48. The Wedding Tent

48. The Wedding Tent

From The Factory Next Door by Steve Duke

March 3, 2026 · 31 min

About this episode

The episode explores the art of tent making with Chris Brawn from Wills Marquees in North Yorkshire.

Pitching a 24-metre-long tent is one thing. Manufacturing one requires a whole different set of skills, including cloth cutting, sewing, woodwork and a good understanding of mathematics. On this week’s The Factory Next Door we head to North Yorkshire to meet a team striving to keep alive the ancient art of tent making. Number 48 on our list of the greatest things we make here is The Wedding Tent by Wills Marquees. Co-founder Chris Brawn gives us a tour of their workshop as we learn about the beauty of light cutting through cotton, consider why tent-making is both easy and difficult, and ask whether nice people can succeed in business. Say hello on Instagram @thefactorynextdoor The Factory Next Door is supported by AVEVA, a leader in industrial intelligence. Sign up to their bi-weekly newsletter about manufacturing here: www.aveva.com/factory Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People in this episode

Host: Steve Duke

Guest: Chris Brawn

Topics covered

  • tent making
  • manufacturing
  • entrepreneurship
  • craftsmanship
  • business success

Keywords

  • tent making
  • manufacturing
  • Wills Marquees
  • North Yorkshire
  • entrepreneurship
  • craftsmanship
  • business

Sponsors

AVEVA

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Wills Marquees

Places: North Yorkshire

More episodes of The Factory Next Door

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Factory Next Door podcast page.