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An Amazing Story

It all began with a young man in the right place at the right time. However, the world-wide depression of the 1930's was not Walter Ashford's idea of a good time for starting in business.

But with purpose and determination he converted the family laundry into a tiny workshop in one of the most depressed suburbs in Christchurch New Zealand.

Four days a week he worked making wooden fireside stools seated with seagrass. On the fifth day, with a stool on the handlebars of his bicycle, he rode the city knocking on doors and learned first hand that quality and value resulted in orders.

Walter Ashford where it all began

Assemble and Save
Not long after this the Ashford family moved to Rakaia, a small country town. Here Walter rented an old building and set up a small factory. He repaired furniture and began making anything from picture frames to chicken coops. Good workmanship and modest prices brought their own rewards. However, Rakaia's population of only 900 was hardly enough for potential growth. What he needed was customers. He gave it a lot of thought and eventually an idea came to him . . . he would sell his fireside stools by mail order. Wrapping up stools and mailing them presented him with a second problem, the matter of bulk. Then Walter had his second bright idea. He would make the wood parts for the stools and mail them together with an instruction sheet for customers to "Assemble and Save" a catch line that became the company's by-line.

And so kitsets (or kits as they are caller in the States) became a great success on the New Zealand scene. Because Walter was a practical man with a flair for design, his staff and production line expanded to include nursery and household furniture, utilities and toys. Walter's greatest assets were his ability to design simple practical products and the specialized machinery to make them.

The Spinning Revolution
In 1938 Walter designed a spinning wheel that could be used to make knitting yarn. It had to be aesthetically pleasing, functional, robust, trouble free and yet a simple kitset that could be mailed all over New Zealand. The first model was a double drive model, but Walter quickly realized that spinners wanted to change bobbins with ease. So, with the help of his father the Rev. Dudly Ashford, the Ashford scotch tension flyer was developed and a patent pending awarded for its unique design. This revolutionary idea enabled the drive belt to be left on the flyer whorl and it was just a simple matter of releasing the Scotch Tension to remove the bobbin. Today this innovation appears on many other brands of spinning wheel.

With World War II affecting New Zealand, Walter's wheels were in great demand to create yarn for woolen socks and caps for soldiers, sailors and airmen overseas. While he served in the Airforce, his father took early retirement and with the help of a disabled foreman and a team of women, kept the factory working at top speed to produce 3600 spinning wheels.

In 1945 Walter returned to his factory only to find that Nylon, the new wonder fiber was overtaking wool and spinning. It was over. For the next twenty years spinning slumbered like Sleeping Beauty.

Interest in Wool Revived
Then one day in 1965 Mrs. Pamela Simcox knocked on the factory door and said "please Mr. Ashford, make me 10 spinning wheels". This was not the sort of challenge Walter wanted to take up for the second time, remembering with distaste a storeroom of wheels which had to be discounted at the end of the War. But Pamela persisted, emphatic that wool was the only wonder fibre, cool in the summer and warm in winter. At agricultural and pastoral fairs, Pamela followed the country's expert shearers spinning up the fleece as it fell from their blades. She was persistent. Besides, why let all that expertise go to waste? And so, once again Walter Ashford was in the right place at the right time.

Starting from where he left off, he saw the need to keep in touch with spinners, and by adapting, modifying and streamlining factory procedures he produced the popular Ashford Traditional spinning wheel. Still in the modest Rakaia premises and without an expensive advertising campaign, spinning groups mushroomed all over the country. Orders also began coming in from Australia, America and Europe.

A larger factory was constructed in Ashburton. Now with plenty of space, machinery and skilled craftsmen, the manufacture of spinning wheels surged ahead. From these small beginnings Ashford has now produced over 500 000 spinning wheels, and are exporting to over 40 different countries.

Walter's daughter, Gay, spinning on one of the original wheels

Quality, Reliabiltiy and Durability
The key to success has been Ashford's devotion to quality, reliability and durability. Only the best of raw materials are used. There is also a continual process of improvement and innovation in design, while retaining the aesthetic appeal of a graceful spinning wheel. Incorporating low to high speed whorls, optional single or double belt drives, or optional bulky or "high speed" flyers, spinners now had the ability to produce fine, bulky and novelty yarns from all types of fibers. As spinner, author and tutor Bette Hochberg has written "among my thousands of students, I have never had one who didn't learn how to spin the kind of yarn they wanted if they were using an Ashford. They are low-cost, easy trouble-free wheels, that spin all fibers in a wide range of sizes. They spin soft twist or high twist yarns, fast or leisurely".

It was only natural that weaving looms followed spinning wheels. Ashford now produces a range of high quality weaving equipment.

In 1986 Walter Ashford was awarded the Queen's Service medal, a fitting honour for a man who gave a lifetime's dedication to crafts and was the founder of the New Zealand Kit-Set industry.

Ashford's has always been a family business, and the family has been greatly saddened by the death of Walter Ashford. Uncomplaining and brave throughout his illness, Walter died peacefully on the 1st of October, 2000, almost a year after the death of Joy Ashford, who worked alongside Walter during more than fifty years of marriage. The family's work is continued by son, Richard and his wife, Elizabeth, who manage the factory, craft village, and spinning wheel museum in Ashburton, New Zealand, and daughters Gay and Heather, who also promote the Ashford legacy.

Today, the factory's family-tradition of good workmanship and customer satisfaction is continued by Richard and Elizabeth Ashford, who continue to experiment and introduce new products.
	Richard & Elizabeth

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