Welcome to County Alpacas Online Store.

Here you will only find Yorkshire Alpaca processed into Yarn from our very own alpacas

This is an opportunity to become a small part of history and the world of Alpaca.

Back in 1830 records show that a Mr Outram of Greetland, a small village just outside Halifax, was selling products made from alpaca. Then, in the late 1830's Sir Titus Salt made a trip to Liverpool docks. There he found some old musty bails of a high lustre fibre. The importer had been unable to interest any of the other traders and mill owners and was about to return the unwanted bails back to Peru.

Sir Titus Salt bought the 300 bails at 8 pence per pound and returned to Bradford and set to work. He managed to produce a most exquisite fibre and beautiful materials from the alpaca. His alpaca garments and cloth were sought after by the rich and famous across the world.

Such was the success of the Alpaca fibre he was able to build Salts Mill, now more famous as a David Hockney gallery. Around the mill he also built the town of Saltaire for his workers. Around the mill and the town there are still the stone carvings of alpacas in some of the facades. There is also an alpaca shown in relief on the side of his statue in Roberts Park near to Salts Mill.

County Alpacas aims, in a small way, to keep alpaca fibre production local to Bradford and West Yorkshire. The yarn is strong, light and very warm when woven or knit into a garment. We use small mills to produce our yarn and avoid the big mill production lines. The end result is a natural coloured yarn with its own charcter. Once you have knit with alpaca we know you will want more of this fantastic yarn.