The Flax Field @northernrootsoldham

This summer Common Cloth is sowing a field of flax at Northern Roots Urban Farm in Oldham. After several years of enabling individuals and groups to grow flax in pots, small garden plots, allotments, community garden beds and reclaimed urban spaces, we are excited to start this new project.

We hope to use some of this years flax harvest to make a piece of fustian, a historically significant cloth for Oldham and Manchester. More about this soon.

The Local Colour Garden @northernrootsoldham

We are also creating a forest dye garden to grow the means of production for a host of botanical colour activities and fibre crafts.

Although in many peoples minds natural dyeing is associated with flowers, our colour landscape is more diverse and nuanced. It encompases leaves, bark, roots, lichen, mushrooms, soil and clay. Each place and each season holds its own abundance of plant and earth based colour. Rediscovering this knowledge and gleaning colour sensitively can help us develop a sense of place and inform locally adapted, resilient land stewardship.

We aim to create a sustainable, colour-producing and balanced ecosystem based on agroforestry principles. Traditional dye plants such as madder, woad and weld will be grown in a layered system alongside colour giving trees, bushes, perennials and ground cover chosen and arranged to be mutually beneficial. In addition to colour for dyeing textiles and creating inks and pigments, this approach will provide fibre for textiles, craft materials, building resources for tools as well as edible and medicinal plants.

Can you support us!

Volunteer

Shake off your “textile amnesia”!

Starting in April 2026 we will be holding regular Monday Volunteer Sessions at Northern Roots in Oldham. This is your chance to join us and learn about growing plants for fibre and for natural dyeing in a hands on way. Come and break the ground and sow seeds together.

Contact us at commonclothmcr@gmail.com if you want to get involved.

Donate

Common Cloth is a not-for-profit, volunteer run organisation.

Help us nurture this new space and start important conversations. Seed by seed, thread by thread, hue by hue we want to reconnect local people and communities to land, cloth and colour.

Flax Facts and Figures

One packet of flax seed for fibre costs £8.00. This is enough to grow 3 square metres of flax. From previous experience we estimate the yield per metre at around 300g. After processing this gives around 75g of flax fibre which can be spun into linen yarn.

Our flax field is 10 metres by 10 metres which may not sound huge, however it will require 33 packets of seed at a total cost of £264.

Check out our Instagram @commonclothmcr to watch the project grow and see what else we’re up to.