I guess I have been hooked on antique spinning wheels since the first one my husband, Fred Hatton, restored for me. Someone had given him an antique wheel that was all apart and in a box, missing parts. I had been spinning on a second hand Ashford traditional for many years. I kept hinting it would be a great birthday or Christmas present and finally it was restored!

It was terrific to spin on as well as beautiful. Fred had to hand cut a new wooden screw for the tension and make new treadle parts, new spindles, fix the flyer and make new bobbins. The old parts are really old - - about 1780 to 1820. We recently learned it was made in Londonderry, NH by Benjamin Gregg. Fred enjoyed the fiddling it took to get the wheel to spin well so we picked up several more to restore. By now he has restored around a dozen wheels including several great wheels.