Hi Bev,
I'm from Scotland - I got interested in quilting fairly recently through reading some blogs and articles on the internet.
When I first started looking for fabrics, I knew there was a chain fabric shop nearby and asked there first - they only did polycotton fabric, but recommended a fabric shop in the next town - it turned out to be a shop dedicated to quilting that was only 10 minutes away from me. Since then, I've found out that quilting seems to be pretty popular in my area - there's apparently a local guild that has a huge waiting list to get in - but I honestly had no idea. It seems like quilting is more common than it first seems to be in the UK, but you've got to dig a little to find it.
If you're looking for places to buy fabric from, I've had good experience with Doughty's so far - it's a shop based in Herefordshire that does online orders also.
http://www.doughtysonline.co.uk/