Long before "Del Boy" Trotter made our sheepskin coat a national icon, Nursey Sheepskin was already a century-old Suffolk family business. This is the real story — from a Victorian leather workshop, to a wartime request that changed everything, to the sitcom moment that made us famous, to a closure and a family revival.
1846: A Suffolk leather workshop
Nursey Sheepskin was founded in 1846 by Samuel Nursey in Bungay, Suffolk. The original business had nothing to do with coats — it made protective leather aprons for farm workers and blacksmiths, along with gloves and other leather accessories, for the local trades of the day.
The wartime request that started it all
The sheepskin coat itself has a very specific origin. Towards the end of the Second World War, Lieutenant General Sir Oliver Leese, commander of the British 8th Army, asked Nursey's to adapt one of its sheepskin jerkins by adding sleeves, so he could wear it as a winter warmer. That single, practical request is what led Nursey's to pioneer the sheepskin coat in Britain.
A post-war boom
The idea took off. By the 1980s, trading as Nursey of Bungay, the business was employing around 80 to 90 people, producing roughly 15,000 coats a year, and turning over about £2.5 million annually. At its peak, Nursey's supplied hundreds of men's outfitters and women's dress shops across Britain and northern Europe.
The coat Del Boy made famous
Nursey's fortunes changed again when the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses became a national institution — and its lead character, cockney wide boy Del Boy Trotter, adopted our sheepskin coat as his trademark look. The coat went on to become genuinely iconic, later joining the wardrobes of football commentator John Motson and guitarist Eric Clapton, and appearing on TV presenter Holly Willoughby.
Its influence reached fashion's front row too: in 2015, The Guardian reported on the "Del Boy aesthetic" appearing on the autumn/winter runways of Burberry and Topman Design, more than a decade after the sitcom first aired.
Changing times
Fashion moves on, and so does the weather. As high-street outfitters and dress shops across the country closed, and winters became milder, demand for full sheepskin coats declined. Production wound down in 2014, and the factory shop in Bungay — after 169 years of continuous trading — finally closed its doors in 2015.
Back in business: the sixth generation
The Nursey name didn't disappear for long. James Nursey and his partner Marcella took on the business, moving it online and rebuilding it as a smaller, focused, handmade operation — retaining a skilled workforce making genuine sheepskin and leather goods including gilets, slippers, hats, headbands, bags, mittens and gloves, all still made in Bungay, Suffolk.
Alongside the heritage pieces, the revived business introduced practical modern additions — including fingerless gloves designed to let you use a touchscreen phone without taking them off — and started shipping further afield, with orders now coming in from France, Germany and the United States as well as the UK.
"We want to try and keep making our sheepskin products for as long as possible because our loyal customers still love them. The skilled craftsmen and women making our products have decades of experience and we want to use their fantastic expertise as long as possible."
— James Nursey
"We feel there is a growing appetite for high-quality handmade British products and very few other companies can claim to have such a prestigious past as ours."
— James Nursey
The revival has continued to attract attention: presenter Helen Skelton wore Nursey's fingerless sheepskin gloves and a peaked cap on BBC's Countryfile, and a pair of fingerless gloves featured on Rebekah Vardy's Instagram.
Handmade in Suffolk, today
Nearly 180 years after Samuel Nursey first opened his workshop, every piece we make — mittens, gloves, slippers, hats, gilets and accessories — is still handmade in Bungay, Suffolk, from whole-piece British sheepskin, by people who genuinely know the craft.
Want to know what makes genuine sheepskin worth choosing over synthetic alternatives? Read our comparison guide.
Curious about our father-and-son take on this story? Read our Q&A with Tim Nursey, where James asks his father about Nursey's history first-hand.
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As featured in
- The Guardian — "Del Boy chic: the rise of the sheepskin coat"
- Drapers — "Nursey Sheepskin closes after 169 years"
- EDP24 — "Only Fools and Horses sheepskin brand is back – four years after factory closed"