Buying a Harrison Spinks bed is a big spend, so it makes sense to want the one that will still feel right years from now, and in the Pure collection I'd point you to the Harrison Spinks Pure Splendour. Only Furniture Village sells the Pure beds, which Harrison Spinks hand-builds in Yorkshire, and the Splendour sits in the middle of that range: wool, hemp, flax and cotton over the maker's Cortec pocket springs, 29cm deep, with a flat hand-tufted face on each side and nothing stitched on top. Lie down and the first centimetre or so is soft fibre, then the springs meet your hip and push back evenly, so you rest on the bed instead of sinking into it. The gap it fills is my favourite kind. Of all the Pure beds, it's the one that's flat and turns over without a topper.
That is what sets it apart from its sibling, the Harrison Spinks Pure Embrace Pillowtop. The Embrace has a soft top sewn onto a finished mattress, so it only ever sleeps one way up, and the deeper pillow-top Pure beds above it are built the same way. The Splendour gives you two faces to spread the years across, and that's why it's the pick of the range for me. Side sleepers should order the Medium, and back sleepers the Firm. Walk past it if you want to sink into something plush, or if you know you'll never turn a heavy mattress, because the turning is the reason to buy it.
Turned each season, it shares the wear between two faces
Furniture Village tells you to turn the Splendour seasonally, and I'd call that the most useful job you'll ever do for a mattress. Natural fillings bed down where you lie. Harrison Spinks says body impressions are a normal part of a handmade mattress, and Furniture Village doesn't count them as a fault either, so the hollow you make is yours to manage. On a one-sided bed you press the same fibres every night for as long as you own it. Turn this one and the next few months go on the other face, so the settling is split between two.
Turnable is better, and I'll keep saying so. A mattress with two faces lasts longer than one with a single face, and to my mind no-turn saves the maker a job and costs you the second face. That's exactly where the Splendour beats the three pillow-top Pure beds. They're lovely for the first minute, and they can never be turned over.
Harrison Spinks ties its own turning to the clocks changing. My days run like clockwork, the same times every single day, so a turn pinned to the clock changes is my kind of job. In between, spin it round end to end now and then, which Furniture Village asks for too.
One owner calls it heavy, and Harrison Spinks agrees: its care notes say two people, every time, for its pocket-sprung mattresses. The woven handles on the border are there to grab when you turn it, and it must never be folded or rolled. If you live alone, plan turning day for when someone's round.
Medium for side sleepers, Firm for back sleepers
Pick the grade by how you lie, then let your weight overrule it. On your side, take the Medium. Your shoulder and hip need to press a little way in before your spine sits straight, and the softer grade lets them, with the micro springs adding some lively give as you settle. Under about nine stone, take the Medium whichever way you lie, because a light body barely dents a firm bed and the Firm will feel much harder to you than its label suggests.
On your back, the Firm keeps your hips from dropping below your shoulders, which is what a back sleeper is paying for. Front sleepers belong on it too, with a thin pillow. Over about eighteen stone, take the Firm in any position, since a heavier body sinks through the fibres faster and needs the springs doing more of the carrying.
If you sleep on your side and your partner sleeps on their back, buy the king or super king in Medium / Firm, one feel on each half. Splitting the bed beats both of you settling for a grade chosen for nobody.
11,000 springs, and the count I'd ask for instead
That 11,000 is quoted for a king, so don't read it as the count in a double. Furniture Village itemises one part of the total: a layer of 2,500 high-density micro springs, working with the Cortec unit. Cortec is Harrison Spinks' own glue-free system, a spring inside a spring, so it gives easily at first and firms up as you press harder. I respect it as a core. A count that big tells me very little, though. Once a king passes about 1,500 springs, extra ones do far less for your support than the fillings and the core do.
Before you pay, ask Furniture Village how many full-height Cortec springs sit in the size you're buying. That figure tells you about support, and the headline only tells you how many springs there are in total. Micro springs on their own aren't something I'd pay extra for. I'd rather the money went into fillings, and on the Splendour a fair share of it did, because cotton joins the wool, hemp and flax that the Embrace is filled with.
Natural fillings, and three rows of stitching at the edge
The fillings are wool, hemp, flax and cotton. The wool is British and traceable to source, while Harrison Spinks grows the hemp and flax itself, on its farm. Not one of the four is foam. Natural fibres let warmth and damp escape instead of holding them against you, so the surface stays dry through the night, and in my book wool and cotton sleep cooler than any foam.
Tufts run through the mattress to keep those fillings in place, and you'll see them as neat dimples across both faces. Harrison Spinks weaves the cover in-house, from wool blended with viscose. Round the border sit three rows of hand side-stitching, one more than the Embrace has, and that stitching firms the side of the spring unit where you perch to get dressed. On a double, a firm edge is what stops the bed shrinking to a small double. Sit on it in the showroom before you buy, because the edge is the part I'd always want to judge for myself.
Worth the money, as long as you'll turn it
Harrison Spinks makes components I rate as highly as anyone's, and the price is still my sticking point. For most people a good mid-range pocket-sprung bed does most of what this one does, and Furniture Village is a pricey shop in my book. So I'd only spend this much if you'll use what makes the Splendour different. Natural fillings right through and a second face to turn onto are the two things the money buys here.
Owners are happy with theirs. One calls it "super comfy to sleep on" and "worth investing" in, and another found it "just perfect", every bit as good as the one they lay on in the showroom. That second owner bought the right way. Furniture Village lets you book an appointment to see the Pure range, so ring ahead to check the Splendour itself is on the floor before you book. Then lie on it in your own position for a full ten minutes. A showroom mostly tells you what you don't want, and at this money that's worth an afternoon.
The price moves a lot across the year, so if your old bed has a few months left in it, wait for a sale week. When it arrives, put a protector on before the first night, because Furniture Village won't take back a mattress used without one, and having one collected for a return costs you a fee. Make it a cotton or wool-faced protector. Harrison Spinks warns that a waterproof one cuts the benefit of sleeping on natural fibres and can lead to damage from condensation.
What to buy instead
If you want a firm, flat bed and the budget is the problem, look at the Hypnos Bespoke Amethyst, which costs much less at the same shop. Hypnos is a maker I rate for its build and its fair prices, and the Amethyst puts a Woolkeepers wool face over Hypnos pocket springs with nothing sewn on top. Know what you give up. There's one grade, Extra Firm, and one sleeping face, so it gets rotated but never turned over. It also mixes polywool and eOlus fibre in with the wool, where every filling in the Splendour is natural.
That makes the Amethyst the swap for someone heavier who lies on their back or front, wants firm and can live without turning. Side sleepers should leave it alone, because Extra Firm gives a shoulder nowhere to go. If you sleep on your side, stay here and order the Splendour in Medium.
