Here are the facts about english leather bridles, I am going to use Heritage bridles as an example and just to confuse you even further, there are TWO Heritage brands!
The first Heritage is good quality saddlery, this heritage was in existance LONG before the second Heritage brand.
The first Heritage is owned and run by Matty Marlow, he makes saddles as well as bridlework like his father before him.
He uses good quailty English leather and all his work is made here in England. It is worth every penny and his standards are on parr with the likes of Kis and Paul,Wally, Chip and myself.
The second Heritage brand is produced in India for a wholesaler in England called Snowhill Trade Saddlery.
Samuel Sharp's English Leather ( is based here in the UK and has no part in making the bridles, he just makes the leather) is exported to India, made into various articles of bridlework and shipped back into England and has a Samuel Sharp label on it to say the leather is English.
Which it is BUT the buckles, hook studs and machining are Indian.
VERY little if any hand work is employed in the making of these bridles, you can now do most jobs by machine and when you mass produce the quality undoubtedly suffers.
Snowhill's Heritage brand only make bridlework, this includes headcollars,martingales etc , they DONT make saddles, only Matty Marlow's Heritage makes those.
The labelling on the snowhill's bridles is very ambiguous and leads to alot of confusion, they have a big silver ENGLAND label on it which makes the retailers and the customers think it is ALL manufactured in England and not just the leather.
I personally think this is a major con and have been actively trying to stop ebayer's on ebay advertising these bridles as"made in england" without success, ebay refuse to stop them and I have been in contact with trading standards and advertising standards., again nothing, so knowing what you know now about snowhill's heritage range of bridlework look at this :
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7240082370&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT
Scroll down and look at the description SEE how they have worded it, none of which it true!
If you read that you would think it is entirely MADE IN ENGLAND and the bridle itself it made by samuel sharp (who makes the leather and nothing else).
And before you say, the retailers are unaware of this fact, THEY do as I and a few others have emailed them to tell them!
SO if all of you want to help save the English saddlery trade then get off the fence and back us all up. Get onto trading standards, get onto ebay as the more people help me and other stop this con the better.
I have no problems with people buying imported saddlery as long as the customer knows where it is made exactly and can then have an informed choice, at the moment it is very misleading.
Oz
)