David and Sara Bamford’s passion for carpets and textiles was born out of their extensive travels in India and the Middle East in the 1970s. Sara began the original carpet restoration business in the early eighties learning from two of the UK’s most experienced restorers.

The restoration clients included the National Trust and the idea of making reproductions to replace badly-worn but valuable carpets first emerged at this time.  David exhaustively researched the remaking of such carpets; he went to Turkey and began to weave the first examples.  In the mid-eighties, he approached the National Trust with his total replacement rather than a patch and repair scheme.

Since then many National Trust properties, public buildings and private houses including Castle Howard, Stanage Park, Goodwood House, Hinton Ampner, Oakly Park, Ragley House, Osbourne House, Batemans, The Albertina Palace, Vienna, The Bank of England and No.10. Downing Street have seen new Bamford carpets gracing their floors. 

The first re-weaving began in Turkey but in 1995 David visited Bulgaria to research the weaving facilities.  There he found the traditional carpet weaving industry in a vulnerable state after the collapse of communism and was inspired to salvage and revive at least part of the ailing industry.

The result is that David now employs over thirty weavers full-time in a modern, congenial and environmentally-friendly workshop in Bulgaria.