Heritage Crafts

Basket making

The making of baskets and basketwork items, made with one of the seven basket construction methods (looping, knotting, plaiting, coiling, weaving, twining and assembly). See also swill basket making, Devon stave basket making, chair seating, chair caning, withy pot making, bee skep making, Sussex trug making, lipwork and skeined willow work.
CURRENTLY VIABLE
Basket making
Status
Currently viable
Craft category
Basketry
Historic area of significance
UK
Area practiced currently
UK
Origin in the UK
Mesolithic
Current No. of professionals (Main income)
200-500 (see other information)
Current No. of professionals (Side income)
See other information
Current No. of trainees
Not known
Current total No. of serious amateur makers
Not known

History

Basketry is widely believed to be the oldest craft in the world, dating back ten to twelve thousand years and predating pottery. It is also the most ubiquitous, found in some form in almost every part of the world. Baskets were an everyday life essential throughout the centuries, used for containing, storing and transporting items, as well as for fishing. They were of such necessity that each village or district had local basketmaking artisans.

The Romans often used willow for the craft of basketmaking. Britain was renowned for skilled basketry, and large quantities were exported to Rome. Somerset, with wetlands suitable for willow beds, was the heart of Britain’s willow industry. Hazel and oak were also used in Britain for basketry. The Industrial Revolution heavily influenced willow production and basketmaking, creating a higher demand of willow. This lead to the plantation of over 3,000 acres in the early 1800s. By the end of the 19th Century there were hundreds of willow growers, willow merchants, basketmakers and furniture makers on the Somerset Levels and moors.

According to Lynch, “[b]askets were standardised, and the 1916 British Amalgamated Union listed precise measurements and quantities of willow for many items, including hawkers’ baskets, plate baskets, scuttles, wool skeps, and linen baskets, as well as pheasant hampers, bread trays, sieves, pickers, cycle crates, homing pigeon baskets and even bath chairs.”

Harvesting was arduous work, and once harvested, it needed to be stripped by hand until ‘the willow stripping machine’ was first used in the interwar years. The introduction of plastic in the 1950s led to a decline in the willow basket industry. Lynch reports that there are now only 300-400 acres of willow land on the Somerset Levels and Moors, and about a dozen apprentice-trained basketmakers. Little has been altered in the craft of willow weaving and basket-making, since the Iron Age. “Willow growing and basketmaking continue to play such an important role in Somerset’s rural economy, maintaining an unbroken tradition begun thousands of years ago.”

The number of basketmakers began to fall in the nineteenth century: 14,000 professional basketmakers were recorded in 1891, falling to 5,500 by the mid-1930s. It is unclear how many professional basketmakers there are today, but the numbers are thought to be around 200. Basketry suffered particularly from the availability of new materials and from new methods of storing and transporting items in industry, agriculture and domestic life.

Techniques

There are generally acknowledged to be seven construction methods in basketry: looping, knotting, plaiting, coiling, weaving, twining and assembly. These constructions methods are generally recognised as the defining characteristic of basketry. Baskets are traditionally made with plant fibres, with construction methods developing to use whatever material was to hand; other materials such as paper, plastic and metal are popular in contemporary basketry.

Sub-crafts

  • Willow sculpture
  • Willow coffin making
  • Living willow
  • Chair seating
  • Willow growing

Issues affecting the viability

In 2019, The Basketmakers’ Association, Heritage Crafts and the Worshipful Company of Basketmakers carried out additional research into Endangered Baskets in the UK, and the issues facing the basketry sector. You can download the report here.

Support organisations

  • The Basketmakers’ Association – provides a range of support for basketmakers including bursaries for skills development and Spring and Autumn Schools. The BA is currently working with the Worshipful Company of Basketmakers and Cockpit Arts to offer a Basket Makers Professional Development Programme that focusses on business sustainability.
  • The Worshipful Company of Basketmakers – provides the Walmsley Bursary and other discretionary bursaries for makers. The Company is also support the Basket Makers Professional Development Programme, see above.
  • Scottish Basketmakers Circle
  • Crafts Council
  • Arts Council
  • Makers’ Guild Wales
  • Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust – offer bursaries for individual progression.
  • Winston Churchill Memorial Fund for travelling

There are also a number of local and regional basketry groups and guilds. The Basketmakers’ Association have a list of local and international basketry groups on their website.

Craftspeople currently known

The Basketmakers’ Association has a list of makers on its website. Makers includes all those who create a diverse range of basketry using various materials, skilled chair seaters, and willow based sculptures.

Businesses that employ two or more makers:

Other information

In 2020, 248 Basketmakers’ Association members listed themselves as either accepting commissions or running a business. Some of these will be full-time and part-time professional makers.

Not all professional makers are members of the Basketmakers’ Association.

References

National Lottery Heritage Fund
Swire Charitable Trust
The Royal Mint
Pilgrim Trust
Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation
William Grant Foundation

Craft inspiration direct to your inbox

Become a Heritage Crafts Fan and receive a free monthly newsletter about craft announcements, events and opportunities.

Subscribe