Stead McAlpin has been manufacturing high-quality furnishing fabrics since 1835.
Always striving to move ahead, we keep abreast of the latest technology and continually search for ways to improve our operational techniques. We offer screen printing for runs as short as 100 metres, with widths up to 3.2 metres and up to 25 colours. While our digital printing facility promises immense versatility, we also continue to provide a full range of facilities from design interpretation, colour separation and screen engraving through to fabric preparation, printing and a range of specialist finishes. Finished goods are warehoused and ultimately despatched in line with our customersâ requirements.
Printing
- Extra wide up to 3.2 meters prints
- We can print as little as 10 meters
- Rotary, flat, and digital machines


Type of Printing
Flat-screen or flatbed is another convenient way of printing that uses silk mesh screens, up to 25 colours.
Our digital printing capability allows customers to print short runs directly to fabric without the expense of producing screens and without colour restrictions.
Dyeing


Types of Dyeing
- We can dye to match any shade using the expertise of our colour chemists
- We have pigment, reactive, VAT and high temperature disperse dyeing for man-made fibres.
- We also have the ability to cross dye in our soft flow air jet machines.
Finishing


Expertise
Design


Explore
Our highly professional, the customer-focused team prides itself on quality and accuracy, producing designs of the highest standards.
Base Cloths


Materials
We have a variety of weights of cloths suitable for apparel, interiors, upholstery, and outdoors; as well as numerous shade and blind fabrics.
Milestones
The Stead McAlpin Archive: Memories From Our History
Our customers have access to over 25,000 designs in the design archive, dating from the end of the 18th Century to the 20th Century.
This amazing archive encompasses a wide range of design styles and contains work by famous designers from the 19th and 20th centuries.
Our customers have exclusive use of their selected designs and may reproduce them as they are, or adapt them as they wish.
A WALK THROUGH OUR ARCHIVE IS LIKE WALKING THROUGH THE HISTORY OF FABRIC PRINTING.



Over our vast history, we have printed for Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth II, Buckingham Palace, and other Royals, as well as Winston Churchill, and the Titanic. We are also proud to print for many  famous designers, including Lucienne Day, William Morris, and Harry Wearne to name a few.
We won medals at both the Society of Arts and the International Fair in 1862.

The Victoria and Albert Chintz was chosen by Queen Victoria to furnish the Royal Yacht in 1852.
Queen Victoria was a keen artist and secretly incorporated a portrait of herself and Prince Albert into the Victoria and Albert chintz. Their side profiles were very cleverly placed to look like tendrils in amongst the florals. Can you spot the silhouettes?

The first recorded order for Queen Elizabeth was while she was still a Princess. A wedding present from the Cotton Industry, with the C in the design number dating the design between 1790 and 1894

Whilst giving an interview, the Queen was spotted sitting on a Thistle design dating to 1897. This interview was recorded at Balmoral, where, according to the Aberdeen Journal from 1855, one of the bedrooms is decorated with curtains of the Victoria and Albert chintz.

From 1952-1954 the SS Gothic was designated a Royal Yacht for the Queens tour of Australia.
This 12-colour copper roller printed fabric was used for the furnishings in the
Stateroom on the Gothic.

Hyde Park was especially designed for Prince Charlesâs nursery in 1949 and was used in Clarence House.

J.K. Rowling sat on this chair whilst writing the Harry Potter series of books, she donated it to a charity and it was originally sold for ÂŁ50,000 in 2002.
The new owner re-sold the chair in 2006 for ÂŁ300,000!
The fabric on the chair is a Nina Campbell design printed at Stead McAlpin.
We are here to help
Stead McAlpin
Cummersdale Print Works
Carlisle
CA2 6BT
United Kingdom
T: +44 (0) 1228 525224
E: enquiries@steadmcalpin.co.uk