John Smedley was established in 1784 with the opening of Lea Mill, by Peter Nightingale, a relative of Florence Nightingale, and the company’s namesake John Smedley. The company originally specialised in muslin fabric and spinning cotton.
John Smedley’s son - also named John Smedley - took over operations of the mill in 1825. Using one of the first ever fully fashioned knitting machines, Smedley began producing undergarments.
During the First World War the company undertook contracts to produce military clothing, and this continued into the Second World War. Despite the Great Depression, the company continued to expand and develop new clothing ranges including their three-button Polo shirt which has been in production ever since.
By the 1950’s and 1960’s, John Smedley was being worn by the biggest stars of the day. Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, and The Beatles all wore John Smedley knitwear. Every single James Bond in the 007 franchise has worn John Smedley on screen.
Follow this link to find out more about John Smedley’s history.
John Smedley Archive
"Smedley’s collection relates to the production of fine gauge knitwear. We have 13,000 garments – the stars of the show. And everything else that enables them to be created: machinery, hand tools, paper records like accounts for purchasing raw materials, and marketing materials. And the people: personnel and wages records, photographs.
"There’s a huge amount of historic material, both in terms of physical artefacts and documentation, and 16 years after starting the archive, things are still turning up."
Jane Middleton-Smith, Archivist
John Smedley Volunteers
Roland Edwards
Maggie Hay
Margaret Maddocks
Sandra Maycock
Iris Smedley
Ann Thompson
Tony Wetton
Explore more..
coming soon
The Hands
An paean to historic working lives
7' 40", 2026
A film by Kim Noce
Online in November 2026
There is so much in the archive! One of each garment ever made. They've got labels, they've got furniture, they've got musical instruments. It's like a labyrinth, and everything is on site, which is very beautiful.
And it’s very welcoming. A group of lively volunteers that meet every week, and that is really inspiring. It gives you a feeling of being part of a little family. Everyone bought their own personality and an interest, their own style of approaching it. And we decided all together the topic of the film. I feel we’re a bunch of directors. It is a very different process to how I usually work. I mean, it's nice to make films, but it's not usually this pleasant.
I think especially in these days where workers’ rights and human rights are a little bit in crisis, looking as Smedley is very reassuring because there is a sense of the community. There is a sense of purpose for the worker. There is a sense of caring with each other and continuity. In the film we wanted to try to represent this relationship - interconnected between the big hand and the small hands, and one cannot survive without the other.
Kim Noce
Kim Noce is an Italian/Irish multimodal and mix-media artist.
Kim studied Fine Art at the Accademia di Brera in Milan, and has an MA in Animation from the National Film and Television School. at the NFTS. Kim is Course Lead for MA Animation at London College of Communication, University of the Arts, London, and teaches at the National Film and Television School.
Her work has been screened in many major international film festivals, including Venice, Berlinale, Cannes, Annecy, Encounters, Aesthetica, London Film Festival, and Edinburgh Film Festival, and broadcast on CH4, BCC, MTV, ITV and MUBI, reaching two million views. Her work has been exhibited at the ICA London, Tate, Barbican, Biennale of Odisha, London Design Festival, and many other venues worldwide.
The Hands credits
A film by Kim Noce
Music and Sound by Hutch Demouilpied
Dubbing Mixer by Christopher Swain
Mix Amylo, spoken words and vocals
Andrea Artz, spoken words
Tullis Rennie, spoken words and trombone
Otti Albietz, vocals and drums
Mark Greenwood, guitar
Hutch Demouilpied, vocals, baritone horn and trumpet
Barnaby Templer, Sound Supervisor
Stephen Maxwell, Sound Assistant
Christopher Swaine, Dubbing Mixer
Fonic, Mix
