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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SubscribeDr James Fox inspired a room full of craft festival visitors with his words on makers, crafters, heritage and creative industries.
James Ashwell is a clay pipe maker from @mottes_pots and he shared a few stories about his world of making.
Day 1 of Heritage Crafts at @craftfestival was a huge success!
Thank you to our speakers:
@theenglandarchive
@dartmoorshoemakers
@wheelwrightgreg @wheelwright.sam @maryeluned_craft
@bramblecarpentry and @lacebynicholas
Thank you to our demonstrators
@devongrowsflax
@dartmoorshoemakers
@theletterpresscollective
@mottes_pots
@stephs.midnight.flit
@sthcoaststudio
Day 2 has started and we look forward to seeing you!
Talking about handmade custom shoes and being inspired by the local landscape, @dartmoorshoemakers share their practice with us.
Kicking off @craftfestival with the @theenglandarchive.
We have a series of talks today – come along and join us in the Marquee if Endangered crafts.
Over 20 posts we are profiling the recipients of our recent round of training bursaries.
Libbie Watson @lwatson_design, from Kent, began her leathercraft journey in 2017 as a creative outlet during a period of long-term illness. Her bursary will fund a series of structured training modules, including a five-day pattern-cutting course at @handsoftym and ten days of one-to-one bag-making tuition at @the_london_leather_workshop.
Libbie’s bursary is supported by @theleathersellers.
Libbie said: “I’m delighted to have been awarded a Heritage Crafts bursary funded by The Worshipful Company of Leathersellers. Securing this funding is a meaningful step in my journey as a largely self‑taught leatherworker. It allows me to invest in specialist training I wouldn’t ordinarily have access to, while connecting me to a wider craft community full of support, encouragement, connections and new opportunities.
“This recognition means a great deal and will help me continue developing my practice with the confidence and knowledge to build a sustainable heritage craft business while keeping traditional skills alive. I can’t wait to get started and I’m excited to see where this opportunity takes me.”
📷 @mistereb
Over 20 posts we are profiling the recipients of our recent round of training bursaries.
Theo de Búrca @deburcastonework, from County Down, is a self-employed stonemason and contractor for the National Trust and the Mourne Heritage Trust who transitioned from upland conservation into full-time stonework in 2022. His bursary will fund the first two residential modules of a Professional Development Diploma in Building Conservation at @westdeancollege in Sussex.
Theo’s bursary is supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund as part of the All Ireland Heritage Skills Programme.
Theo said: “This funding will start me on the journey to complete the Professional Development Diploma in Historic Building Conservation and Repair. As a self-taught conservation stonemason, this will help me network and and gain skills I would not have the chance to learn on my own job sites.”
Over 20 posts we are profiling the recipients of our recent round of training bursaries.
Katy Warriner @warriner.leather, from Devon, is a mid-career leatherworker who has spent a decade working as a leather prop maker for the film and television industry. Her bursary will fund intensive one-to-one training with specialist makers John Macdonald and Francis Roche @windsor_and_henley_bridles, allowing her to pivot to the endangered disciplines of traditional collar making, wooden tree construction and fine harness work.
Katy’s bursary is supported by the @saddlerscompany.saddlershall.
Katy said: “Heritage crafts are not just about keeping traditions alive; they are about mastering skills that keep our hands working, our minds alive and our communities connected. None of us work alone. Harness makers rely on the tanners, the blacksmiths, the loriners, the coppicers, the carriage drivers, the tool makers – we are all interwoven, intertwined and interdependent within a living chain of knowledge, materials, wisdom and tradition. This support allows me to become part of that living chain of craft and contribute to the future of British leatherwork and harness making.”
Mark Romain MBE, from the Saddlery Training Centre, said: “Katy Warriner has attended courses regularly at my centre since around 2020 achieving several City&Guilds qualifications in bridle, saddle and harness making. Since completing her training with me, Katy has developed a passion for harness making. She is extremely driven and has achieved a high level of skill and knowledge and is in a good position to work and learn from two of the best harness makers in the UK. I know that Katy will make the very best of this unique opportunity.”
📷 @paulreadphoto
