A HUDDERSFIELD textile company has woven a cloth fit for a king ... and a queen.

Taylor and Lodge – one of the town’s oldest textile firms – has just completed work on two 50 metres lengths of cloth for Prince William and his new bride.

The company has been commissioned by Australian Wool Innovation, a group of Aussie wool producers. A hundred of them got together and gave wool from their finest merino sheep.

They then asked the English company to make the raw wool into two top quality bolts of cloth which will be made into suits and presented as wedding gifts to William and Kate.

The process began six weeks ago when the raw wool arrived at Taylor and Lodge’s head office at Bulmer and Lumb in Bradford. There the wool was dyed, combed and spun before being sent on to Huddersfield for the all-important weaving process.

This has been done and the company, based at Rashcliffe Mills, Folly Hall, is now ready to forward the precious cloth on to Holmfirth Dyers for finishing.

The two lengths of luxurious worsted – a grey pinstripe for Prince William and a plain grey flannel for Kate – will then head down south to Royal tailors Anderson Sheppard in Savile Row, London.

Both pieces of fabric have the motif “To celebrate the marriage of HRH Prince William and Kate Middleton 29th April 2011” on the selvedge.

The royal tailors will make the two suits to the couple’s requirements and the remaining cloth will be auctioned off for charity – giving someone else the chance to wear the cloth fit for a king.

Taylor and Lodge manager Ed Waterhouse said: “This is a tremendous honour for us. It is a one-off opportunity to make something for a future king and it has been a unique experience for everybody involved.”

He added: “Prince William is now our top customer!”

Taylor and Lodge has built its reputation on quality since it was founded in Huddersfield in 1883.

In 1966 it was the first textile company in the world to be given the Queen’s Award to Industry.

Two years later Taylor and Lodge wove fine quality worsted for the Duke of Edinburgh and Prime Minister Harold Wilson. The wool was brought back by Sir Francis Chichester in his Gypsy Moth IV. He sailed it single-handedly 14,000 miles from Australia to England.

In recent years the company has installed computerised weaving machinery and pioneered the development of new fabrics.