Categories of risk

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’.

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

Reviving the craft of cricket ball making in the UK

Nine more grants to help save endangered crafts

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The BBC reports that Moorcroft Pottery, which stopped trading at the end of April after more than 100 years in business, has been returned to family ownership.

The company has been bought by Will Moorcroft, whose grandfather William Moorcroft built the factory on Sandbach Road in Cobridge in 1913, with support from London department store Liberty. 

Mr Moorcroft said he would like to see “as many of the staff as we can bring back” but that he was unable to guarantee all 57 workers would be able to return. He added that they were considering moving production away from the site in Burslem, moving the firm solely to the original factory on Sandbach Road.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy0jxzn8en8o.amp
Congratulations to former Heritage Crafts Patron, Dame Emma Bridgwater! 👏

#Repost @emma_bridgewater with @use.repost
・・・
We’re so proud to share that our Founder, Emma Bridgewater, is to be appointed a Dame for her services to Ceramics. A truly fitting recognition of her vision, immense creativity and years spent championing British pottery. What an honour, and so well deserved. A huge congratulations, Dame Emma! 
 
“I’m honoured and very happy about the award; what a marvellous accolade this is - for the people, and the pottery traditions of Stoke-on-Trent! I feel clear that whilst I receive it, they won it, and they so richly deserve such recognition! 

My forty years in the Potteries has been a marvellous and unlikely adventure - I feel privileged indeed to have learned about ceramics from the long suffering, resilient and excellent people of Stoke. The abandonment of our manufacturing power feels to me like a gigantic wasted opportunity whilst the unresolved trauma created in the populations of our post industrial cities stands as a running challenge to us all.” 

— Emma
#matchMAKER opportunity!

Sewing apprentice (2 places) 

Deadline: 14 July 2025

Senator International in Altham are recruiting for a Sewing Apprentice. The successful candidate will work towards completing a Level 2 Sewing Machinist apprenticeship over the duration of 18 months.

Visit #matchMAKER via the linktr.ee in our bio to find out more.

#matchMAKER is the online platform for work-based training and entry-level employment opportunities hosted by @heritagecrafts and supported by @soanebritain.
#matchMAKER opportunity!

Furniture Making Operative Apprentice 

Deadline: 16 June 2025

This is a fantastic opportunity to join the team at Collin’s Bespoke, a quality cabinetry making company, which includes designing kitchens and other interiors. Learning valuable skills from specialised craftsmen to lead on to a successful career in the carpentry industry.

For nearly 30 years, Nick Collins has been designing and making bespoke cabinetry. Collins Bespoke was borne from Nick’s passion for bespoke interiors, and is where his craftsmanship has been nurtured, refined and shared. The Collins Bespoke team is an array of skilled crafts-people, mostly trained in-house: from designing, planning and templating; to finishing, assembling and installing.

Visit #matchMAKER via the linktr.ee in our bio to find out more.

#matchMAKER is the online platform for work-based training and entry-level employment opportunities hosted by @heritagecrafts and supported by @soanebritain.