From boatbuilding to barge painting, traditional British crafts at growing risk

Skills may be lost for good due to ‘perfect storm’ of economic stresses, says heritage charity

From building wooden boats and Cornish hedges to making marionettes and painting canal barges, many traditional British crafts are under threat because of a "perfect storm" of economic stresses including the aftermath of Brexit, a heritage charity has said.

Heritage Crafts has added 17 crafts to its "red list" of endangered skills that could be lost unless the economy improves or more action is taken to protect them.

Five new crafts have appeared in the "critically endangered" category – meaning they are at serious risk of dying out in the next generation – including making straw hats, and encaustic tiles (a type of clay tile).

Also judged to be critically endangered are smithing arrows, and making musical bows and hat blocks. One craft – mouth-blown flat glassmaking – has become extinct in the UK since the publication of the last red list in 2021, according to the charity.

Mary Lewis, the organisation's endangered crafts manager, said: "The effect of the energy crisis, inflation, Covid-19 and Brexit have been tough on the craftspeople who possess our most fundamental skills. Rent costs and employee wages are rising, energy costs are crippling and materials are more expensive. It's a hard position for many to be in. We have a perfect storm of Brexit, Covid and the energy crisis."

Lewis gave the example of stained-glass window makers and restorers buying from suppliers in France and Germany whose prices have doubled, leading to the making and restoration of historic stained-glass windows being added to the red list.

The price of timber and silk used by many craftspeople has also soared.

Lewis said the energy crisis was especially hitting some crafts that require heat. "If you are running a kiln or a forge, it can be eye-wateringly expensive. Businesses that might have already only had small profit margins are being pushed to their limits."

Helen Bowkett, 51, the only female hedger in the Guild of Cornish Hedgers, said farmers were under too much pressure to hand the skill on to children. "I hedged with my dad when I was young. My favourite memories are of mending hedging with him at age seven," she said.

Bowkett said Cornish hedges were a wonderful habitat. "They become part of a network of hedges that are like motorways for lizards, butterflies and bees."

Amy Stringfellow, 33, a traditional boat builder from Falmouth, Cornwall, said it was a tragedy that these sort of skills were being lost. "There are hundreds of off-shooting, transferable skills people can move into from boatbuilding," she said.

It's not all bad news, however, as some crafts, such as brilliant cutting (carving a pattern into flat glass) and shinty stick making (for the Scottish game), have seen an upturn. Heritage Crafts puts this down partly to a newfound appreciation of the handmade and the need to support small businesses during the pandemic.

The charity wants governments to do more, arguing that while the UK has been a world leader in the preservation of tangible heritage such as monuments, it has fallen behind when it comes to the safeguarding of intangible heritage – knowledge, skills and practices.

For the 2023 edition of the lists, 62 crafts have been classified as critically endangered and 84 as endangered. More than 100 others that Heritage Crafts assessed were classed as currently viable.

This article was amended on 11 May 2023. Traditionally, British encaustic tiles are made from clay, not cement as an earlier version said.