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.

Cricket ball making (hand stitched)

Gold beating

Lacrosse stick making

Mould and deckle making

Mouth blown sheet glass making

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.

Arrowsmithing

Basketwork furniture making

Bell founding

Bow making (musical)

Bowed felt hat making

Chain making

Clay pipe making

Clog making

Coiled straw basket making

Copper wheel glass engraving

Coppersmithing (objects)

Currach making

Damask weaving (linen)

Devon stave basket making

Diamond cutting

Encaustic tile making

Engine turned engraving

Fabric pleating

Fair Isle straw back chair making

Fan making

Flute making (concert)

Highlands and Islands thatching

Northern Isles basket making

Orrery making

Paper making (commercial handmade)

Parchment and vellum making

Scientific & optical instrument making

Scissor making

Sieve and riddle making

Silk ribbon making

Silver spinning

Spade making (forged heads)

Spinning wheel making

Watch dial enamelling

Watch making

Whip making (horse)

Withy pot making

Wooden fishing net making

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.

Bagpipe making (Northumbrian pipes, smallpipes and bellows blown pipes)

Bee skep making

Bicycle frame making

Block printing (wallpaper and textiles)

Boat building (traditional wooden)

Brass musical instrument making

Canal art and boat painting

Clock making

Coach building

Coach trimming

Composition picture frame making

Coopering (non-spirits)

Falconry furniture making

Fender making

Flintwork (buildings)

Folding knife making

Free reed instrument making

Gauged brickwork

Glassworking (scientific glassware)

Globe making

Glove making

Graining and marbling

Historic stained glass window making

Horn, antler and bone working

Hurdle making

Illumination

Keyboard instrument making

Kilt making

Lacquerwork (japanning, coromandel and other lacquerwork)

Mechanical organ making

Nalbinding

Neon making

Oar, mast, spar and flagpole making

Orkney chair making

Pargeting, stucco & scagliola

Passementerie

Percussion instrument making

Pigment making

Rake making

Reverse glass sign painting

Rope making

Rush matting

Sail making

Sgian dubh and dirk making

Shetland lace knitting

Shinty caman making

Shoe and boot last and tree making

Shoe and boot making

Side saddle making

Silk weaving

Skeined willow working

Slate working

Spar making

Spectacle making

Split cane rod making

Straw working

Tanning (vegetable)

Type founding and manufacture

Umbrella making

Vardo art and living waggon crafts

Wheeling

Wheelwrighting

Wooden pipe making

Woodwind instrument making

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.

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