'Random pub encounter led me to become a tailor'

When Molly Haney left school, she started pulling pints behind the bar, but was planning to join the armed forces.

Then during a shift the 19-year-old from Wigton, in Cumbria, served the owners of Redmayne 1860 - a 160-year-old bespoke tailor with a shop on Saville Row - who told her to "pop in and see them".

Fast forward five years and Haney, now 23, helps to hand-craft bespoke suits worth more than £5,000 as an apprentice in their Carlisle workshop.

She said: "I was more of a hands-on person than being in university and sitting in the classroom - now, I couldn't picture myself doing anything different."

Redmayne's was established in Wigton by Samuel Redmayne in 1868, and its workshop continued to be based in the town until it moved to its new premises in Carlisle a year ago.

Last week, it was given the King's Award for Enterprise for its work in international trade.

The couple Haney had served in The Lion and Lamb were Tom and Claire Mahon, who have run the business since 2018.

Claire said: "Molly's a delight, she's so honest, hard-working, and diligent."

The apprentice now works as a coatmaker, and the three-piece garments typically take four to six months to make.

She said: "People think of you just sitting and sewing away, nice and relaxing, and that's sometimes the case - but not always.

"It's the precision that goes into this, how clean they have to look, and there's no room for error."

She said, after she left school she did not want to go to university and she now wants to inspire teenagers who feel the same way.

"I would much rather be outside or doing something active than sitting and listening to someone drone on," she said.

"I'd never sewn before in my life, but you've got to take a chance, there will be something that sticks out to you - just go and do it."

Since hiring Haney, Redmayne's has taken on two other local apprentices in their early 20s, and Mahon said she hopes to hire even more.

However, she said traditional tailoring was a "dying industry" because not many young people considered a career option.

She said there were very few opportunities for young people to learn the craft in the north of England, and most had to travel to London to reach industry-level - even if they obtained a university degree.

She is now hoping to set up a charity to offer tailoring courses, so more young people from the region can acquire skills locally.

She said: "It's not university qualifications that make someone right for this job, it's someone who comes to work on time and is determined to get it right.

"Maybe they could have a job in London at the end of it, but they might like to do their training up here - then they can go away and show the world how fantastic Cumbrians are."

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