Most people who climb this far up the Wentworth Mercer range want something traditional, and I mean that as a compliment: a firm, tufted mattress with wool and cotton inside that you can flip over every few months. The Premium Naturals 8000 is built for exactly that buyer, and it's the first of the range's Premium rungs. Wentworth Mercer is a Mattress Online own-brand, and I like it for a simple reason: you pay for the build, not a famous name. Lie down and you're on this one more than in it. The quilted wool surface gives a little under your shoulder and feels springy and dry, and then a firm layer of full-height springs stops you.
Slow down at the name. Of the 8,000 springs, 1,000 are full-height pocket springs doing the supporting, and the other 7,000 are minis, layered thinly under the fillings on both faces. That one fact sets it apart from its neighbours. The Natural Pocket 2000 lower down the range is Firm and turnable too, with twice the full-height springs in a single layer and no wool. The Premium Silk 11000 above it sits on the same 1,000 springs with more minis and a softer grade.
It suits back and front sleepers of average weight who want natural fillings and a flat, firm surface, and anyone who wakes up hot on foam and fancies springs with wool round them. If you're a light side sleeper, avoid it. Under about nine stone, a Firm is a board at the shoulder, and a quilted top won't change that. Over about eighteen stone on your back, you want more than 1,000 full-height springs under you, so you belong on the Natural Pocket 2000.
It's a good build. The wool and cotton, the two sleeping faces and a longer guarantee than the Natural Pocket rungs get are all things I'd want in a mattress. The springs are where the money goes thin, and most people after a firm bed they can turn should buy the Natural Pocket 2000 or a Hypnos.
The 8000 is 1,000 full-height springs and 7,000 minis
Count the 1,000 when you weigh up support. Those are the full-height springs, each sewn into its own fabric pocket, and they carry your weight from your shoulders down to your heels. The 7,000 minis are small pocket springs in thin layers on both faces. They put some bounce into the surface and a little give under a hip, and that's a fair job for a mini.
A thousand full-height springs is on the light side for me, so ask for the wire gauge if you carry some weight. On a mid-price bed that's fine, because they're still pocket springs and they still do a good job. At this end of the range I want more under me. I don't dislike minis, and on a modest step up they're a fair way to liven a surface.
What I dislike is a price that jumps on the back of a count padded out with them, and that's the story here. Move up from the Natural Pocket 2000 to this bed and the full-height springs halve, while the price climbs far more than the wool explains. I'll credit these fillings all day long. I won't let a count that's seven-eighths minis talk you into the price.
Firm, with a quilted wool top that gives a little
Mattress Online grades it Firm, and the build agrees. Tufting pins the fillings flat, so there's no soft pad to sink into. You lie on a dense, springy layer of wool and polycotton, the minis give a touch beneath it, and then the full-height springs push back. It was graded Medium to Firm until mid-2024 with the same springs and fillings, which tells you the top takes the edge off a plain Firm. Buy it as a Firm all the same.
Weight first, then position. On your back at around average weight, your hips and shoulders stay level and you get the flat support a back sleeper wants. Front sleepers stay level through the middle, so the lower back doesn't dip. On your side, your shoulder presses into the quilting and stops early, and if that's how you spend most nights, a Medium will treat you better. The Deluxe Wool 3000 is the Wentworth Mercer I'd send most people to anyway: one full layer of 3,000 springs under wool, graded Medium.
If somebody told you a firm mattress is what a bad back needs, don't buy on that advice. The idea that firmer is kinder to your back is the most expensive misunderstanding I know of in mattress shopping, and medium-firm is where I start almost anyone. Choose Firm because you like lying on top of a bed, and for no other reason.
Wool and cotton on both faces, and it turns over
Both faces are quilted and tufted over wool and cotton with some silk, plus soft white polyester fibres. The cotton is a polycotton blend, so "Naturals" means natural fibres in the mix, not all the way through. The wool is the part worth paying for. Wool and cotton fillings sleep cooler than foam and last well, and with springs underneath and air vents set into the side panels, air gets through the middle of the mattress. I throw the duvet back for an hour in the morning, which is the bit of housekeeping I mostly manage, and on a wool-filled bed that lets the night's moisture out of the fillings. If you wake up hot on a foam bed, put this kind of build on your list.
Turnable is better, and I'll keep saying it. A mattress you can flip shares its wear between two faces and, to my mind, lasts longer for it. This one has handles stitched into the border to help. Flip it and turn it end to end every few months, because it's the one bit of mattress care that pays off over years and hardly anyone bothers with it.
Mattress Online describes it as handcrafted in the UK. I file that under romance, since machines make good mattresses too, and this one stands or falls on its wool and its springs.
At 32cm deep, sort the sheets before it arrives
At 32cm (about 12.6 inches), it's deeper than a standard fitted sheet is cut for, and ordinary sheets ride up and pop off the corners, so buy deep-pocket ones before it arrives. The extra depth over the 29cm Wentworth Mercers is the mini-spring layers and the wool, which I'd much sooner have than the cheap foam that bulks out most deep mattresses. The extra height lifts the whole bed on its frame as well, so make sure your feet still reach the floor when you perch on the side.
Butterfly springs and a rod frame run round the border to firm up the edge. That counts for a lot on a double, where a soft edge makes the bed feel a size smaller. The cheaper Natural Pocket rungs get two rows of side-stitching round theirs and this one doesn't, which is an odd thing to lose on the way up. Sitting on the edge for a few minutes is how I'd judge it, so try one in a Mattress Online store if there's one close by.
The guarantee runs longer than any Natural Pocket rung's, and I like that. A guarantee only pays out on the dip it covers, though, so ask Mattress Online what depth of sag counts as a fault before you lean on it. Get the feel wrong and you can exchange it under the 100-Night Comfort Trial, provided Mattress Online's protector went into the same order, so add one when you check out.
What to buy instead
For a firm bed you can turn, buy the Natural Pocket 2000. It costs far less, it's the same Firm grade, and it puts 2,000 full-height springs in one layer under cotton and soft fibres, with side-stitching round the border. You give up the wool and the extra depth. You get twice the springs carrying your weight.
If wool is the reason you came, the Hypnos Marlow Ortho Deluxe at the same shop is the one I'd buy. It's Firm and turnable, with wool and cotton over 1,200 full-height springs and no minis, a hand side-stitched border and a longer guarantee again. Hypnos builds a mattress properly and charges fairly for it, to my mind. Ignore the "Ortho", which on a label just means firm.
Inside the range, the Deluxe Wool 4000 is the Firm wool bed on one full layer of springs, with two rows of hand side-stitching. Keep the Premium Naturals 8000 for a back sleeper who wants wool and a long guarantee on a firm, turnable bed, and who is happy to pay for 7,000 minis to have them.
