Craft skills remain under threat with 20 new additions to the Red List of Endangered Crafts

12th May 2025  |  ANNOUNCEMENTS | OUR STORIES | RED LIST NEWS

Craft skills remain under threat with 20 new additions to the Red List of Endangered Crafts

A stark warning has been issued for the future of traditional craft skills in the UK, as new research by Heritage Crafts has identified 20 more crafts at risk of vanishing from the UK, in the latest major update of its pioneering project – the Red List of Endangered Crafts – published today. The new additions join a list of 165 at-risk crafts now listed in the report.

Heritage Crafts’ research, which has been funded by The Pilgrim Trust with additional sponsorship from The Royal Mint, has found that rising operational costs, a lack of structured training, and mounting market pressures are placing unsustainable strain on crafts that depend on expert hand skills – meaning that without urgent action many of these heritage craft skills could disappear within a generation.

Silver allied trades – which incorporates precious metalworking skills such as lost wax casting, wire drawing, buffing and polishing – is a new entry to the ‘endangered’ category of the Red List. As companies within the historical centres of Birmingham and Sheffield struggle to recruit skilled workers and find their profit margins squeezed by rising costs, it becomes increasingly difficult for the ecosystem of allied trades to continue. Along with other new entries such as rigging and Welsh double cloth weaving, it increases the number of crafts in the endangered category to 93.

Cut crystal glass making, quilting in a frame and rattan furniture making are among 12 new crafts that have been added to the ‘critically endangered’ category of the Red List, meaning that they are at serious risk of dying out in the next generation. They join the list of 70 critically-endangered crafts, including glove making, which has been reclassified as being in greater danger than when the research was last updated in 2023.

Despite the mounting challenges, the news is not all bleak. Thanks to grassroots efforts, no crafts have become extinct in the UK since 2023, and some have for the first time been assigned ‘resurgent’ status. Promisingly, glassblower Elliot Walker, funded by Heritage Crafts, is working to revive mouth-blown flat glass, a craft thought lost just last year.

 

Heritage Crafts hails UK ratification of the UNESCO Convention

A major change that has come about since the last edition was published was the announcement that, following years of campaigning by Heritage Crafts and partner organisations, the Government has ratified the 2003 UNESCO Convention on the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) – one of the last countries in the world to do so.

The Convention ensures that intangible heritage (knowledge, skills and practices) is considered as being of comparable cultural and social value to tangible heritage (buildings, monuments and artefacts) – and similarly worthy of safeguarding. The Government’s consultation on how the Convention should be implemented cited the Red List as an example of good practice, and Heritage Crafts is currently working with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on implementation of a new UK inventory of ICH.

 

New ‘resurgent’ status

There is more good news, as, for the first time, the Red List includes a new ‘resurgent’ designation, focusing on those crafts that are faring better, such as hazel basket making, reverse glass sign painting and side saddle making.

In many cases this has been as a result of a new-found appreciation of the handmade and the need to support small businesses during the pandemic. In other cases it has been due to direct support from Heritage Crafts, which since the publication of the last edition of the Red List has distributed 23 more grants to help practitioners overcome the obstacles they are facing, as part of its Endangered Crafts Fund.

 

Crafts for cultural safeguarding

The Red List also includes another new designation overlaying its existing categories of endangerment. ‘Crafts for cultural safeguarding’ includes skills that might be closely related to other crafts that are practised widely across the UK, but that are endangered in the culturally-distinctive context of a defined community of practice – whether that is geographic, cultural, ethnic or religious. Examples include vernacular thatching and fairground art.

This category also includes crafts that are significant to diaspora and migrant communities, such as the Ukrainian folk arts of petrakivka and pysanky.

 

Mary Lewis, who led the research on behalf of Heritage Crafts, said:

“As we mark ten years since the launch of the Red List, it is a moment to reflect on how far we’ve come. What began as a bold and ambitious idea has grown into a respected, sector-defining resource. The evolution of our approach is allowing us to embed our Red List work within a broader representation of craft today – from the critically endangered to the resurgent, and from the locally distinctive to the globally connected.”

Sue Bowers, Director of the Pilgrim Trust, said:

“We are delighted to once again support the continuing development of the Red List which is so important in tracking the state of heritage crafts in the UK and creating the platform for discussions about how we can bring about positive change in the future.”

Daniel Carpenter, Executive Director of Heritage Crafts said:

“The Red List underscores the urgent need for greater investment and support to safeguard these skills for the next generation. Reversing this decline would represent not just the continuation of skilled trades, but also a significant boost to the UK’s cultural heritage and countless opportunities for future innovation.”

 

View the Red List

 

New crafts for 2025

New critically endangered crafts

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.

New endangered crafts

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.