If you've fallen for the Silkstone, sleep on your back and wish it had a little more cushion on top, this is the version Dreams sells with you in mind. Underneath is the Flaxby Natural Silkstone Lambswool 13750, layer for layer, and over it lies a separate topper of British wool and fine animal fibres packed round tiny pocket springs, which lifts off whenever you want it gone. Flaxby is the natural range Harrison Spinks makes by hand in Yorkshire, a maker whose build I genuinely rate, and this pairing sits at the very top of the range and, at 46cm, is the deepest bed in it. Settle onto your back and the wool gives a couple of centimetres under your shoulder blades, the little springs push gently back, and then the mattress proper takes your hips and holds them level.
That topper is the one difference between this bed and the Silkstone, and on a back sleeper's bed it earns its place. Order the Medium Firm mattress beneath it: the springs keep your spine in line all night, and the topper adds the soft, sink-in surface a firm bed lacks by itself. It's a beautiful bed for lying on your back, and on the night you decide you'd rather sleep firmer, the topper comes off. Side sleepers should skip it and buy the Silkstone alone in Soft Medium, which already lets a shoulder sink as far as it needs to. What I like most is that both pieces turn, so you have four faces to rotate through the year where a sewn-on top leaves you one. Every turn takes two people and an extra lift for the topper, so if there's no one to help you turn it, you lose the four faces that make this pairing worth having, and the Silkstone alone is the better buy.
For back sleepers, my answer is yes, and I'd buy it for the craft as much as the topper. Choose Medium Firm, pay for the crew to carry both parcels upstairs, and buy deep sheets before it arrives.
Is the Flaxby pillow top worth having? On your back, yes
Dreams puts "pillow top" in the name, and it isn't one in the sense I object to. A pillow top is stitched to the mattress, so it can't be turned, and the one soft face under you takes every night's wear. This one lies loose on a non-slip base, has a face for each season like the mattress under it, and comes off whenever you like. Decide your back wants a firmer bed for a while and you still own a complete mattress underneath.
I judge a topper by what it fixes, and toppers fix "too firm". Medium Firm is the grade I'd put most back sleepers on for support, and on its own its surface is a little brisk under the shoulders and the small of your back. Wool and springs laid over it soften what you touch without taking away what holds you up, which is the right way round: the support lives in the mattress, the comfort sits on top, and you can change one without touching the other. Wool is my pick for a topper anyway, because air moves through it and it never clings to you the way warm memory foam does.
Harrison Spinks says wool fillings settle where you lie, and calls that the mattress getting to know you, which is a kinder phrase than most makers manage. The topper is the part you press into first, so turn it with the seasons and the settling stays even across both faces.
The 19750 in the name, and the craft that counts for more
Dreams gives 18,750 pocket springs in a king and 16,875 in a double, so the king sits a thousand under the name: the Silkstone's 13,750 plus 5,000 micro springs in the topper. I'd never buy a bed for its spring count anyway. Past 1,500 or so in a king, extra springs are mostly small comfort springs, but in a topper tiny springs are exactly what you want, because they give the wool its lift and you lie on something lively instead of a flat pad.
What I'd buy it for is the way it's made. Harrison Spinks has made beds by hand in Yorkshire since 1840, the mattress is tufted right through so each layer stays where it was laid, and the hemp and flax in its fillings come from the maker's own farm. I judge a bed on its spec before its story, and here the spec backs the story up: every filling is a natural fibre you can name.
Wool and fine fibres all the way down, with no foam
The Silkstone underneath carries lambswool on both faces, a blend of cashmere, alpaca and British wool on its winter side and silk, cashmere and wool on its summer side, with Swaledale wool and flax wrapped round its micro pocket springs and a border of thicker Cortec springs. The topper repeats the idea on a smaller scale: British wool and fine animal fibres on one face, wool with cotton, flax and hemp on the other, and Swaledale wool and flax round its springs. There's no foam, glue or polyester in either piece, and natural fillings round springs are what I'd always rather sleep on.
The topper has no edge springs of its own. The reinforced border sits in the mattress below, so when you perch on the side to pull your socks on, you sink through the topper's wool and little springs before the Cortec springs take your weight. Expect the edge to give more than the Silkstone's does with nothing on top.
At 46cm, sort the sheets and the bed height first
Sunday is fresh-sheets day for me, and on a 46cm bed that turns into a proper wrestle. A standard fitted sheet is cut for about 25 to 30cm of mattress, and most deep-pocket sheets stop short of 46cm, which is about 18 inches. Order extra-deep sheets cut for 46cm, so they're waiting when the bed arrives. In its favour, every centimetre is wool and springs, never cheap foam bulking it out.
On a divan base it makes a tall bed. Sitting on the edge, you want both feet flat on the floor, and getting in and out easily matters more than firmness as the years go on, so check your base height before you order and pick a lower frame if you need one.
Four faces to turn, and that's why it lasts
Both pieces turn, and each has a warmer wool face for winter and a cooler cotton face for summer. To me that's the best thing about this pairing. A bed you can turn lasts longer, and here the wear spreads over four faces where a fixed pillow top gives you one, which is why I'd take this over any bed with its top sewn on. Four faces are easy to muddle, so mark which way up each piece went on delivery day.
A double weighs 74.7kg all in and a king 83kg, and the topper arrives as its own parcel of 23kg in a double or 26kg in a king. It all comes flat and made to order. Turning means lifting the topper off, flipping the mattress and laying the topper back on the right face, with two people for every step. The maker suggests turning it regularly for the first few months and about twice a year after that, and says that if you can't manage it, the mattress won't suffer; the fillings simply take longer to settle in.
What to buy instead
Side sleepers belong on the Flaxby Natural Silkstone Lambswool 13750 with nothing on top, which costs a good deal less. It's this exact mattress at 34cm, with the same fillings and the same two grades, and in Soft Medium it gives a shoulder all the sink it needs. Should it ever feel firmer than you'd like, a wool topper bought later fixes a problem you know you have. Pick your grade with care either way, because Dreams' 100-Night Comfort Guarantee swaps the mattress for another rather than refunding it, can't be used in the first month and comes with a collection charge.
Set on a mattress and topper bought together, but on a tighter budget? Look at the Sophie Conran Sanctuary Pocket Wool Mattress & Enhancer, also at Dreams, which costs less. It's the same two-piece idea with wool over pocket springs, graded Medium. The Flaxby keeps the better build for a back sleeper: a Medium Firm mattress to choose under the topper, ten natural fibres in it and Harrison Spinks behind it.
