Craft status
The Heritage Crafts Red List
Drawing on the conservation status system used by the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List and the Rare Breeds Survival Trust Watchlist, Heritage Crafts uses a system of four categories of risk to assess the viability of heritage crafts. A heritage craft is considered to be viable if there are sufficient craftspeople to transmit the craft skills to the next generation.
Extinct in the UK
Crafts classified as ‘extirpated’ or ‘locally extinct’ are those which are no longer practised in the UK. For the purposes of this research, this category only includes crafts which have become extinct in the past generation.
Critically Endangered
Crafts classified as ‘critically endangered’ are those at serious risk of no longer being practised in the UK. They may include crafts with a shrinking base of craftspeople, crafts with limited training opportunities, crafts with low financial viability, or crafts where there is no mechanism to pass on the skills and knowledge.
Endangered
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.
Currently Viable Crafts
Crafts classified as ‘currently viable’ are those which are in a healthy state and have sufficient craftspeople to transmit the craft skills to the next generation. They may include crafts with a large market share, widely popular crafts, or crafts with a strong local presence. A classification of ‘currently viable’ does not mean that the craft is risk-free or without issues affecting its future sustainability/viability.
Heritage Crafts Inventory
The 2025 edition of the Red List of Endangered Crafts marks a significant evolution in how we understand and safeguard traditional crafts.
This year, we introduce the Heritage Craft Inventory – a new, inclusive framework that ensures all heritage crafts, regardless of their current status, have a place where they are recognised and valued under one umbrella. This expanded approach allows us to shine a light not only on endangered and critically endangered crafts, but also on those that are resurgent, culturally distinctive, or rooted in specific communities and regions. It reflects the dynamic landscape of craft today – one that is constantly evolving and shaped by both challenges and opportunities.
Culturally distinctive crafts
Crafts designated as ‘culturally distinctive’ might have a broad uptake across the UK, but hold a particular significance for a defined community of practice, whether that is geographic, cultural, ethnic or religious. Those that are also on the Red List are known as ‘crafts in need of cultural safeguarding’.
- Canal art and boat painting (craft for cultural safeguarding)
- Cornish hedging (craft for cultural safeguarding)
- Fair Isle Knitting
- Fair Isle straw back chair making (craft for cultural safeguarding)
- Fairground art (craft for cultural safeguarding)
- Gansey knitting
- Harris tweed weaving
- Islamic calligraphy
- Northern Isles basket making (craft for cultural safeguarding)
- Orkney chair making (craft for cultural safeguarding)
- Petrakivka (craft for cultural safeguarding)
- Pysanky (craft for cultural safeguarding)
- Sgian dubh and dirk making (craft for cultural safeguarding)
- Shetland lace knitting
- Shinty caman making
- Sofrut calligraphy
- Sporran making (craft for cultural safeguarding)
- Thatching (Irish vernacular) (craft for cultural safeguarding)
- Thatching (Scottish vernacular) (craft for cultural safeguarding)
- Thatching (Welsh vernacular) (craft for cultural safeguarding)
- Vardo and living wagon crafts (craft for cultural safeguarding)
- Welsh double cloth weaving (craft for cultural safeguarding)
Resurgent crafts
Crafts designated as ‘resurgent’ are currently experiencing a positive trajectory as a result of an upswing in new entrants. Just because a craft is considered resurgent does not mean that it cannot also be endangered, but rather that its decline has started to reverse and that its situation is likely to continue improving.
Latest Red List stories
Craft skills remain under threat with 20 new additions to the Red List of Endangered Crafts
Nine more grants to help save endangered crafts
Craft skills under threat with 17 additions to the Red List of Endangered Crafts
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Have you been watching this series of BBC Repair Shop on the Road? Presented by Heritage Crafts Ambassador @williamkirkrestoration along with @dominicchinea and the rest of the team (including Heritage Crafts Trustee and scissor maker Jonathan Reid), the series has featured Heritage Crafts members @fantheglorywithtori, @buddyollie, @juliegurrwillowweaver, @themarchmontworkshop, @dockyard.chatham and more!
Catch up on BBC iPlayer.
Are you (or is someone you know) the future of heritage crafts? The Heritage Crafts Trainee of the Year Award, supported by @marshawards, is now open for nominations!
Traditional skills only survive if we have dedicated people willing to learn them. Whatever craft you are learning, we want to celebrate your journey.
🔍 Who can be nominated?
Nominees could be on a formal apprenticeship scheme, a less formal traineeship, an institution-based course with a high degree of practical training, or even be pursuing ‘portfolio-style’ training comprising of short-courses and workshops, as long as training has formed a significant part of at least twelve months prior to applying.
🏆 The Prize
The winner will receive a £1,000 prize and will be celebrated at a high-profile Winners’ Reception in November 2026. Plus, we will award a Trainer of the Year Award for the best craft teacher, also currently open for nominations.
📅 Deadline: Friday 21 August 2026 (at 5pm)
➡️ Nominate someone (or yourself) today via the linktr.ee in our bio or directly at https://heritagecrafts.org.uk/our-awards/trainee-of-the-year/. Let’s make sure these vital skills continue to inspire and thrive! 🧶🏺🔨
📷 2025 winner @ash.appadu with trainer @buddyollie
#heritagecrafts #crafttraining #crafttrainee #craftapprentice #craftskills
We are delighted to be official supporters of the British Cræft Prize, a new national award led by @nationofartisans.
Offering a total fund of £60,000, the prize invites maverick engineers, makers, technologists and designers to innovate products and processes that fuse the deep wisdom of heritage craft with cutting-edge technology. In tune with our mission at Heritage Crafts, the prize exists `not to preserve ashes, but to light a new fire`. By combining traditional knowledge with emerging technology, it aims to reassert British identity and innovation through a new mode of AI – Artisanal Intelligence.
The term ’cræft’ is an Anglo-Saxon word revived by Heritage Crafts Ambassador Dr Alex Langlands in his 2018 book of the same name. It represents more than just the manual skill required to make an object – it is the deep know-how gained through intimate familiarity with our material environment, a resourcefulness that gives us the confidence to face unknown future challenges head on.
For more details visit https://www.nationofartisans.com/prize or via the linktr.ee in our bio.
#matchMAKER opportunity!
Timber Frame Site Crew
Location: Hereford
Deadline: 20 June 2026
As part of the Site Crew at Oakwrights, you’ll be hands-on in bringing exceptional timber buildings to life on sites across the UK. Working in small, highly-skilled teams, you’ll help erect beautiful green oak frames alongside modern softwood timber frame systems, including its award winning, pre-insulated panel systems.
You’ll travel to a mix of local and national sites, working closely with your foreman and teammates to assemble structures safely, accurately and efficiently. Every day is practical and varied, reading drawings, setting out, lifting and fixing structural elements, and solving challenges as they arise. You’ll take real pride in delivering high-quality workmanship that reflects Oakwrights’ reputation for excellence.
This role suits people who enjoy working outdoors, value teamwork, and are motivated to keep learning. For the right candidates, Oakwrights offer trainee opportunities, with training and support to help you grow within the team.
Find out more including how to apply at https://heritagecrafts.org.uk/matchmaker.
#matchMAKER is the online platform for work-based training and entry-level employment opportunities hosted by @heritagecrafts and supported by @soanebritain.
Green woodworking is one of our most ancient and sustainable traditions, and we are looking for the next generation of talent to lead it into the future. Nominations are now OPEN for our new Emerging Green Woodworker of the Year Award supported by @woodsmith_uk! 🪓🌳🪵
This new award celebrates those in the first five years of their professional practice who are breathing new life into freshly cut wood, be that bodging and chair making, pole lathe turning, bowl and spoon carving, timber framing, hurdle making, shingle making, split wood basketry… or others.
We are looking for early-career practitioners who demonstrate a high level of skill and a dedication to sharing their craft. We want to recognise those who have made an outstanding start to their career, perhaps overcoming setbacks along the way to ensure long-term success.
There is a £1,000 prize for the winner to be presented at a high-profile Winners’ Reception in November. Plus, we are also running similar awards in crafts, such as building crafts, with additional prizes of £1,000 provided by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings and others.
📅 Deadline: Friday 21 August 2026 (at 5pm)
➡️ Nominate someone (or yourself) today via the linktr.ee in our bio or directly at https://heritagecrafts.org.uk/our-awards/emerging-green-woodworker-of-the-year-award/
📷 2025 England Maker of the Year finalist Flo Hamer @flohamer
#heritagecrafts #greenwoodworking #spooncarving #polelathe #timberframing
This week’s #craftfocus is sgian dubh and dirk making.
A sgian dubh is a ceremonial knife typically worn with full Scottish highland dress. The name means ‘black knife’ or ‘black dagger’. There are differences in opinion on the origins of this name; it could be because of the black wood used in the handle, or it could refer to its original use as a concealed weapon.
Sgian dubhs are worn as part of Scottish national dress, while horn sgian dubhs would have been worn during the day as a working knife. Dirks are long bladed daggers that are now a symbolic traditional and ceremonial weapon worn by officers, pipers and drummers of Scottish Highland regiments.
Techniques include bladesmithing, scabbard making and hilt making. The most highly-prized knives have hand-carved ebony, bog wood (hence black knives), antler or bone hilts, sterling silver fittings and may have pommels set with precious or semi-precious stones.
Sgian dubh and dirk making is classified as endangered on our Red List of Endangered Crafts. Threats to the craft include the fact that many sgian dubh are now made overseas for the mass market and are significantly cheaper than the handmade knives. Plastic components are now often used in the mass production of knives and, again, are significantly cheaper than handmade versions.
https://heritagecrafts.org.uk/craft/sgian-dubh-and-dirk-making/
Images: Frederick Alexander Graham @haywardandstott
#heritagecrafts #craftfocus #sgiandubhmaking #dirkmaking
🏴 Wales is home to an incredible wealth of traditional skills. We are thrilled to announce that nominations are now OPEN for the Wales Maker of the Year Award 2026 supported by @hiutdenim.
We want to recognise a heritage craftsperson in Wales who has made an outstanding contribution in the past 12 months. Whether you’ve pushed your craft to new heights or worked tirelessly to promote its survival, we want to champion the simple, humble and essential skills that define our communities.
There is a £1,000 prize for the winner to be presented at a high-profile Winners’ Reception in November. Plus, one winner from the four UK nations will have their prize topped up to £2,000, supported by the Marsh Charitable Trust.
📅 Deadline: Friday 21 August 2026 (at 5pm)
➡️ Nominate someone (or yourself) today via the linktr.ee in our bio or directly at https://heritagecrafts.org.uk/our-awards/wales-maker-of-the-year-award/
📷 @raunihigson MBE
#heritagecrafts #craftskills #walesmaker #madeinwales #traditionalskills
#matchMAKER opportunity!
Apprentice Sewing Machinist
Location: Manchester
Deadline: 27 May 2026
From hotels to guest houses, holiday lets to student accommodation, chalets to cruise ships, restaurants, spas, palaces, private jets and super yachts, Richard Haworth Ltd has been supplying a wide range of linens for over 140 years.
The company is currently seeking an Apprentice Sewing Machinist with good communication skills, punctuality and a strong work ethic. This is an 18 month apprenticeship leading to a Sewing Machinist (level 2) qualification.
The role will involve:
• Learning different sewing techniques using an industrial sewing machine, such as flat sewing, overlocking etc.
• Following instructions on a manufacturing specification
• Conducting quality checks throughout the production process
• Maintaining machinery
Find out more including how to apply at https://heritagecrafts.org.uk/matchmaker.
#matchMAKER is the online platform for work-based training and entry-level employment opportunities hosted by @heritagecrafts and supported by @soanebritain.
