Wanting firm support and a soft surface at once is a fair thing to ask of a mattress, and it's exactly what this Flaxby sets out to give you. Dreams sells it as two pieces: the turnable, foam-free Flaxby Natural Cashmere Vale 10750, made in Leeds by Harrison Spinks, with a removable topper of wool and pocket springs laid over it that takes the bed from 30cm to 42cm (about 16 and a half inches). Lie down on your side and your hip presses into springy wool and a layer of little bouncing springs, then meets the firm mattress, which holds it up so your spine stays straight. It sits near the top of the ten Flaxby Natural mattresses, and it's one of only two in the range sold with a topper.
The mattress under the topper is the 10750 exactly: the same thirteen layers, the same 30cm, and the same choice of Firm or Very Firm with nothing softer on offer. Everything this bed adds is the topper, and a topper is the one part of a bed you can always buy later. So buy the Cashmere Vale 10750 on its own, keep what the topper would have cost, and only go shopping for a topper if the mattress turns out too firm for you.
The mattress underneath suits a heavier back sleeper, fourteen stone or so and up, or a front sleeper of any ordinary weight, who likes a firm bed and wants solid springs under the hips. That person chose Firm or Very Firm to be held up, and a deep layer of soft wool and springs over it softens the very thing they paid for. Under about nine stone and on your side, walk past both versions. You want the softness inside the mattress, and the Flaxby Natural Silkstone Lambswool 13750 has it.
The Flaxby pillow top lifts off, and that's the best thing about it
Dreams calls it a pillow top, but this one comes in its own parcel and lifts off, and to me that's a much fairer design than anything sewn on. A stitched pillow top can't be turned, so the one soft face under you takes all the wear, and that's my main reason for steering people away from them. This topper is double-sided like the mattress, so it turns over too. Decide you'd rather sleep firm and you take it off, and you still own a whole mattress.
Inside, it's wool and fine animal fibres packed round three layers of springs: micro pocket springs above and below a layer of Posturfil pocket springs. Wool is the topper I'd point you to first, and a sprung wool one is a far better thing than a slab of memory foam that keeps your heat in. Neither piece contains foam or glue, so air moves through the whole stack and nothing softens and clings to you the way warm foam does.
Why I'd buy the Cashmere Vale without its topper
Buying the topper with the mattress means paying for a fix before you know there's anything to fix. A topper solves one problem, a bed that's too firm, and on this mattress the firmness is the point: you pick Firm or Very Firm because your weight and the way you lie call for it. Pick the grade right and the mattress alone is the bed you wanted. Pick it wrong and a wool topper bought a few months later does the job this one does, sized to how much softness you turn out to be short of.
A big back sleeper on Very Firm gets very little from a soft layer laid over it, and that's the buyer this mattress serves best. Meanwhile the topper brings a second heavy piece into your bedroom, 15kg in a double and 17kg in a king, that has to come off every time the mattress is turned. It adds 12cm to the bed, which turns an ordinary deep sheet into a problem, and it adds 5,000 springs to the number on the label, none of which change how firmly the mattress underneath holds you.
Firm or Very Firm: choose the grade for the mattress alone
The Firm or Very Firm you choose describes the mattress, and the topper only softens the surface over it. I'd start almost anyone on medium firm, and the idea that a harder bed is better for your back is a myth worth ignoring, so treat this as a firm bed for people who need firm, never a medium one in disguise.
I go by weight first, then position. Very Firm belongs to back and front sleepers around eighteen stone and over, who want solid springs under them and nothing soft in the way. Firm suits a heavier back sleeper and an average-weight front sleeper who likes a flat, steady bed. A heavier side sleeper on Firm can feel it at the shoulder, so sleep on the mattress for a month first, and if your shoulder aches by then, that's the day to buy a topper.
Couples can have the mattress made with a Firm side and a Very Firm side from king size up. When two of you weigh very differently, take that over any compromise grade every time.
15,750 springs is a king's mattress and topper added together
Read the 15750 as the king's figure for both pieces: 10,750 in the mattress and 5,000 in the topper. A double has 14,175 between them, 9,675 below and 4,500 above, and the total drops with each size down, so compare springs at the size you're buying.
Past about 1,500 springs in a king, the extras are mostly small comfort springs, and most of the spring layers in this bed are micro pocket springs. The exceptions are the thicker Cortec springs round the mattress border and the topper's Posturfil layer. Small springs give a topper its bounce, and I've no quarrel with that, but I'd never choose a bed for its spring count, and the 5,000 the topper adds are the springs I'd least like to pay extra for.
That reinforced border belongs to the mattress, and the topper has no edge springs of its own. Perch on the edge and you'll sink through the topper before the Cortec springs underneath take your weight. If that's where you sit to get dressed every morning, that soft give at the edge comes with the topper, and on the 10750 alone you sit straight onto the Cortec border.
77kg in a king, and it arrives in two parcels
This bed is made to order and comes flat in two parcels: the mattress at 54kg in a double and the topper at 15kg, or 60kg and 17kg in a king. I had narrow stairs at my last house, so measuring the stairs and the turn at the top is the first thing I'd do before ordering anything this heavy. Pay for room-of-choice delivery so the crew carries it up to the bedroom, and be in when it comes.
At 42cm it's a fitted-sheet problem too. An ordinary sheet won't get round it, so buy extra-deep ones with a pocket of at least 42cm. That depth is wool and springs from top to bottom, and I'll happily take that over the foam padding that bulks out most deep mattresses.
Both pieces are double-sided, so a turn is two jobs for two people: the topper comes off, the mattress goes over and round, and the topper goes back with its other face up. Harrison Spinks suggests doing it about twice a year once the first few months are behind you, and says the mattress will perform just as well if you can't.
Before you order, ask Dreams how its 100-Night Comfort Guarantee treats the topper, since this bed comes in two parts and you'll want to know whether a swap takes both.
What to buy instead
Buy the Flaxby Natural Cashmere Vale 10750 and put the topper money back in your pocket. It's the mattress under this topper, with the same layers and the same Firm and Very Firm grades, and at 30cm it turns as one piece and takes a deep fitted sheet without a fight. If it feels too firm at the shoulder a few months in, a wool topper sorts that, and you'll buy it knowing exactly how much softness you want.
Lighter side sleepers, and anyone who knows they want a softer bed, should go to the Flaxby Natural Silkstone Lambswool 13750, which also costs less than this pair. It builds its softness into the mattress, it comes in Soft Medium and Medium Firm, the grades side sleepers and lighter bodies want, and there's one piece to turn instead of two.
Harrison Spinks builds a proper mattress, with springs and wool I respect, and mid-range money gets most people most of the way to a bed like this one. Of the two Flaxby Natural beds sold with a topper, this is the one I'd talk a friend out of, because the bed worth having is already lying underneath the topper.
