Lurgan, and the linen trade

Samuel Lamont and Sons was founded in Lurgan, County Armagh, by the man whose name it carries, and in the company's own words became one of Northern Ireland's foremost linen weavers. The limited company was registered in 1924 and it is still wholly owned and managed by the Lamont family.

On the founding year they give two. Their written copy and their trade profile both say 1835. The structured data on their own website says 1830. We have gone with 1835 because it is the one they actually write, and flagged the other rather than quietly picking a side.

The move that produced the product we sell came in the 1950s, when the company diversified out of pure linen weaving into textile printing and terry towel manufacturing.

Why the Poli-Dri works

It is a terry weave, and that is the whole trick. A flat woven tea towel has a smooth face with nowhere for water to go, which is why it pushes a puddle around a plate. A terry weave stands loops of yarn up off the ground cloth, multiplying the surface area, so it takes the water up rather than shifting it.

Samuel Lamont's own description of the Poli-Dri is that its design incorporates a terry towel weave, making it extremely absorbent and long lasting, and they say it was first developed over forty years ago. The name is trademarked. It measures roughly 50 by 70cm with a woven border, and the company has its own art and design department for the printed patterns.

One thing we will not tell you, because the company does not. Samuel Lamont says it still manufactures kitchen co-ordinates in Northern Ireland while also sourcing homeware from around the world, and the only range it labels explicitly as made in Northern Ireland is Woolana, its Irish tweed and wool line. There is no country of origin on the Poli-Dri pages. It is also cotton, not linen, whatever the company's linen history might suggest.

What we carry

The Poli-Dri tea towel in the plain colours, which is what most kitchens actually want: white, black, grey, blue, red, burgundy, green, hunter, beige, gold, honey and lavender.

Then the printed ones, which are the same towel with the design department let loose: cats, chickens, cherries and a Santa for December.

And the rest of the Poli-Dri range in black: a chef's apron, a waist apron, a double oven glove and a gauntlet glove.