The Gamekeeper.

Game keeping is perhaps one of the oldest professions in the UK, the first game keepers hailing from medieval times to protect deer from poachers, but what is exactly is game keeping today? What is a game keeper?

W212 Men's Chelsea Padded Wax Antique

http://www.oxfordblueonline.co.uk/products/169/w212-mens-chelsea-padded-wax-antique-

The keeper’s job is to manage the general health of the countryside and game, they actively manages areas of woodland, moorland, waterways or farmland for the benefit of game birds, deer, fish and wildlife in general.

The National Game Keeper’s Org states:

“There are about 3000 full time gamekeepers in the UK and a similar number who do the job part time. They work on farms and estates to look after the game species, their habitats and the other wildlife that shares them.”

There are several variations in game keeping:

·         Lowland keepers: rearing pheasant and partridge and managing lowland habitats.

·         Upland keepers: managing moorland for grouse in upland areas.

·         Stalkers: keepers who specialise in the stealthy pursuit of deer, mainly in the uplands of Scotland.

·         Gillies/river keepers: keepers who manage rivers such as the River Spey for trout and salmon.

Thus it can be said a keeper’s priority is to make sure that pheasants, partridges, hares, deer and grouse to thrive in the countryside. They know the times to rear each type of bird and the appropriate measures to take for the countryside and game each season, a person with the love of the outdoors is well suited to such a time honoured profession. Being out on one’s feet all day proves itself a tiring yet rewarding job, as the entire ecosystem is to be managed by the gamekeeper.

W212 Men's Chelsea Padded Wax Antique

http://www.oxfordblueonline.co.uk/products/169/w212-mens-chelsea-padded-wax-antique-

The wildlife cannot survive and thrive without a well-cared for environment. For example, hares need open field and grassland for protection against foxes, bushes and hedgerows protect eggs of rats and crows.

Oxford Blue has for years been making quality Gamekeeper jackets, made from 100% cotton Japara wax. It features a brown corduroy collar with detachable Oxford metal badge, throat tab, two-way zip fastener, storm flap with stud fasteners, back venting, check pattern lining, knitted inner cuffs and is multi-pocketed: two hand-warmer pockets, two patch pockets and an inner pocket.

This garments radiates eminence and has served many a gamekeeper true over the decades.

W9 Gamekeeper

 http://www.oxfordblueonline.co.uk/products/88/w9-gamekeeper

A Brief History of Tweed

Tweed, an icon of British country life, nothing is perhaps more instantly recognisable as British fashion than a classic tweed woven garment.

A HW45 Thelma Hat (Biscuit) and LTW09 Ladies Field Jacket 

The story of tweed is an amusing one, many would think it is after the river tweed that flows through Scotland, however it is quite comical to learn the fact that the name owes it's inception to a simple error in misreading an invoice! Tweel was the original name as a Scottish take on the word twill - its genesis being the fabrics twilled pattern, in 1826 William Watson hailing from Hawick to a London trader James Locke, due to a legibility error or some other factor, Locke misread the name as Tweed rather than tweel and thus the name Tweed as we know it was born. 

W221 and W226 Blazer and Waistcoat respectively (C001L Harris Tweed)

However the style of tweed and its association with gentry, aristocracy came about mid 19th century with the British nobles bringing about what was called estate tweeds. It was common practise amongst the classes of nobility to purchase estates purely for hunting and game keeping, the tweed would protect the wearer from the cold and moist and is considered informal wear by the social classes who adorned it in those days and would often be worn with Wellington's (when hunting) or with tanned shoes when not in the fields. 

The hunting estates coupled with the typical wearing of tweed hence gave birth to what was known as estate tweeds, the staff that would look after the estate were also clad in estate tweed to follow Highland traditions and also to ensure their staff were appropriately shielded from the elements,  

http://pages.rapha.cc/stories/tweed-the-original-performance-fabric

The Highland tradition of specific patterns serving as a distinct identity of each clan surfaced by each twilled pattern specific to an estate as a part of staff uniform. From the 1830's onwards, tweed had become a widespread fashion throughout all estates, and aristocrats would not be seen as genuine had they not followed trend.

LTW09 Ladies Field Jacket, HW57 Helmsley Cap, LTW08 Gilet (Light Green)

In the 1840's the countess of Dunmore introduced Harris Tweed amongst her circles and promoted it heavily to the extent that tweed is now synonymous with the quality and commanding stature of Harris Tweed.

We at Oxford Blue sell a wide range of Harris Tweed garments from blazers, waistcoats, hats and many more, one can always tell a genuine Harris Tweed garment by its smooth feel even though typically tweed is characteristically coarse, visit www.oxfordblueonline.co.uk for more. 

A Brief History of the Wax Jacket

Oxford Blue in it's inception over four decades ago started with just making wax jackets, over the years we have honed this garment to perfection and have now become international selling in Europe, Asia, and even the United States enabling us to become wax garment specialists.

However, what is the wax jacket? How did it come about? Why put wax on a cotton jacket?

All interesting questions.

Like most items of fashion these days, the garment was once an item of functional wear. The wax jacket owes its origins to the initial development of wax fabric itself which found itself first made use by innovative British sailors as a raincoat around the 19th century.

But it all began when sailors noticed that the sails on their ships when wet would slow the vessel down considerably, imagine how heavy your normal everyday jacket gets in heavy rain - now imagine how heavy a large sail a hundred feet in the air on a colossal 19th cent flagship would be! 

The North Atlantic can be a very harsh and inhospitable environment, those sails men who worked at sea over 150 years ago would constantly be slapped by claps of rain, cutting winds and turbulent sea waves. Hence the brave sailors of the day donned a form of armour that shielded them from such harsh working conditions. Survival was of course dependent on the quality clothing one would wear, if a man on deck was soaked he would most definitely render his limbs heavy, slow down work and tire himself out at best, at worst he could catch disease such as pneumonia.

Initially they were apply linseed oil onto their sails and tear off any remains and use them as waterproof smocks - the stage was set for the gradual slope of evolution into the British fashion icon that is the wax jacket.

http://media.tumblr.com/c7b2af171de03e92b32dfe7c5ebf0d8d/tumblr_inline_mn0g4oGm0l1qz4rgp.jpg

However, problems occurred with linseed oil, gradual ageing would turn the garments and sails yellow and in cold the fabric would turn incredibly stiff, it seemed one problem solved turned into a myriad of many more problems. Nevertheless the innovative minds of the day turned to using wax. It rendered the jacket weatherproof yet lightweight and pliable enough for the sailors to carry out their duties.

The traders of the day started selling these garments out to everyone who would benefit from such work wear, thus in the British countryside gamekeepers, farmers, hunters, fisherman and all those exposed to the elements would eventually buy into the wax jacket market. 

Oxford Blue in it's inception started off mainly with functional wear such as:

Our W73 Hobart Cape

W19L Ladies Drover

And indeed we still do make them, however over the years as technology advances, garments such as the hobart cape tend to find themselves reborn into fabrics such as nylon, a much more longer lasting, robust material that does not require re - proofing.

So why keep making traditional wax garments?

The answer is simple, the modern fabrics just cannot displace the image of the aged, antique look of the traditional wax fabric, it has character, history and will continue to live on. The country look would not be the same without a wax jacket on top of a classic shirt and tweed hat. 

That's why we are, classic country clothing, from Oxford Blue.