The Cathedral City of Exeter, in the West of England, enjoyed great prosperity in the 16th to 18th centuries from processing and exporting woollen cloth. The woollen merchants of Exeter controlled all aspects of the trade and Exeter and the port of Topsham, a few miles downriver, was once the second busiest port in the country.
With such a history, it is not surprising that the founding families of the firm of Lear Browne and Dunsford chose Exeter as their base when they commenced trading in 1895 supplying fine quality fabrics and linings to the worldwide tailoring industry, which they continue to do to this day.