Ask someone who loves natural fillings what they want from a mattress and you'll usually hear two things: no foam, and something soft to sink into for that first minute in bed. The Harrison Spinks Pure Grande Pillowtop is built to give them both. Harrison Spinks makes the Pure range in Yorkshire for Furniture Village alone, and the Grande is the biggest of its pillow-top beds: a top of natural fibres with its own springs, sewn onto a busy pocket-spring unit, 33cm deep in every size. Lie down on the Firm and your shoulder goes into soft, dry fibre for the first few centimetres before the springs underneath meet it with plenty of push.
Its smaller sibling at the same shop is the Harrison Spinks Pure Embrace Pillowtop, and the gap between them is bigger than the names let on. The Grande is 5cm deeper, adds cotton and mohair to the Embrace's wool, hemp and flax, and finishes its border with three rows of hand side-stitching where the Embrace has two. What the pair share is the part that sends me elsewhere. Both have a sewn-on pillow top and neither can be turned over, so I'll give the Grande full credit for what's inside it and still steer you to a flat bed.
Soft on top and firm underneath, in the Firm grade
Order the Firm and you get two feels stacked on each other. The top gives under your hip and shoulder with the quick, springy sink that wool and cotton have, and then the main unit stops you and keeps you level. Back sleepers of around average weight are the easy fit, because the hips stay supported and the cushioned surface means the firm core never feels like a board. Heavier side sleepers get on with it too, since the top lets a shoulder in before the springs take the load. Under about nine stone and on your side, the Firm will still feel firmer than you'd like, so take the Medium if the Grande is the one you want.
Every size from single to super king is made, and the king and super king can be ordered in dual tension, a different feel on each half. If you and your partner can't agree on firmness, take that option before you settle on a middle grade that leaves you both a bit unhappy. And if you want a bed you can turn over with the seasons, walk past this one, because the sewn top means the Grande only ever has one face to sleep on.
Owners call it soft without sagging, apart from at the edge
The owners who love it say so in plain words. One owner, a tall slim man by his own description, calls it "lovely and soft but doesn't sag". Another finds it "so comforting and supportive at the same time", and an owner who falls asleep on their front and moves about in the night calls it comfortable "regardless if i am on my side, back or stomach". A couple who bought it in a showroom call it "beautifully made". These are people who wanted a soft top on a natural bed and got exactly that, and I'm glad for them.
The complaint to take seriously is at the edge. One owner who likes to sit up on the side says "the mattress dips quite a bit on the edges", so much that they keep a foot pressed on the floor to stop sliding off. That fits the build. The soft top runs right out to the border, and three rows of stitching firm the side of the spring unit while the fibre on top of it still gives. If you sit on the bed to pull your socks on every morning, or share a double and sleep near the side, make the edge your first question before you buy.
Wool, hemp, flax, cotton and mohair, and none of it foam
The fillings are the best thing about the Grande. British wool, hemp and flax grown on Harrison Spinks's own farm, cotton and mohair: every filling in it is natural, and none of it is foam. That mix breathes and stays dry, so the warmth you give off through the night gets away. Overheating wakes me, and I hate it, so a build like this is where I send anyone who runs warm. The owners back it up: one says it "isn't hot", and another has found it "nice and cool too". The cover is a wool and viscose blend that Harrison Spinks weaves in-house, and at 33cm you'll want deep-pocket fitted sheets over it.
Hand-tufted in Yorkshire sounds lovely, but I judge a bed on what's in it, not the story behind it. Here, what's in it lives up to the story.
Most of the 12,500 springs are small ones
The headline is 12,500 springs, and that figure is for a king. The main unit is Harrison Spinks's own Cortec Revolution Quad, a spring set inside a spring, which gives a little first and firms as you press harder. With it come 1,000 Posturfil pocket springs and layers of 2,500 and 4,000 high-density micro springs, so most of the springs are small ones in the comfort layers. I respect Harrison Spinks springs, and nothing about this unit worries me. I'd simply rather the extra money in a bed went into fillings than into small springs, and the Grande's fillings are already the part worth paying for.
Why I'd still talk you out of the sewn-on top
My difficulty is with pillow tops as a type, and the Grande happens to be a well-made one. The top is the softest part of the bed and the part your hip and shoulder press into every night. In my experience a soft top keeps on softening, and on a one-sided mattress you can't flip it to spread the wear: you rotate it end to end, and one owner finds it heavy going even for that. The care notes that come with it also count settling fillings as normal, so a top that beds down where you lie is nothing you could claim for. They ask for slats no more than 7.5cm (3in) apart, too, and make that a condition of the guarantee, so measure the gaps on your frame before it arrives.
Then there's the money. Harrison Spinks sits at the top of what I'd ask most people to spend: the build is genuine, and the price is the hurdle. To my mind Furniture Village charges a lot for its beds, and a sewn-on top is the last thing I'd want that money spent on.
What to buy instead
Stay at Furniture Village and go flat. The Hypnos Bespoke Amethyst costs a good deal less and has nothing sewn on top. I rate Hypnos for its build and for value. The Amethyst puts a hand-tufted wool face over 1,200 seven-turn pocket springs in a king, 25cm deep, so you lie on top of it with very little sink. It's Extra Firm, which makes it the swap to make if you were going to order the Grande in Firm for sleeping on your back or front. You give up the all-natural list, since the Amethyst blends traceable British wool with polywool and recycled fibre, and you give up the cushioned first minute. In return you get a flat, tufted face with no soft layer stitched on to wear down under your hips.
Side sleepers, don't take the Amethyst: it is too firm for you. If it's the Grande's softness you fell for, ask Furniture Village which of the flat Pure beds comes in Medium and lie on that before you settle on a sewn top.
