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.
- Cricket ball making
- Gold beating
- Lacrosse stick making
- Mould and deckle making
- Mouth-blown sheet glass making MOVED FROM CRITICALLY ENDANGERED IN 2023
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 MOVED FROM ENDANGERED IN 2023
- Basketwork furniture making
- Bell founding
- Bow making (musical) MOVED FROM ENDANGERED IN 2023
- Bowed-felt hat making
- Chain making NEW FOR 2023
- Clay pipe making
- Clog making
- Coiled straw basket making
- Coppersmithing (objects) MOVED FROM ENDANGERED IN 2023
- Compass and navigational instrument making
- Copper wheel engraving
- Currach making
- Devon stave basket making
- Diamond cutting
- Encaustic tile making NEW FOR 2023
- Engine turned engraving
- Fabric pleating
- Fair Isle chair making
- Fan making
- Flute making (concert)
- Fore-edge painting
- Frame knitting
- Glass eye making
- Hat block making MOVED FROM ENDANGERED IN 2023
- Hat plaiting
- Hazel basket making
- Highland thatching
- Horse collar making
- Horsehair weaving
- Industrial pottery
- Linen damask weaving
- Maille making
- Metal thread making
- Millwrighting
- Northern Isles basket making
- Oak bark tanning
- Orrery making
- Paper making (commercial handmade)
- Parchment and vellum making
- Piano making
- Plane making
- Plume making NEW FOR 2023
- Pointe shoe making
- Saw making
- Scientific and optical instrument making
- Scissor making
- Sieve and riddle making
- Silk ribbon making NEW FOR 2023
- Silver spinning
- Spade making (forged heads)
- Spinning wheel making
- Sporran making
- Straw hat making NEW FOR 2023
- Sussex trug making MOVED FROM ENDANGERED IN 2023
- Swill basket making
- Tinsmithing
- Wainwrighting
- Watch face enamelling
- Watch making
- Whip making MOVED FROM ENDANGERED IN 2023
- 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 (smallpipes)
- Bee skep making
- Bicycle frame making MOVED FROM VIABLE IN 2023
- Block printing (wallpaper and textiles)
- Boat building (traditional wooden) NEW FOR 2023
- Brass instrument making
- Brick making
- Brilliant cutting MOVED FROM CRITICALLY ENDANGERED IN 2023
- Broom making
- Brush making
- Canal art and boat painting NEW FOR 2023
- Clock making
- Coach building
- Coach trimming
- Composition picture framing NEW FOR 2023
- Coopering (beer)
- Coracle making
- Corn dolly making
- Cornish hedging NEW FOR 2023
- Cricket bat making
- Falconry furniture making
- Fairground art NEW FOR 2023
- Fender making
- Flintknapping (masonry)
- Folding knife making
- Free reed instrument making
- Gauged brickwork NEW FOR 2023
- Globe making
- Glove making
- Graining and marbling NEW FOR 2023
- Hand engraving MOVED FROM VIABLE IN 2023
- Hand grinding
- Hand hewing NEW FOR 2023
- Harp making
- Hat making
- Horn, antler and bone working
- Hurdle making
- Illumination
- Keyboard instrument making
- Kilt making
- Lacquerwork (lacquer, japanning and coromandel) NEW FOR 2023
- Ladder making
- Letterpress printing
- Lithograpy
- Lorinery
- Marbling
- Marionette making NEW FOR 2023
- Mechanical organ making NEW FOR 2023
- Nalbinding
- Neon making
- Oar, mast, spar and flagpole making
- Orkney chair making
- Pargeting, scucco and scagliola
- Passementerie
- Percussion instrument making
- Pigment making NEW FOR 2023
- Rake making
- Reverse glass sign painting
- Rope making
- Rush matting
- Sail making
- Scientific glassworking
- Sgian dubh making NEW FOR 2023
- Shetland lace knitting MOVED FROM CRITICALLY ENDANGERED IN 2023
- Shinty caman making MOVED FROM CRITICALLY ENDANGERED IN 2023
- Shoe and boot last and tree making
- Shoe and boot making
- Side saddle making
- Silk weaving NEW FOR 2023
- Skeined willow working
- Slating
- Spar making NEW FOR 2023
- Spectacle making
- Split cane rod making
- Stained glass window making (historic) NEW FOR 2023
- Straw working
- Type founding and manufacture
- Umbrella making
- Vardo art and living waggon crafts NEW FOR 2023
- Vegetable tanning
- Wheeling NEW FOR 2023
- Wheelwrighting
- Wooden pipe making
- Woodwind instrument making
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
