Artefacts from Knitting Mills at Newry and Mourne Museum

A pupil from Kilkeel Primary School watching one of the employees at the Kilkeel Knitting Mills at work during a school visit to the factory in 1979.

In 2022, the Collection at Newry and Mourne Museum was enhanced by the donation of knitwear, knitting machines and archival material from Kilkeel Knitting Mills.

These artefacts were donated by Walter Sekules whose parents, Edith and Kurt Sekules, established the Knitting Mills in 1950.

Before World War II the Sekules family had been part of the Jewish community in Vienna and settled in Northern Ireland in 1947. Edith Sekules was born in Vienna in 1916. Both her parents were descendants of Jewish families which had emigrated to Austria from eastern Europe in the late 19th century. In 1936 Edith married Kurt Sekules, a wireless engineer, who she had met a few years before. Their first child, Ruth, was born in 1938.

During these years the political situation in Austria was worsening with the increasing dominance of the Nazis in Germany and resultant pressure on Jews. Like other Jewish families, Kurt, Edith and their infant daughter, attempted to leave Vienna. They were eventually able to leave for Tallin in Estonia in September 1938 where Kurt had found work. However, the outbreak of hostilities between Russia and Germany in 1941 meant that they became enemy aliens. In July 1941 the Sekules family were sent to Harku Detention Camp, near Tallin. The family were to spend the remainder of the Second World War in a number of detention camps in Siberia.

Edith Sekules with her two eldest children, Ruth and Walter, in Estonia in 1940. Courtesy of the Sekules Family

In January 1947, the Sekules family, were able to return to Austria with 200 other internees. Kurt and Edith had decided to join Kurt’s parents who had emigrated to Londonderry in the late 1930s.

Edith was encouraged to set up a knitting factory, and after considering a number of towns in which to establish a factory, Edith settled on Kilkeel. Twelve knitting machines were delivered from England and Edith and Kurt began to recruit and train local women.

During the 1950s and 1960s the business continued to expand. As well as making Argyle socks, the company began to knit tartan hose worn by pipe bands and, from 1957, cashmere and Aran sweaters. The customer base also developed to include leading retailers in London, Scotland and America. In 1968, the company moved into larger premises in a former school.

In 1981, Edith reached the age of 65 and had decided to retire. Attempts to develop the company at this time proved unsuccessful and Edith invited Walter to take an increased role in the running the factory. A high-profile order during these years was the knitting of a cardigan for the late Princess Diana in 1986. This was one of a range of five designs by Paul Costello. However, the company was not commercially viable, and Walter made it into a limited company – Tartan Hose Ltd. By this time cashmere was becoming too expensive and Walter focused on Argyle socks. The company was liquidated in 1993/4 and Walter bought out his parents’ shares.

Employees of the Kilkeel Knitting Mills in the 1950s. Knitting was carried out by women both at the factory and in their own homes. In the final years of the business, around 100 women were employed.

Kurt Sekules died in 2001 and Edith died at the age of 91 in 2008. Walter continued to run the factory until it eventually closed in the autumn of 2022, but not before it had fulfilled an order for dancing socks worn by dancers at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo in 2022.