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.
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Living Legacies – 13 May 2026, 11am to 4.30pm
Leathersellers’ Hall, 7 St Helen’s Place, London EC3A 6AB
Heritage Crafts, @theleathersellers and @saddlerscompany.saddlershall are delighted to be collaborating on Living Legacies, a unique celebration of some of the UK’s most endangered craft traditions. This day-long showcase brings together master makers, heritage experts and the public to explore rare skills – from passementerie and pigment making to shoemaking and falconry furniture making.
This is a pop-in exhibition, open between 11am and 4pm, with the opportunity to hear from practising makers, and for visitors to ask questions and experience these crafts up close. At 3.30pm, Mary Lewis, Head of Craft Sustainability at Heritage Crafts, will offer insights into the state of endangered crafts today.
Discover the living heritage of the UK’s craft traditions – and the people keeping them alive.
Book for free at https://londoncraftweek.com/events/living-legacies-endangered-crafts-in-the-uk or via the linktr.ee in our bio.
📷 @jonny.shoots
Endangered Crafts Auction raising funds for Heritage Crafts’ work to safeguard at-risk craft skills
Heritage Crafts has curated this wonderful collection of items and experiences from makers featured on the Red List of Endangered Crafts using at-risk skills. The proceeds will be split between the makers themselves, ensuring they get a fair price for their work, and Heritage Crafts’ ongoing work to safeguard endangered skills.
Featuring:
• ‘Holy sheet’ sheet glass by @ewalkerglassart
• ‘Message in a bottle’ flamework glass by @redflowerglass
• Bespoke hand-sewn shoes by @carreducker
• ‘Surrender’ illuminated artwork by @sarahdavisartist
• ‘Peace Dove’ neon sculpture by @neonworkshops
• Workshop experience: encaustic tile making with @welbyandwright
• Workshop experience: hand lasting with @carreducker
• Embroidery scissors by @grace_horne_designs
• Pair of passementerie tiebacks by @jessica_light_
• Bespoke handsewn kilt by @nikki_kiltmaker
• ‘Red List – Heritage in Clay’ encaustic tile by @welbyandwright
• Handwoven silk scarf by @fishbone.sycamore
• ‘Matilda’ woven silk panel by @papilionaceouspuresilk
• Handmade pigment set by @londonpigment
• Bespoke clog commission by @simon_brock_clogs
• ‘Scissor Nomenclature’ print by @grace_horne_designs
• ‘It’s A Sin / It’s Not A Sin’ prints by @buddyollie
Thank you so much to all our contributing makers!
Bid or donate online at https://uk.givergy.com/heritagecrafts or via the linktr.ee in our bio.
Come and view the items on display at Living Legacies, part of @londoncraftweek, on Wednesday 13 May 2026, 11am to 4pm. Free booking required at https://londoncraftweek.com/events/living-legacies-endangered-crafts-in-the-uk/ or via the linktr.ee in our bio.
Auction ends Wednesday 13 May 2026, 7.30pm. Heritage Crafts is a registered Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1159208.
Join @heritagecrafts at @londoncraftweek 11 – 17th of May
From maritime crafts at the Cutty Sark @royalmuseumsgreenwich , to millinery at Heads Up: A Hat Making Symposium for Endangered Crafts with @britishhatguild , to heritage craft exhibition at the Leathersellers’ Hall, and a talk at Crafted, at @sothebys . There is something for everyone! Booking required for all events, book via the @londoncraftweek website.
You can also support a maker and help keep these skills alive by taking part in the silent auction, with a chance to win a one-of-a-kind handcrafted piece (more details to follow!)
What’s on:
Living Legacies – Exhibition at Leathersellers’ Hall
📅 13 May 2026 🕚 11:00–16:00
Heads Up: A Hat Making Symposium for Endangered Crafts
📅 16 -17 May 2026
Crafted – Sotheby’s
📅 16 May 2026
Heritage Crafts Talk – Cutty Sark (‘Tween Deck)
📅 16 May 2026 | 🕑 14:00–16:00
Come along, get inspired, and celebrate the value of heritage crafts.
#heritagecrafts #londoncraftweek #craft
Join us from Friday 12 to Sunday 14 June at our Marquee of Endangered Crafts at @craftfestival in Bovey Tracey, where we’ll be featuring demonstrations of crafts featured on the Red List of Endangered Crafts and an exciting talks programme.
Demonstrations:
• Ed Griffiths and Sarah Spicer (@dartmoorshoemakers) – shoe making
• @zoegilbertson and @sophie_scanlon (LIFLAD CIC)– flax processing
• Simon Nobs and Marcus Nobs (@sthcoaststudio) – woodgraining and marbling
• @nick_hand (Department of Small Works) – letterpress
• James Ashwell (@mottes_pots) – clay pipe making
• @stephs.midnight.flit – wagon painting
Talks: (subject to change)
Friday:
• 10.30am – Mash Bonigala (@theenglandarchive)
• 11.30pm – @amy.goodwin.signwriter (fairground artist) in conversation
• 2pm – @wheelwrightgreg and @wheelwright.sam (wheelwrights) in conversation
• 3pm – @bramblecarpentry interviews @lacebynicholas (lacemaker)
Saturday:
• 10.30am – Sarah Liscoe (sail maker) in conversation
• 11.30pm – @jamesfox283 (author of ‘Craftland’)
• 2pm – @bramblecarpentry interviews @johnwilliamson.dartmoor (Devon stave basket maker)
• 3pm – @katestrasdin (author of ‘Dressing the Queen – 200 years of Making and Monarchy’)
Sunday:
• 10.30am – @thistlemetimbers (boatbuilder) in conversation
• 11.30am – @papilionaceouspuresilk (ribbon maker) in conversation
• 2pm – @sarahvigarsart (marionette maker) – talk and performance
Book via https://heritagecrafts.org.uk/events/marquee-of-endangered-crafts/ or the linktr.ee in our bio.
Living Legacies – 13 May 2026, 11am to 4.30pm
Leathersellers’ Hall, 7 St Helen’s Place, London EC3A 6AB
Heritage Crafts, @theleathersellers and @saddlerscompany.saddlershall are delighted to be collaborating on Living Legacies, a unique celebration of some of the UK’s most endangered craft traditions. This day-long showcase brings together master makers, heritage experts and the public to explore rare skills – from passementerie and pigment making to shoemaking and falconry furniture making.
This is a pop-in exhibition, open between 11am and 4pm, with the opportunity to hear from practising makers, and for visitors to ask questions and experience these crafts up close. At 3.30pm, Mary Lewis, Head of Craft Sustainability at Heritage Crafts, will offer insights into the state of endangered crafts today.
Discover the living heritage of the UK’s craft traditions – and the people keeping them alive.
Book for free at https://londoncraftweek.com/events/living-legacies-endangered-crafts-in-the-uk or via the linktr.ee in our bio.
📸 @onurpinarphoto
Our Staying Alive exhibition in partnership with @makesouthwest is now open until 4 July at Make Southwest, Riverside Mill, Fore Street, Bovey Tracey, Devon TQ13 9AF.
This exhibition shines a light on some of the Southwest’s most endangered crafts.
Fourteen master makers share their skills, tools, and stories, showing how traditions shaped by the region’s land and sea still have relevance and beauty today. From boatbuilding and ropemaking to hedging, basketmaking and tanning, these crafts connect past and present, keeping centuries of knowledge alive in the modern world.
• Find out about visiting the exhibition
• Experience the exhibition remotely on Bloomberg Connects
• Book onto one of the events, including ‘Signwrite your own ornate letter’ with @amy.goodwin.signwriter, ‘Make a ditty bag’ with Sue Liscoe, ‘Make a flax corn dolly’ with @flax_project, and ‘Make a willow crab pot’ with @crabpotcellars
• Hear talks with some of the exhibitors at Craft Festival Bovey Tracey, 12 to 14 June 2026
• Buy an A2 poster of the exhibition map illustrated by @illustratedbyverity
https://heritagecrafts.org.uk/our-stories/staying-alive-exhibition/ or via the linktr.ee in our bio
Three years of making, heritage and creativity come together this May at @kelmscottmanor
Over the past three years, @heritagecrafts , @socantiquaries and @kelmscottmanor have hosted a successful Maker in Residence programme, inviting contemporary makers to explore living craft traditions in the former home of William Morris.
This May, work by all three Makers in Residence will be brought together in a special exhibition featuring ceramicist @alisonproctorceramics , illuminator @sarahdavisartist and basket maker @sarah_le_breton, showcasing how traditional skills can be preserved, reimagined and kept alive through contemporary practice.
📍Exhibition opens Friday 1 May and runs throughout May
Join us for a conversation with the makers on Friday 1 May
See live demonstrations on Saturday 2 May
From sprig moulding and illumination to basketry, this exhibition celebrates the enduring relevance of heritage crafts and the ways they continue to evolve.
Make sure to visit Kelmscott this month.
#HeritageCrafts #WilliamMorris #MakerInResidence #LivingHeritage CraftExhibition
Crafted at Sotheby’s panel discussion – 16 May 2026, 10.30am to 11.30am
The Future of Craft – How do we keep vital skills alive?
From stonemasonry and weaving to glassblowing and basketry, many traditional crafts are under threat. This conversation explores what these skills still offer, why they matter, and how innovation, technology and new models of support might help sustain them, reimagine them and carry them into the future.
Panellists include Daniel Carpenter @heritagecrafts, Lucy Brown @hugoburgefoundation, Louis Elton @nationofartisans and James Haldane @sothebys.
https://heritagecrafts.org.uk/events/crafted-at-sothebys/
