Staying warm and dry isn’t easy but where there’s wool there’s a way

THE days are gradually getting longer, but the recent spell of stormy, wintry weather is a stark reminder that we still have nearly three months of winter to face.

The weather up to now has been mostly benign, but some of the worst winters I can remember have begun in February.

I used to prefer dry frosty weather when I was farming as that allowed me to work outside in leather boots rather than having to trudge through mud and water in cold Wellingtons. After a long wet winter, you have no idea how good it felt when the gutters and glaur finally dried up in the spring so I could leave those wellies at the back door and wear leather boots again.

Sadly, for too much of the year, wellies are essential wear for most working farmers. The problems with wellies are that not only can your feet become numb with cold in cold weather, they can also be uncomfortably hot and sweaty in warm weather. They can also be heavy and tiring to wear and I am never as nimble in wellies. That’s probably why you never see athletes trying to compete in them.

Having said all that, if it wasn’t for wellies I don’t know how farmers would cope in our wet climate. A hole that lets in water is a stark reminder of how unpleasant a cold, wet foot is, as the dry boot reminds you of how warm that foot should be. A leaking wellie really is a misery. I can remember when I was a youngster how cash-strapped farm workers regularly used to mend leaking wellies with bicycle puncture repair kits. Nowadays, farm staff are provided with protective clothing and wellies by their employers.

One miserable farmer I knew gave his worker a set of waterproofs and a pair of wellies with the following caution: “Those wellies are for working in, so don’t wear them out walking to and from work – use your own boots for that.”

While warm, dry feet are a must, keeping your head warm is just as important, as 80 per cent of your body heat can be lost through it.

My preference was for woolly balaclavas which were tightly knit with a slightly fluffy finish on the outside.

When it rained, water sat on the surface of the hat rather than penetrating and soaking it. As long as I regularly shook the water off, it kept my head dry in all but the worst rain. Even when it did get soaked, it still kept me warm.

Through a chemical process unique to wool, called hydrogen bonding, heat is generated when it comes into contact with water, so a wet woollen garment like a balaclava or tweed suit will keep you warm. That’s why gamekeepers and deer stalkers prefer woolly, tweed clothing.

Similarly, if someone passes from a warm, dry room to cold, outer air, a wool suit takes up moisture from the air and generates heat. A suit of wool clothes weighing 1.5kg will, by this process, give off as much heat as the wearer gives off in an hour.

Wool keeps you warm when it is cold, or cool when it is hot, and processes the vapour in the air around the wearer.

Simply put, wool fibres absorb water vapour molecules from the skin before dispersing them out to the atmosphere, speeding up the cooling down process and preventing the formation of liquid sweat.

By contrast, synthetic fibre molecules cannot efficiently transport moisture vapour.

Without an effective dispersal system, the vapour simply condenses to form sweat droplets on the skin’s surface, resulting in clammy, uncomfortable clothing next to the skin.

Wool is now widely used in high performance clothing for athletes and the military. y grandfather’s generation never enjoyed the luxury of waterproof clothing. Heavy wool overcoats like secondhand army greatcoats were the norm.

The introduction of PVC was a major breakthrough as far as cheap, waterproof clothing was concerned – but it tore easily in an environment of barbed wire, protruding nails and badly positioned tractor levers.

PVC leggings were more prone to tearing than coats. Many are the times that I have had a new pair torn by the horn of a Blackface ewe running past me, or while I was jumping over a barbedwire fence.

While waxed-cotton jackets and leggings were an improvement, they were expensive and sweaty – and that brings us back to wool. GLASGOW ranked third in a league table of UK local authority areas with the most start up businesses last year while Edinburgh came fifth, The Sunday Times reports.

It said StartUp Britain found the Glasgow City Council area had 7,845 start ups. The City of Edinburgh area had 6,635.

Birmingham with17,473.

StartUp Britain compiled the rankings, which cover authorities outside London, using data from Companies House.

John McFarlane, the Scot who chairs Barclays and lobby group TheCityUK, told the paper European Union leaders may be prepared to grant London financial services firms access to the EU market after Brexit even if valued passporting rights are lost.

Investment business Sustainable Development Capital has emerged as a late challenger to Australia’s Macquarie to take control of the Edinburgh-based Green Investment Bank, which the UK government is privatising.

The Sunday Telegraph reckons the Burberry fashion business will this week report that its sales have risen, following a surge in demand from Chinese shoppers. Burberry boosted its profile in China by appointing pop star Kris Wu as a brand ambassador.

The Betfred bookmaking business owned by founder Fred Done and his family paid £10.2 million dividends in the latest year, the Mail on Sunday notes.

The group made £32m profit after losing £88m last time amid increases in UK gaming taxes and a fall in online margins.

The amount wagered with the group rose to £10.8 billion in the latest year, from £10.4bn. was top