Wanting a soft bed that's filled with wool rather than foam is a good place to start, and the Rodmarton Pillowtop is the plush one in Woolroom's Artisan collection. The wool company sells it direct: a deep, hand-tufted top of British wool, cashmere and cotton with tiny springs inside it, laid over natural latex, more wool and calico pocket springs. Lie down and your shoulder sinks into that top first, springy and dry, before the springs underneath push back. If you've been weighing it against the Woolroom Standen, the difference is everything above the springs: the Standen has the same 1,400 springs with its wool tufted flat on top, and no pillowtop or latex layer at all.
It's also a pillow top, and I steer most people away from those. The soft top is a separate tufted pad stitched on to the body of the mattress, and in my experience a top like that goes on softening long after the rest of the bed has settled in, on a mattress you can't flip to spread the wear. So this is a bed for a particular sleeper: a lighter side sleeper who wants to sink in and wakes hot on foam. Front sleepers should pass, and so should anyone over about eighteen stone. If you want a bed with two sides to turn between, look elsewhere.
Mini springs sit inside the stitched-on top
The top layer is what sets the Rodmarton apart from the rest of the range. There are 3,000 mini springs inside it, wrapped in the fillings and hand-tufted so everything stays where it was put, and the whole pad is stitched on to the mattress beneath. That gives it a livelier feel than a pillow top stuffed with fibre alone. Press a palm into it and the surface gives easily, then springs back as soon as you lift your hand, and when you roll over, the top rises back up behind you.
Springs in the pad don't change my mind about pillow tops: I'd rather the softness came from a flat tufted top that's part of the mattress. Credit where it's due, though: as pillow tops go, this is a carefully built one, and the fillings are the reason it's worth reading on.
British wool, cashmere and cotton are the reason to look
The Rodmarton is made from wool, cashmere, cotton, latex and springs. The cashmere and cotton sit in the pillowtop with the first of the wool; beneath it sits natural latex with more British wool, then the pocket springs, all inside a merino and viscose ticking. The wool is traceable to the farms it came from through Woolroom's own Wool ID scheme. I rate natural fillings above anything synthetic, because wool and cotton breathe and they last.
That's why the Rodmarton sleeps cool for a soft bed. There's no memory foam in the build to trap warmth around you, and latex doesn't sleep hot. The wool takes up the damp you give off overnight and lets it go again, so you wake up dry. One owner says it "does not heat up like my previous memory foam mattress", which is the first thing I'd expect anyone coming off foam to notice. The wool also meets the UK fire rules without chemical sprays, which is nice to know and no reason on its own to buy.
Soft, Regular or Firm: buy for your weight first
Woolroom sells it in Soft, Regular and Firm. Pick by weight first, then position. Lighter people and side sleepers go softer, while back sleepers and anyone of middling build go firmer. One owner of a Regular double calls it "like sleeping on a cloud", and the husband sharing it found it firmer than he likes until a feather topper went on, which he's happy with. Both fit the build. The top is soft and the bed under it is properly supportive, so expect the Regular to feel firmer than the word pillowtop suggests.
Side sleepers under about nine stone want the Soft. The Regular is the middle-weight choice for most people on their side or back, and the Firm belongs to a back sleeper of ordinary build who wants the plush top over a firmer base. If you're stuck between two grades, take the firmer one: a topper fixes "too firm", which is why that feather topper worked, but nothing fixes a top that has gone too soft.
The 1,400 calico springs underneath do the supporting
Beneath the pillowtop and latex, 1,400 pocket springs carry your weight, each one in a calico pocket, nested and tied by hand, with two rows of hand side-stitching round the border to keep the edge upright when you sit on it. Woolroom quotes both spring counts for a king and scales them to the size, so a double has fewer of each.
For a king, 1,400 full-size springs is a sensible count, and above about 1,500 I'd stop paying for extra numbers. The 3,000 minis add to the feel of the top and do little of the supporting, and I don't mind minis used that way. Hand-nesting is a lovely bit of craft, though I judge springs by what they do, and calico pockets at this count do the job.
Rodmarton or Standen? The sprung top and the latex set them apart
The two share the calico pocket springs and the three tensions, which is most of the support. The Standen has a flat, hand-tufted top and stands about 29cm deep, while the Rodmarton puts its fillings into the sprung pad, with latex beneath, and reaches 33cm. On the Standen you lie on top of the mattress. On the Rodmarton you're in it for the first few centimetres, and that sink is what the pad is for.
If soft is the whole point, buy the Rodmarton in Soft and go in knowing it's a pillow top. Heavier sleepers who want firmer support under the wool can go up the range to the Woolroom Blackwell, which builds its 2,000 calico springs in a king as two layers, under a flat tufted top.
A 33cm bed you rotate but never flip
Woolroom calls it a no-turn mattress, and the routine is to swing it round, head end to foot end, regularly for the first 12 weeks, then every three months. I'm regular as clockwork, same times every day, so a rota like that suits me. If it doesn't suit you, put the dates in your phone the day it arrives. Rotating is two-person work: a double weighs 60kg, a king 70kg and a super king 85kg, and one owner who follows the routine says "you can't do it on your own".
At 33cm it's deeper than a standard fitted sheet reaches, so buy deep-pocket sheets before it arrives. Woolroom's two-person team carries it to the room you choose, unpacks it there and takes the packaging away, but only as far as the first floor, so ask before you order for a bedroom higher up. Woolroom also asks for a soft brush on any fluff and never a vacuum cleaner.
Put it on slats no more than 7.5cm (3in) apart, since the guarantee won't cover a base with wider gaps, and read its sag clause before you need it: Woolroom covers a dip of more than 2.5cm (an inch), provided the bed hasn't been misused. The sleep trial comes with a condition of its own, too, because it only counts if you buy one of Woolroom's wool mattress protectors with the bed. Protectors and I don't get on, and covering a mattress like this is a bit like putting a cheap case on an expensive phone. Here, though, the protector is what gets you the trial, so add it to the basket.
Would I buy the Rodmarton for myself? The top rules it out for me. For a light side sleeper who loves wool and wants to sink, it's a lovely bed to pick with your eyes open, in the Soft.
What to buy instead
Buy the Woolroom Standen. It keeps the calico pocket springs and the choice of Soft, Regular and Firm, and it tufts British wool, cashmere, silk and cotton flat into the top of the mattress, so you get the natural fillings the Rodmarton is sold on without a pad stitched over them. If softness is what brought you here, order the Standen in Soft.
