Made to measure Bed Linen Added: (Tue Mar 25 2014) Pressbox (Press Release) - Made to measure bed linen in your style and colour Bespokebedlinens.co.uk Fifteen years on the Internet! Made-to-measure bedding specialist Bespokebedlinens.co.uk (http:/www.bespokebedlinens.co.uk is celebrating 15 years as an online business. Back then, to have an online business was a novelty and were few and far between as far as small businesses went. Search engines listed you in alphabetical order, so “Bespokebedlinens” was always on the front page of Google, where it still is today. In the early days, customers with Electric beds were limited, whilst those with Round Beds were very rare. Now, linen for Electric beds is a daily made item and the shaped linen for Round beds is requested weekly. The marketing director of family-owned said: “Our reputation for quality extends way beyond the UK, and the reach of the internet has helped us to attract an increasing number of clients from overseas. The company now ships goods, all individually made to customers’ requirements, worldwide, with customers in Australia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Greece, Spain, France, Portugal, Denmark, USA, Austria and Sweden. Fifteen skilled staff requires only measurements – and maybe a few angles – in order to work on custom-made quilts and quilt covers; fitted, semi-fitted and flat sheets; valances; mattress covers; bedspreads; pillows and pillow cases. The company is part of Yorkshire Mill Shops (http://www.yorkshiremillshops.com) The bed linen is made in a factory established for more than 30 years, based in an old mill in the Pennine hills which was once used by hand weavers and spinners. Items are guaranteed to fit, and customers can either provide their own material or choose from a wide range of fabrics - including Egyptian cotton, percale, combed cotton and easy-care polyester/cotton - in more than 80 colours. Quilts can contain man-made fillings, New Feather and Down or Pure Down. Orders and payments can be made online. Around 50% of customers prefer to phone 0845 226 7388 before placing an order – often to seek reassurance that the item they require can be made, or to check that it can be delivered before the arrival of a new bed. 8723bf8343

The History of the Four Poster Bed

Photo: Lyonshall- Twisted posts.
The following was compiled by Stephen Edwards of the Four Poster Bed Company and who has kindly allowed us to use his photos.

For centuries, the bed has been a sign of wealth, the richer the nobleman, the better the bed, which is probably why many people still aspire to owning a four poster bed, the bed of kings, and the king of beds.

Saxon and Norman furniture would have been basic in quantity and quality. The two essentials in their lives were "bed and board," a phrase still used today. The 'board' was literally a board or boards, set up on trestles or tree stumps used for a table and a bed.

The bed clothes would have consisted of pillows, quilts and fur rugs, and would have only been for the wealthy. Everyone else would have slept on the floor of the hall around the fire.

The Saxon bed was usually made up against a wall, as a type of bunk or cabin, sometimes in a recess, with a rough mattress placed on boards, together with covers, and curtains suspended from above. The curtains could be drawn to keep draughts and light out, but warmth and illness in. The bedstead referred to the place (stead) where the bed was made, but when the bench developed into more elegant furniture, it still kept the name.

In the later Saxon period, some bedsteads were wooden platforms with bedding placed on them. The Norman bedstead was similar, but sometimes had curtains drawn at the sides, hung from horizontal iron rails, which were attached to and projected from the wall.

The truckle bed was progress from the rough plank. It was a plain, low framed bedstead, (later used for many years as a bedstead in the basic servant's quarters). A lady's maid would sleep on the floor beneath the bedstead of her mistress, and the trenchor chaplain would "lie upon the truckle, whilst his young master lieth o'er his head." (Hall's Byting Satyres, 1599)

In the 13th century, a canopy or tester was introduced, suspended by cords from the beams above, on which curtains were hung. This developed into a bed chamber which was becoming more common by the 14th century. Then came an elegant bedstead, called the Arabian, and perhaps first found by our ancestors during the crusade, with bed curtains hung from wooden or metal rails.

The four post or great standing bed was introduced in the 15th century, and was probably brought from Austria. The beds developed into an enormous size. The Great Bed of Ware (now in the Victoria and Albert Museum), filled half the chamber, which measured 11 feet square, this was however an exceptional size, and not the norm.

A Tradition of a Royal Bedstead

Roger Twysden relates an anecdote illustrating the introduction of the four post bed. (Notes and Queries, Second series, vi. 102)

On the 21st of August, 1485, Richard III arrived at Leicester. The charioteers had proceeded him with the running wardrobe, and in the best chamber of the "Boar's Head" a ponderous four-post bedstead was set up: it was richly carved, gilded and decorated, and had a double bottom of boards. Richard slept on it at night. After his defeat at Bosworth Field, it was stripped of its rich hangings: but the heavy and cumbersome bedstead was left with the landlord, and continued to be an attraction for years to come and the glory of the "Blue Boar," being transmitted from tenant to tenant as a fixture. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the "Blue Boar" was kept by one Clark, who's wife one day, while shaking the bed, noticed an ancient gold coin roll on the floor; this led to careful examination, the double bottom was discovered, lifted up, and the interior was found to be filled with gold, partly coins of Richard III., and the rest from earlier times. This bedstead with its old tradition long continued to be one of the sights of Leicester.


Mediaeval beds and bedding

It was difficult to display flamboyancy on a simple bedstead, but gradually counterpanes (bed covers) became more elaborate, with gold cloth, decorated with a fringe. At the head of the bed was hung a dorsar, as rich and costly as on the state chair in the hall.

The bedding in Henry III's palaces were magnificent, but by the 14th century barons had beds made with rich Eastern silk fabrics, fairly common with French nobility, however rarer in England. Isabella, wife of Sir William Fitz-William left, in 1348, "a bed from India with carpets." (Test. Ebor., p.50)

The romantics speak of beds of extraordinary splendour, smothered in bars of gold, precious stones, fine silver, golden embroidery, and silk sheets. When a noble was defrocked, his household contents were taken too, and the bed was often the great prize, and therefore sometimes documented, as well as in wills. They speak of beds of green tarteran, or Chinese cloth of Tars, embroidered with ships and birds; red velvet, embroidered with ostrich feathers in silver, and heads of leopards in gold or another bed of tapestry embroidered with scenes of hunting and hawking. As lords moved from one manor to another, their valuable bed went with them. Within large households, officers (yeoman hangers, and yeomen bedgoers) were appointed to put the beds in sacks or hides, and organise the frequent bed removal. Portable beds were known as "trussing" beds, and the hangings were termed 'the portable chamber.'

In 1398, the Duc d'Orleans paid 800 francs for un chambre portative, that consisted of a set of hangings, a seler, dorsar curtains and the counterpoint (the bed cover, usually the most expensive part of the bed). In 1381 a bed cover in the palace of the Duke of Lancaster, was estimated to be worth 1000 marks.

These written extracts give us an idea of the splendour of mediaeval bedding, but dig deeper into royal household record books and you will find payments for straw for the nobleman's bed. The wealthiest households had a feather bed placed onto the matted truss (mattress) of straw, with a layer of canvas in between.

Feather beds were introduced into English homes in the early 14th century, imported from France as the English had not mastered the art of dressing and preserving feathers.

The woollen blanket was said to have been introduced in the fourteenth century. Beds had to be warm as well as comfortable. As they had no fireplace, artificial heating in beds and chambers were used including warm bricks, bed pans and more elaborate warm air systems.

In mediaeval homes the lady of the house would entertain her friends in the bed chamber, a place where romantic and chivalrous courtship took place; in fact it became the private reception room of the Tudor house. This custom may have encouraged the introduction of the "day-bed," or couch, which was more appropriate and convenient than the bed.

As the standard of living improved, within the middle classes, then commerce placed "lodging" within the means of people, "We ourselves have lain full oft upon straw pallets covered only with a sheet, or rough mats, and a good rounde log under our head instead of a bolster."

The feather bed became common place, a wedding present, and the best bed in the great chamber was generally "a brissel tick" filled with feathers. In the days of Elizabeth and James, tradesmen often had two or three feather beds in the house.

The elaborately carved back was sometimes fastened to the panelling of the wall behind, and its low, heavy ceiling was supported by the massive carved posts actually standing away from the bed.

The Tudor four poster bed was enormous, with massive, richly carved pillars, sometimes 18" in diameter, taking the huge weight of the wooden panelled tester, and drapes displaying Cupids, the family coat of arms of the husband and wife in metal-work, moth eaten tapestries, grotesque carvings of Griffins, monsters, frantic knights, distressed damsels and wild creations of mediaeval fancy, smothering the head-board, posts and around the deep cornices of the bedstead.

The bed itself had a wooden board or rope mesh foundation with the mattresses on top.

Queen Elizabeth's Bed
Of all of the Tudors, Queen Elizabeth had the ultimate bed. A wardrobe warrant dated 1581, orders the delivery of the Queen's bedstead made from walnut, richly carved, painted, and gilded. The selour, tester and vallance were of cloth of silver, figured with velvet, lined with a changeable taffetta, and deeply fringed with Venice gold, silver, and silk. The curtains were made from elaborate and expensive, tapestry with every seam and border laid with gold and silver lace, caught up with long loops and buttons of bullion. The head piece was of crimson satin of Bruges, edged with passamayne of crimson silk, and decorated with six ample plumes, containing seven dozen ostrich feathers of various colours, garnished with golden spangles. The counterpoint was of orange-coloured satins of every imaginable tint, and embroidered with Venice gold, silver spangles and coloured silks, fringed to correspond, and lined with orange sarcenet.

Oak continued to be the dominant timber used, particularly with furniture made in England. Walnut was used rarely, and was only seen in palaces and homes of the rich. Jacobean furniture was heavily carved, with Renaissance motifs. The inlay gave colour to the work with the use of fruitwoods, bog oak and later ivory and mother-of-pearl. Legs were turned, bulbous on tables and buffets during the reign of James I. Vase shapes in the turning came next, followed by bobbin turning and the barley-sugar twist legs.

In the 17th century, another type of bedstead was introduced from France, and most of the larger houses had one or two of these. The frames and posts were made all in one from beechwood. They were much taller than the Tudor oak bedsteads. The tall, slender posts, tester, cornice and the ceilings were all upholstered in the same material as the curtains, quilt and valance. Even the pair of stools at the foot of the bed was given the same treatment!

A "parcelgilt bed with hangings and quilt of tawny taffety," and velvet and satin were quite everyday materials. The most magnificent was that occupied by James I. at Knole, which was hung with gold and silver tissue.

The best bed would usually be left to the widow, a sentimental heirloom, where she gave birth to many children and where her husband probably died.

The Jacobean's also had simple oak bedsteads without posts or ceilings, just neatly panelled low backs, which would have been far colder than the nobleman's four poster bed. The truckle bed, now used by servants, could be packed for travelling, or pushed under a larger bed during the day.

The mourning bed, present during the seventeenth century, was entirely draped in black, the widow would not have had white sheets or pillow cases, and the rest of the bedroom would have been draped in the same way.

In Tudor and earlier Stuart times, the bedstead was the most important piece of furniture in the home, whether of rich or poor status. The Restoration Stuart bedstead was of medium height, wood, carved, with a valance below the cornice, and the hangings over the wooden headboard, with curtains that could be drawn at night. Rooms became taller with small fire-places, making bedchambers cold and draughty.

Colour co-ordination began with drapes and curtains being made in the same cloth. The bed and bedding varied according to wealth, from plain to ornately carved, from flock or straw, to feather mattresses.

In the reign of William and Mary, the bedsteads became very tall but narrower, in keeping with their taller rooms. The carved wooden cornice or tester was now being covered with the velvet or brocade material from which the hangings were made. It was glued to the carving to hold the decorative carving together, the drapes become more elaborate, especially around the headboard. During the reign of Queen Anne, the bedsteads had returned to a more sensible height.

Further photos and details of today's four Poster beds can be viewed here.

Need a new headboard?

Try this the very latest in wall decoration. By employing multiple panels (Tex-Tiles) you can create stunning wall decoration and so it has proved by using “Clusters” of Tex-Tiles the appearance of a room can instantly take on a new ambience.

You can highlight a new piece of furniture in any room in the house. In the bedroom they can be used instead of a headboard by placing them on the wall behind the bed. Choose the colours to highlight the your duvet or curtains.

The tiles are 230mm (9”) square and can be bought separately. You can send your own photo and have them printed onto canvas, so that you can mix them in with a cluster. Over 30 colours to choose from, as well as a selection of prints.

The very same Tex-Tiles* can be used for sound proofing – behind the scenes is a 30 mm deep panel of high quality sound absorbing material. If that is still not enough we have "Bacteria Control" -the same Tex-Tile only this time “behind the scenes” there is a passive filter which kills 99% of known bacteria including MRSA.

This is refered to as “atmospheric scrubbing” it relies on the natural flue effect in a living area. For instance, if you lift a picture off a wall you will find a shadow of dust (containing bacteria) This has been deposited by the natural flow of air in the room. When you have a cluster of Tex-Tiles fitted with the filter system they are very effective.


The tiles are made from selected sustainable soft wood and are untreated (Natural). The fabric range of plain dyed colours is a canvas construction made from expensive cotton/linen union 63% cotton 37% linen. The images and colour woven fabrics are 100% Cotton - 100% Polyester. For more details mail me at this address

Time for a new pillow

Fancy trying a Buckwheat Pillow?

Filled with 100% natural buckwheat hulls heat treated and triple cleaned and graded before encasing in an organic cotton case. The Pillow is designed to support the head and neck whilst allowing air to circulate, keeping the head cool, which is beneficial to a relaxing nights sleep. The buckwheat hulls in the pillow move to conform with the hollow of your neck to place your head level with your spine promoting ideal posture. This can help with a variety of ailments including insomnia, headache, ratability, stiff neck and sluggishness.

WHY BUCKWHEAT HULL FILLING? The natural filling has many advantages over conventional fibber-fill, foam, or feather fillings. The most important quality for the relief of pain is that the material conforms to the exact contours of any part of your body providing a compliant passive support. This means that you have the same amount of support in all areas minimizing the stress on all areas of support.

Other filling materials which compress, try to recover their original shape and this puts stress on the muscles. Other advantages of the buckwheat hull filling is the "cool in the summer, warm in the winter" insulating properties, the ability to adjust the size to your individual needs by removing or adding back filler so the pillow fits you just right. The filling also lasts for many years making it the best value cervical pillow filling on the market. Long after other pillows have collapsed and worn out a buckwheat hull pillow will still be fully functional. Buckwheat hull pillows are also environmentally friendly Click here to find out more..

Travel the Silk Road!

Silk, the fabric of the Emperors, is now widely used in the manufacture of bed sheets
Silk is a natural, breathable fabric which wicks away moisture, keeping you warm in winter and cool in summer, aiding restful sleep. Silk is gentle on the skin slowing down skin aging signs and keeping your hair looking great.It is Hypoallergenic and an organic fibre.

As with all fabrics, Silk comes in a variety of qualities depending on wheter it is wild or cultivated, among other things. The finest Silk Sheets are hand-crafted from the most exquisite 100% Pure Chinese finest A grade long fibre Satin Mulberry.

Silk bed linen is beneficial for a whole host of skin ailments and is a recommended for the prevention and treatment of allergies. White silk is particularly suitable being natural and un-dyed.

Check out the wide range of colours available in this product. Follow the link from "satin"

Tried sleeping on water?

Waterbeds!

The following information is provided by the BritishWaterbed Association

Waterbeds are the best sleep system we know to help our bodies relax and to provide maximum body support. They are comfortable, hygienic and durable. Discover a better way to sleep, night after night, year after year.

Waterbeds increase relaxation, meaning longer periods with less movement and fewer re-awakenings. Our bodies are, after all, over 80% water and we were surrounded by it for the first nine months of our lives. It's the gentlest and most supportive surface on which to sleep and relax, and can be heated to whatever temperature suits you best.
It can provide unusually helpful support for cavalescents, pregnant women or those with painful joint conditions. Spreading your weight evenly over its surface, it eliminates pressure points and the risk of bedsores.

For those suffering from serious asthma or just minor sinus problems due to dust-allergies, a waterbed can be the hygienic and easily mantainable solution.

All of us come up against back problems at one stage in our lives, whether it be a serious condition or a niggling complaint due to improper sleeping posture, a waterbed can afford relief and often a complete solution.

Due to even placement of body weight over a waterbed, they significantly reduces the risk of bedsores developing and puts less stress on the body during sleep and convalescence.
With soothing heat and even distribution of weight, waterbeds are incredibly kind on injured joints and those suffering from arthritis.

Due to all of the reasons listed above and many more, a waterbed is one of the most relaxing surfaces to sleep on, offering relief from many insomnia conditions that are caused by other more undetectable problems such as bad sleeping posture, coldness, uncomfortable mattresses, etc. A waterbed gives you the best chance to get a good nights sleep and wake refreshed and ready to go.

Of course waterbeds need special sheets and mattress covers. Should there be need, click here

New Year - New Fabric

Bamboo is the new eco-fabric.

Grown Organically without using any pesticides or fertilizers, as the plants natural anti-fungal antibacterial agent “Bamboo Kuhn” means it is seldom attacked by pests or pathogens.

Bamboo textiles are made of Moso Bamboo– not the type of Bamboo that Panda's eat, so you have no need to worry about using the Panda's food supply.Bamboo is in fact a very fast growing grass and can be harvested every 3 or 4 years and then renews itself without need or replanting.

In its cultivation it uses far less water than cotton.The yield from an acre of bamboo is 10 times greater than the yield you get from cotton. It is a fully sustainable crop.

There are some Bamboo/Cotton mixes now on offer, but why go for a mixture when you can have 100% bamboo, with all it's benefits? Bamboo Fabric is Hypoallergenic and biodegradable. In cultivation it absorbs more CO2 and produces 35% more oxygen than an equivalent area of trees.Bamboo fabric is ideal for bed linen. It is a wonderful light and soft fabric, softer than cotton with a silk like drape and a beautiful silky lustre. It is a very strong fabric and with care will last many years.

This is the first 100% Bamboo Bedding range in the UK available in all bed sizes both for the UK and international sizes. Duvet Covers and Oxford Pillow Cases feature our natural bamboo leaf design print.

There are three great colourways - Coffee ,Jade and Natural White they are beautiful bedding for any home. Check it out, you may well like it! Follow the link from our Satin page