You may wonder what ‘Almalauha’ means. It stems from ‘alma lauha’, the Germanic name for my home town of Almelo, the Netherlands. ‘Alma’ means ‘elm’ and ‘lauha’ refers to woods on sandy ground near a settlement (is there an English word for this?!).
My hometown is well old, with the first mention of House of Almelo made in 1236. House Almelo still exists today, although it is not the original building.
I didn’t pick my brand name because my hometown is so cool but because it is where my roots are as well as the fact that it has a rich textile history!
Textile weaving was one of the industries in Almelo, which transitioned to an industrial scale when steam engines arrived in the mid 19th century. In 1855, a canal system was dug connecting Almelo to several nearby towns, which helped the textile industry flourish. This resulted in many well-off families in the region, many who built mansions and villas in and around the city. However, because of globalisation, the textile industry in Almelo started to struggle from the 1960s onwards.
I think by the 1980s, almost all of the textile factories had closed down. And as the years went on, many of the buildings were destroyed, although a few have been repurposed. One of these repurposed sites is the Stadslab Almelo, this site currently houses an event venue and an Italian restaurant in one of the former textile factories. The rest of this site has been destroyed and redeveloped into a residential area.
I got most of this information from the Wikipedia page. If you’d like to learn more about the textile industry in Almelo, you can do so at this page that also has a lot of photos.
I might add information to this page in the future.
