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.
Extinct
Crafts classified as ‘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.
- Basketwork furniture making NEW FOR 2019
- Bell founding
- Clay pipe making
- Clog making (hand-carved soles)
- Damask weaving NEW FOR 2019
- Devon maund making
- Fair Isle straw backed chair making NEW FOR 2019
- Fan making
- Flute making
- Fore edge painting
- Hat plaiting NEW FOR 2019
- Horse collar making
- Kishie basket making NEW FOR 2019
- Maille making NEW FOR 2019
- Metal thread making
- Millwrighting NEW FOR 2019
- Oak bark tanning
- Orrery making NEW FOR 2019
- Paper making (commercial) NEW FOR 2019
- Parchment and vellum making
- Piano making
- Plane making
- Pottery (industrial) NEW FOR 2019
- Reverse glass sign painting NEW FOR 2019
- Saw making
- Scissor making
- Shinty caman making NEW FOR 2019
- Sieve and riddle making
- Spade making (forged heads)
- Spinning wheel making NEW FOR 2019
- Swill basket making
- Tanning (oak bark)
- Tinsmithing
- Wainwrighting NEW FOR 2019
- Watch dial enamelling NEW FOR 2019
- Watchmaking
- Withy pot making NEW FOR 2019
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
- Bee skep making NEW FOR 2019
- Bicycle making
- Brass instrument making
- Brick making
- Broom making
- Brush making
- Carpet and rug tufting NEW FOR 2019
- Chair caning
- Chair seating
- Clock making
- Clog making
- Coach building
- Coopering (non-spirits)
- Coppersmithing (objects)
- Coracle making
- Corn dolly making NEW FOR 2019
- Cricket bat making
- Cutlery making and tableware NEW FOR 2019
- Engine turning
- Falconry furniture making NEW FOR 2019
- Flintknapping (masonry)
- Folding knife making
- Free reed instrument making NEW FOR 2019
- Gansey knitting NEW FOR 2019
- Gilding
- Globe making
- Glove making
- Hand grinding
- Harp making
- Hat block making
- Horn, antler and bone working
- Hurdle making
- Illumination
- Iron founding
- Japanning
- Keyboard instrument making
- Ladder making
- Lead working
- Letter cutting
- Letterpress NEW FOR 2019
- Marbling
- Nalbinding NEW FOR 2019
- Neon bending NEW FOR 2019
- Northumbrian pipe making NEW FOR 2019
- Oar, mast, spar and flagpole making
- Pargeting
- Passementerie
- Percussion instrument making
- Pole lathe bowl turning
- Rake making
- Rush matting NEW FOR 2019
- Sail making
- Scientific glassworking
- Shoe and boot last and tree making NEW FOR 2019
- Side saddle making NEW FOR 2019
- Slating
- Smocking NEW FOR 2019
- South Downs trug making
- Split cane rod making
- Straw working NEW FOR 2019
- Stringed instrument making
- Surgical instrument making NEW FOR 2019
- Sussex trug making
- Tile making (wall and floor tiles)
- Umbrella making NEW FOR 2019
- Vegetable tanning
- Wallpaper making
- Wheelwrighting
- Whip making NEW FOR 2019
- Wooden pipe making NEW FOR 2019
- 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
Data deficient
Crafts classified as ‘data deficient’ are those for which there is insufficient data to make a status classification. They may include crafts for which information has not been provided, popular crafts for which there is no centralised knowledge base, or crafts which are very local and information is hard to come by.
