Endangered Specialisms

We may be fascinated by the current round of TV programming which seems to have steered away from all things culinary and towards crafting, renovating, restoration and re-purposing. 

There is a disturbing precedent where cookery is concerned in that we may love to watch others doing it but yet we remain unenthusiastic about actually doing it in our own homes. 

Unfortunately the list, below, of already extinct, endangered and at risk traditional heritage crafts suggests that it may already be too late. 

The decline in some sectors has been steady over decades and even centuries as demand, tastes and manufacturing processes have changed. 

However, the blame for allowing these skills to diminish is a collective one amongst us from a long term failure to perpetuate a system of apprenticeships and in our consumerist and throw-away society where there is no place or indeed appetite for beautiful, individual things. 

Other factors, specific to certain activities include a shrinking core number of craftsmen and women and low financial viability. The role played by part timers and devotees of a particular craft should not be overlooked.

That is not to say that specialists are no longer required as there will always be a need from museums, galleries and collections to maintain their existing exhibits and works of art. 

The following crafts are considered to be extinct, in that they are no longer practiced in the UK.

Cricket ball making     Gold beating    Lacrosse stick making      Mould and deckle making

The next category is for crafts and skills that are critically endangered. 

• Basketwork furniture making NEW FOR 2019
• Bell founding
• Clay pipe making
• Clog making (hand-carved soles)
• Damask weaving NEW FOR 2019
• Devon stave basket making
• Fair Isle straw backed chair making NEW FOR 2019
• Fan making
• Flute making
• Fore edge painting- (putting images on the end of book pages)
• Hat plaiting NEW FOR 2019
• Horse collar making
• Kishie basket making NEW FOR 2019 (oat straw basket to fetch peat)
• Maille making NEW FOR 2019
• Metal thread making
• Millwrighting NEW FOR 2019
• Oak bark tanning
• Orrery making NEW FOR 2019 (mechanical solar system for training purposes)
• Paper making (commercial) NEW FOR 2019
• Parchment and vellum making
• Piano making
• Plane making
• Pottery (industrial) NEW FOR 2019
• Reverse glass sign painting NEW FOR 2019
• Saw making
• Scissor making
• Shinty caman making NEW FOR 2019
• Sieve and riddle making
• Spade making (forged heads)
• Spinning wheel making NEW FOR 2019
• Swill basket making (used on coal steamships and industrial processes)
• Tanning (oak bark)
• Tinsmithing
• Wainwrighting NEW FOR 2019
• Watch dial enamelling NEW FOR 2019
• Watchmaking
• Withy pot making NEW FOR 2019 (willow pots for crabs and lobsters)

Crafts classified as ‘endangered’ are those which currently have sufficient craftspeople to transmit the craft skills to the next generation, but for which there are serious concerns about their ongoing viability. This may include crafts with a shrinking market share, an ageing demographic or crafts with a declining number of practitioners.

• Arrowsmithing
• Bee skep making NEW FOR 2019
• Bicycle making
• Brass instrument making
• Brick making
• Broom making
• Brush making
• Carpet and rug tufting NEW FOR 2019
• Chair caning
• Chair seating
• Clock making
• Clog making
• Coach building
• Coopering (non-spirits)
• Coppersmithing (objects)
• Coracle making
• Corn dolly making NEW FOR 2019
• Cricket bat making
• Cutlery making and tableware NEW FOR 2019
• Engine turning
• Falconry furniture making NEW FOR 2019
• Flintknapping (masonry)
• Folding knife making
• Free reed instrument making NEW FOR 2019
• Gansey knitting NEW FOR 2019
• Gilding
• Globe making
• Glove making
• Hand grinding
• Harp making
• Hat block making
• Horn, antler and bone working
• Hurdle making
• Illumination
• Iron founding
• Japanning (European imitation of Asian lacquer work)
• Keyboard instrument making
• Ladder making
• Lead working
• Letter cutting
• Letterpress NEW FOR 2019
• Marbling
• Nalbinding NEW FOR 2019 (Textiles made with a single needle)
• Neon bending NEW FOR 2019
• Northumbrian pipe making NEW FOR 2019
• Oar, mast, spar and flagpole making
• Pargeting
• Passementerie (making of tassels and fringes for decoration)
• Percussion instrument making
• Pole lathe bowl turning
• Rake making
• Rush matting NEW FOR 2019
• Sail making
• Scientific glassworking
• Shoe and boot last and tree making NEW FOR 2019
• Side saddle making NEW FOR 2019
• Slating
• Smocking NEW FOR 2019
• Split cane rod making
• Straw working NEW FOR 2019
• Surgical instrument making NEW FOR 2019
• Sussex trug making
• Tile making (wall and floor tiles)
• Umbrella making NEW FOR 2019
• Vegetable tanning
• Wallpaper making
• Wheelwrighting
• Whip making NEW FOR 2019
• Wooden pipe making NEW FOR 2019
• Woodwind instrument making

 Source; The Heritage Crafts Association