Halyard & Croft Kite Works · est. 1931
The wind is free.
Sewing it a vessel is not.
Four generations of kite makers on Falmer Point: paper, silk, bamboo and halyard rope, sewn by hand and flown off the same grass the first one left.
The current sky
Six kites in the standing catalogue, each sewn in the workshop above the shop, each with its own opinion about weather.
The Falmer Diamond
Classic diamond · from $148
Our founding kite, drawn by Ada Croft in 1931: paper panels on a split bamboo spar, cloth halyard line, tasselled tail. Still sewn to her original paper template.
Morrigan
Stunt quad · from $340
A four-line quad named for the wind it was built to argue with. Spars of pultruded carbon, sail of 40-denier ripstop, turns inside its own wingspan.
Gullwing Six
Cellular box · from $420
Six-cell box kite in sea-glass silk. Steadies in gusts that fold lesser kites, and lifts a camera sledge to 300 feet on a clean day.
Petrel
Gentle flier · from $96
A soft-wing delta for children and calm evenings. Forgiving, slow, and nearly impossible to crash; the first kite for half the coast's families.
The Northdown Serpent
Long tail · from $265
Forty feet of hand-pennant tail behind a modest delta. Eats a whole day of steady breeze and rewards you with a river of colour over the downs.
Pilot's Kestrel
Train set · from $210
Six small kites on one line, stepping through five hues. Flies as a ladder of birds; our best-selling gift for a reason.
Learn the sky
Workshops run most Saturdays and some reckless weekday evenings. No experience needed; wind supplied free of charge.
First Flight
Half day, Saturdays · $75
Paper, cane and glue. You leave with a Petrel you sewed yourself and the scars of one honest bamboo splinter.
Silk & Spar
Two Saturdays · $240
Build a Gullwing Six cell by cell alongside one of our sergeants of the sewing floor. Includes silk, spar stock and a Sunday test flight.
Tail-Making Intensive
One evening · $45
Pennants, streamers and spinners. Bring patience; we supply the sewing machines, the thread and the tea.
Young Flyers Club
Ages 8-14, monthly · $60
Wind reading, knots, safety and a lot of running downhill. Six sessions a year, jackets awarded at the third.
Ninety-five years of string
The short version of a long history. The long version lives in the full timeline and in the museum rope store.
The works builds 400 Serpent tails for the Northdown Centenary Regatta; the river of colour is photographed from a passing steamer.
Mira Halyard-Croft opens the repair bench to other makers' kites. The rule since: no kite turned away for being badly loved.
The museum room opens in the old rope store: eighty years of paper, silk and the occasional badly misjudged launch.
Four generations on, the shop still closes on days the wind blows Force 7 or better. Staff morale has never been higher.
From the journal
2026-10-04 · Field notes
What the wind did in September
A month of gusts, one record flight, and the day the Serpent got away from us for ninety honest seconds.
2026-09-12 · Workshop
Why we still sew paper
Reed paper tears, creases and hates the rain. It also flies with a lightness nothing synthetic has matched, and we can prove it.
2026-08-21 · Workshop
The knot drawer
Twelve knots every kite flyer should own, with diagrams drawn by hand because the scanning machine keeps eating the lark's head.
Blowing Force 7 somewhere?
We close the doors and go flying. Leave a message and we'll answer when we land.