NB
York Mills
Briggs & Little
Founded
1857
Briggs & Little spins wool knitting yarn at York Mills, New Brunswick, in a mill that has run since 1857.
Briggs & Little spins wool knitting yarn at York Mills, New Brunswick. George Lister started the mill in 1857 as one of the original grant holders in the Harvey area, and the company calls itself Canada's oldest woollen mill.
The mill changed hands through the 1890s, when Roy Little bought it and ran it until illness moved his family to the Prairies in 1916. Mathew Briggs and Howard Little bought the business that year and gave it the name it still carries.
Mike and Leah Little run it now. Carl joined in 2016 and handles maintenance and repairs, and John-Michael came on in 2018 and works in shipping and the office.
Canadian Olympians wore sweaters knit from Briggs & Little Country Roving at the closing ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
Made in
York Mills, New Brunswick
Designed in
York Mills, New Brunswick
Materials and process
Briggs & Little buys fleece direct from Canadian farmers and through the Canadian Cooperative Wool Growers in Carleton Place, Ontario, and states that every fleece it purchases is 100% Canadian. Country Roving is 100% wool in a five strand construction at 155 yards per skein. Tuffy runs 80% wool to 20% nylon, two ply, at 215 yards.
Ownership
Mike Little and his wife Leah Little own and run the mill, with sons Carl in maintenance and John-Michael in shipping and the office. The family intends to pass ownership to the two sons.
What they make
