At John Lanham Watts Carpets we endeavour to design carpets to appeal to people who are bored with the bland Scandinavian style that is being foisted on us at present. We believe that our customers are capable of furnishing a room with design and colour and not resorting to antiseptic plain finishes.

Woven carpets are only made by two methods - Axminster and Wilton. While each method is named after an English town, both types of weaving are carried out throught the world and the name refers to the type of loom employed. These looms each produce a different carpet and we shall try to explain a little of the differences.

Axminster carpet is what most people associate with a traditional woven fitted carpet. While some people do market Axminster in man-made fibres, we believe that the best blend of comfort and durability is provided by the classic 80/20% wool/nylon blend.
An Axminster loom works by selecting the tuft of pile and wrapping this around the weft of jute and this is then knotted into the backing. The main advantage of Axminster is the infinite variety of colour that can be introduced into the pattern.
No other method of machine manufacture has this quality and this is the closest a machine has ever got to a handmade carpet.

Wilton carpet has been revolutionised by the development of the high speed face-to-face Wilton loom. The speeds these looms run at requires a strong yet fine yarn, therefore in our Wiltons we use semi-worsted yarn (more usually used for suit manufacture).
The main disadvantage of Wilton weaving is that only 5 colours can be used in any design but the use of a finer yarn results in a pattern with unique definition and clarity.
The wilton process is similar to a simple flat weave except the pile yarns are brought to the surface when required by the pattern and then cut with a knife to create a plush pile.