Textile production in Cornwall in the early 20th century was limited to knitting fishermen’s jerseys and socks. Its future prospects didn’t begin in the county either, but in Yorkshire in 1912, when landscape painter Alec Walker, aged 23, inherited his family’s silk mill. Walker knew everything about producing silk, from rearing silkworms to weaving and printing. Keen to promote his silks, he opened a shop in London’s Sloane Street, then advertised
