Categories of risk
Drawing on the conservation status system used by the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List and the Rare Breeds Survival Trust Watchlist, the HCA 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.
Shortcut to categories: Extinct | Critically Endangered | Endangered |
Not on the Red List: Currently viable
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.
- Barometer making NEW FOR 2021
- Basketwork furniture making
- Bell founding
- Bowed-felt hat making NEW FOR 2021
- Brilliant cutting NEW FOR 2021
- Clay pipe making
- Clog making
- Coiled straw basket making NEW FOR 2021
- Compass making NEW FOR 2021
- Copper wheel engraving NEW FOR 2021
- Currach making NEW FOR 2021
- Damask weaving
- Devon stave basket making
- Diamond cutting NEW FOR 2021
- Engine turning (guilloché)
- Fabric pleating NEW FOR 2021
- Fair Isle straw back chair making
- Fan making
- Flute making
- Fore-edge painting
- Frame knitting NEW FOR 2021
- Glass eye making NEW FOR 2021
- Hat plaiting
- Hazel basket making NEW FOR 2021
- Highlands and Islands thatching NEW FOR 2021
- Horse collar making
- Horsehair weaving NEW FOR 2021
- Industrial pottery
- Kishie basket making
- Maille making
- Metal thread making
- Millwrighting
- Mouth-blown sheet glass making NEW FOR 2021
- Oak bark tanning
- Orrery making
- Paper making (commercial handmade)
- Parchment and vellum making
- Piano making
- Plane making
- Pointe shoe making NEW FOR 2021
- Saw making
- Scissor making
- Shetland lace knitting NEW FOR 2021
- Shinty caman making
- Sieve and riddle making
- Silver spinning NEW FOR 2021
- Spade making (forged heads)
- Spinning wheel making
- Sporran making NEW FOR 2021
- Swill basket making
- Tinsmithing
- Wainwrighting
- Watch dial enamelling
- Watch making
- Withy pot making
- Wooden fishing net making NEW FOR 2021
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.
- Arrowsmithing
- Bagpipe making (Northumbrian pipes, smallpipes and bellows blown pipes)
- Bee skep making
- Block printing (wallpaper and textiles)
- Bow making (musical)
- Brass instrument making
- Brick making
- Broom making
- Brush making
- Clock making
- Coach building
- Coach trimming
- Coopering (non-spirits)
- Coppersmithing (objects)
- Coracle making
- Corn dolly making
- Cricket bat making
- Cutlery and tableware making
- Falconry furniture making
- Fender making
- Flintknapping (masonry)
- Folding knife making
- Free reed instrument making
- Gansey knitting
- Globe making
- Glove making
- Hand grinding
- Harp making
- Hat block making
- Hat making NEW FOR 2021
- Horn, antler and bone working
- Hurdle making
- Illumination
- Iron founding
- Japanning
- Keyboard instrument making
- Kilt making NEW FOR 2021
- Ladder making
- Lead working
- Letterpress printing
- Lithograpy NEW FOR 2021
- Lorinery
- Marbling
- Nalbinding
- Neon making
- Oar, mast, spar and flagpole making
- Orkney chair making
- Pargeting
- Passementerie
- Percussion instrument making
- Rake making
- Reverse glass sign painting
- Rope making
- Rush matting
- Sail making
- Scientific glassworking
- Shoe and boot last and tree making
- Shoe and boot making
- Side saddle making
- Skeined willow working NEW FOR 2021
- Slating
- Sofrut calligraphy NEW FOR 2021
- Spectacle making NEW FOR 2021
- Split cane rod making
- Straw working
- Surgical instrument making
- Sussex trug making
- Type founding and manufacture NEW FOR 2021
- Umbrella making
- Vegetable tanning
- Wheelwrighting
- Whip making
- Wooden pipe making
- Woodwind instrument making (reed instruments)
Currently viable
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. NB. A classification of ‘currently viable’ does not mean that the craft is risk-free or without issues affecting its future sustainability/viability.
Click here to see the list of currently viable crafts
