What do arrowsmithing, coppersmithing, and straw hat-making have in common? They are three of the eleven heritage crafts that have been newly classified as “critically endangered” in the UK, meaning that those craft skills could disappear in a generation.
On May 11, a total of 146 “endangered” and “critically endangered” heritage crafts were announced, when an updated version of the 2021 “Red List of Endangered Crafts” was published. The updated list is the fourth edition published by the Heritage Crafts Association (HCA), commonly known as Heritage Crafts.
Heritage Crafts is an independent UK charity set up by craftspeople and supporters of crafts as a direct response to a perceived lack of recognition and support for traditional craftsmanship in the UK.
Preserving Heritage Crafts
An aging demographic, limited training opportunities, and low financial viability are just some of myriad reasons a craft becomes endangered. Another reason is that heritage craft businesses sometimes rely on each other. “When one business closes, or one craft becomes extinct, it can have a knock-on effect on other allied crafts,” Heritage Crafts’ endangered crafts manager Mary Lewis wrote on the Heritage Crafts website. For instance, the last known producer of mouth-blown flat glass, English Antique Glass, stopped producing it in 2022, making that craft extinct. The absence of mouth-blown flat glass makers means that the making and restoration of historic stained glass is now at risk and newly classified as an “endangered” heritage craft.Conversely, this interconnectedness has been helpful. Heritage craftspeople have been able to use their skills to stop similar crafts from being lost. For instance, metalworkers have helped preserve the craft of tinsmithing. After the 2021 red list classified tinsmithing as “critically endangered,” the Museum of Making, in Derby, held two week-long courses in tinsmithing, funded by Heritage Crafts and the Worshipful Company of Tin Plate Workers Alias Wire Workers. Some of the metalworkers who attended those courses now use tinsmithing in their businesses.
The “Red List of Endangered Crafts” highlights the rich tapestry of at-risk heritage crafts practiced in the UK in the hope that they will exist for generations to come.