The History of Waxed Jackets: From Oilskins to the Bedale and Beaufort

THE HISTORY OF · CHAPTER 01

Fishing boats, motorcycle trials, a submarine and the very practical reasons behind those big pockets. The waxed jacket has been busy.

Most of us ask a waxed jacket to survive a dog walk, a commute or the dash from the pub to the car. Its predecessors had rather less forgiving job descriptions.

The familiar country jacket, with its corduroy collar and roomy pockets, belongs to a much bigger story about keeping the weather out. That story passes through working ports, textile mills and military stores before arriving at the Barbour Bedale and Beaufort.

Those two coats are especially interesting because they feel older than they are. The Bedale arrived in 1980; the Beaufort followed in 1983. Their shapes came from different activities, and knowing which was which makes the details much easier to understand. Barbour's Bedale history and Beaufort history explain their respective beginnings.

It also helps explain the appeal of the NON-STOCK 11 oz Waxed Canvas Hunting Jacket I stock at Hidden Stitch Supply. We will get to that one after a trip through the archives. Bring a coat.

Before Barbour, there were oilskins

Start with the people in this drawing. Winslow Homer recorded these fishermen in oilskins in 1881, thirteen years before John Barbour opened his business in South Shields. The work is held by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Its catalogue describes the men standing by the Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade house, looking towards a rough sea.

There is no grand country-house backdrop. There are hats pulled down, long protective clothes and a group of people apparently giving the weather a fairly serious look. You can almost hear someone saying they will give it another ten minutes.

Oilskin is a useful word to pause over. Older oil-treated fabrics and modern waxed cotton belong to the same broad family of weather-resistant cloth, but they are not one unchanged recipe. In its account of the material, textile manufacturer British Millerain describes the use of linseed oil on sailcloth, followed by the development of paraffin-based wax finishes. Linseed oil had drawbacks, including yellowing and cracking in the cold.

That makes the history more interesting than a single inventor having a brilliant afternoon. A garment needs cloth, a coating, a useful cut and a way to put it together. Different businesses could improve different parts of that problem.

There is a nice industrial footnote from Dundee. Halley Stevensons records an early waterproofing treatment involving khaki pigment, soap and potash alum, with a patent application in 1910 and an award in 1911. That was a textile-preserving and waterproofing process, not a recipe for a modern Bedale. It is a reminder that the people behind these fabrics were experimenting with chemistry as well as sewing machines.

A little detour to New Zealand

The trade was already well established a long way from Britain. New Zealand's official statistical report for 1890 lists 32 sail and oilskin factories employing 124 people. Those figures cover the combined industry, so they do not mean 32 jacket factories. They do show that protective cloth was a recognised manufacturing business before Barbour began trading. You can find the entry in the original government report's industries table.

A factory tally is less glamorous than a photograph of a famous person in a green coat. It is also quite revealing. Oilskins were part of the ordinary business of working outdoors, with customers and makers spread well beyond one British county.

The captain above is another useful antidote to the idea that this was always leisurewear. His long outer coat belongs to a world of exposed decks and working ships. A photograph cannot tell us its exact coating or manufacturer, so there is no reason to give it a Barbour label it does not visibly have.

Barbour begins at a working port

John Barbour started his South Shields business in 1894, supplying oilskins and other clothing to sailors and fishermen. His son Malcolm introduced a mail-order catalogue in 1908. By 1917, catalogue orders made up almost three-quarters of the business, reaching places including Chile and the Falkland Islands. That is quite a delivery round. These dates come from Barbour's company chronology.

There is something pleasingly familiar about that catalogue business. A customer far from the shop still needed to understand the garment well enough to order it. Today we have photographs, measurements and videos. The distance between a promising description and a coat that actually suits you remains a very real consideration.

The motorcycle chapter

In 1936, Duncan Barbour introduced the one-piece International motorcycle suit, named for the International Six Day Trials. This was another job for weather-resistant clothing, with the wearer now travelling through the weather at speed. Barbour records the suit in its 1936 history entry.

Look at the suit in the photograph: a belted waist, a closely fastened front and pockets across the chest and hips. It has a different outline from the country jackets further down this story. A Barbour motorcycle outfit is part of the same company's history, but it is not an early Bedale.

It is tempting to make every old waxed garment lead directly to the coat hanging by the front door. The actual story has more branches, and the branches are half the fun.

Then a submarine gets involved

During the Second World War, Barbour developed a two-piece version of its motorcycle suit for the commander of HMS Ursula. The resulting clothing became known as the Ursula suit. The company's account connects the naval design to the International.

Fortunately, there is more to go on than a brand anecdote. Royal Museums Greenwich holds a pair of Barbour submarine deck-suit trousers, object ZBA2222. The museum identifies waxed cotton, webbing braces, reinforced knees and a zip fly. Inside is a stamp reading “5 WN 1944”. Across the back, someone painted “ARTFUL” in white.

That last detail is wonderful. Here is clothing that has picked up a specific, slightly untidy trace of use, preserved alongside the more formal description of its construction. The record does not establish exactly who wore this pair, and the painted name is not a complete service history. It is still a much more tangible connection to the past than a vague claim that a jacket has “military roots”.

The crew photograph shows the submarine that gave the suit its name. It does not identify the makers of the coats the men are wearing.

The Barbour Bedale and Beaufort: two jobs, two shapes

Now we get to the coats most people picture when someone says “Barbour”: a waxed cotton shell, corduroy collar, covered front fastening and enough pocket space to make a small bag feel a bit redundant.

Dame Margaret Barbour designed both the Bedale and the Beaufort. Although they share plenty of features, their original uses explain the differences much better than the idea that one is simply a longer version of the other.

The Bedale, 1980: room to ride

The Bedale was designed for horse riding. Its relatively short body, relaxed shape and rear vents make sense when the wearer needs to sit astride a horse. Barbour also describes a nylon inner section intended to resist damp from riding.

The useful question is what those choices do for you now. A shorter hem can be convenient when sitting down, while room through the body leaves space for a layer underneath. You do not need to acquire a horse to appreciate either point. Check the actual garment measurements, though: “short” is always relative to the person wearing it.

The standard waxed Bedale's current specification includes 6 oz waxed cotton, a two-way zip, a stud-fastened storm flap and moleskin-lined hand-warmer pockets above the larger lower pockets. Its knitted inner cuffs are another useful detail to check when comparing it with a similarly shaped jacket.

The Beaufort, 1983: the shooting-jacket connection

The Beaufort took inspiration from French shooting jackets. It arrived three years after the Bedale and is the longer of the familiar pair. Its most revealing feature is round the back: a large, lined pocket running across the jacket.

This is the feature usually called a game pocket, and it gives the coat a very clear connection to country sport. The wipe-clean lining makes sense in that setting. For everyday wear, the space can find less adventurous employment carrying a folded newspaper or the odds and ends of a walk.

The standard waxed Beaufort also uses 6 oz Thornproof waxed cotton, with hand-warmer and bellows pockets at the front. It has adjustable wind cuffs using hook-and-loop fastening, rather than the Bedale's knitted inner cuffs.

That is the appeal of looking closely at these designs. The differences are small enough to disappear in a quick outfit photo, but large enough to matter every time you wear the coat.

Bedale vs Beaufort at a glance

Based on the Barbour history and product pages linked above, checked in October 2026. Compare the exact version you are buying.

Even the tartan has a date

One more small surprise: Barbour dates the introduction of its exclusive Classic Tartan to 1998, developed with Kinloch Anderson and based on the Ayrshire District sett. That makes this particular lining pattern younger than both jackets. See the 1998 entry in Barbour's history.

It is a good reminder that a long-running design can change while keeping its identity. “Classic” on a label does not mean every detail has been there since the beginning. If you are comparing a vintage coat with a new one, take a look inside as well as outside.

Why did waxed jackets stick around?

Outdoor clothing did not stop developing once somebody worked out how to wax cotton. People kept trying to make working clothes lighter, more comfortable and better suited to difficult conditions.

A particularly good example turns up in the June 1959 issue of the US government's Commercial Fisheries Review. On page 110, a short item reports a proposed synthetic fabric for fishermen, with claims about warmth and buoyancy. It was summarising a British fishing-industry report from 1957. The item even quoted a proposed price about 30 per cent above top-quality oilskins. Read the original fisheries report.

These were reported claims for a proposed material, not an independent performance test. The interesting part is the ambition: the fishing trade was actively looking for alternatives well before the Bedale and Beaufort existed.

So the later popularity of country-style waxed jackets is more interesting than a story about everyone waiting for better rainwear. A coat can remain appealing because of its shape, feel, pockets and repairability, even as other materials become available. Those are different reasons for choosing clothing, and they can happily exist alongside each other.

A coat you can keep working on

Barbour traces its re-waxing and repair service to 1921. That is a useful piece of history because it places maintenance inside the business long before the modern enthusiasm for buying fewer, longer-lasting things. Barbour's Wax for Life page records the service's beginnings and its current repair options.

A renewable finish gives an owner something to do when the surface needs attention. It does not mean cloth never wears through, or that every old jacket can be brought back to perfect condition. But patches, repairs and fresh wax can become part of a coat's continuing life.

I like the practical side of that idea. You can enjoy a jacket without trying to keep it looking as if it has never left the shop. Follow the maker's care instructions, and make repairs when they are needed. Character is nice; a hole that lets the weather in is still a hole.