The noise is deafening and the work can be lonely, but to William Smyth, who toils in the world’s last commercial linen “beetling” mill, his job is unique.

“There’s nothing modern about it, I’m doing the same now as they were doing 100 years and more ago,” said Smyth, 59, at the mill in Northern Ireland in a village some 45 miles (70 kilometres) west of Belfast — the last commercial beetling operation in existence.

“Nobody’s come up with anything to make it any easier, there’s no other way of getting the finish on that cloth,” he told AFP of the traditional method which creates a silky sheen on the linen.

Managers at William Clark & Sons, founded almost 300 years ago in 1736, say the company has a bright future as interest grows in traditional beetled linen from high-class fashion desig

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