dobbie’ looms for weaving simple patterns such as stripes.
The shuttle is now shot through by the timed use of gearing, allowing for faster speeds, and wider widths.
Then, the right hand side photo, onto modern rapier looms, where the weft is passed through the warp by the rapier at rapid speeds up to 5 times faster than early powered looms.
