Heritage Crafts Awards

recognition for master craftspeople and emerging talent

Open for nominations

Established in 2012, the annual Heritage Crafts Awards are a range of awards each year which shine a spotlight on those individuals who champion heritage crafts skills and trades.

The Awards celebrate and highlight the traditional living crafts made in the UK that contribute to our national heritage, such as silversmithing, dressmaking and tailoring, upholstery, weaving, leatherworking, metalworking, stained glass, green woodworking, embroidery and similar crafts where there is a significant degree of hand skill at the point of manufacture.

This year, we are delighted to be holding the Winner’s Reception at the prestigious Goldsmiths’ Hall in London on Monday 23rd November, in partnership with the Goldsmiths’ Company.

The awards are presented in partnership with supporters the King Charles III Charitable Fund, The Royal Mint, the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation, the Goldsmiths’ Company, the Costume Society, the Marsh Charitable Trust, the Leathersellers’ Foundation, the Broderers’ Company, the Society for the Pprotection of Ancient Buildings, the British Society of Master Glass Painters, Woodsmith, House of Sonnaz, Rose Uniacke, Hiut Denim and Mourne Textiles.

We are indebted to all our partner organisations who provide funding for our unique suite of awards and bursaries specifically for traditional crafts, and who make this possible.

 

THE 2026 HERITAGE CRAFTS AWARD CATEGORIES ARE:


 

Before nominating yourself or someone else, we encourage you to take time to read through these important links:

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS – please read for useful tips

NOMINATION QUESTIONS – for your reference

Watch our Live Q&A Session on grants, awards and bursaries

 

To nominate, please click on one of the relevant Awards above.

Please note, you can nominate for multiple awards through the same form: Nominate Here

DEADLINE: 5pm, Friday 21 August

 


 

Video or audio nominations:

Alternatively, you are welcome to submit a video or audio nomination, addressing all the questions in the form – You can download the questions here. The recording ideally needs to be no more than 15 minutes in length, then emailed to Rae at [email protected].

Nominate yourself or someone else

Patron’s Award for Endangered Crafts

Patron’s Award for Endangered Crafts

£5,000
England Maker of the Year Award

England Maker of the Year Award

£1,000
Northern Ireland Maker of the Year Award

Northern Ireland Maker of the Year Award

£1,000
Scotland Maker of the Year Award

Scotland Maker of the Year Award

£1,000
Wales Maker of the Year Award

Wales Maker of the Year Award

£1,000
Precious Metalworker of the Year Award

Precious Metalworker of the Year Award

£2,000
Fashion Textile Maker of the Year Award

Fashion Textile Maker of the Year Award

£2,000
Woodworker of the Year Award

Woodworker of the Year Award

£2,000
Emerging Leatherworker of the Year Award

Emerging Leatherworker of the Year Award

£1,000
Emerging Upholsterer of the Year Award

Emerging Upholsterer of the Year Award

£1,000
Emerging Weaver of the Year Award

Emerging Weaver of the Year Award

£1,000
Emerging Green Woodworker of the Year Award

Emerging Green Woodworker of the Year Award

£1,000
Emerging Stained Glass Maker of the Year Award

Emerging Stained Glass Maker of the Year Award

£1,000
Emerging Embroiderer of the Year Award

Emerging Embroiderer of the Year Award

£1,000
Emerging Metalworker of the Year Award

Emerging Metalworker of the Year Award

£1,000
Trainer of the Year Award

Trainer of the Year Award

£1,000
Lifetime Achievement Award

Lifetime Achievement Award

£1,000
Community Catalyst of the Year Award

Community Catalyst of the Year Award

£1,000
Trainee of the Year Award

Trainee of the Year Award

£1,000
Emerging Building Craftsperson of the Year Award

Emerging Building Craftsperson of the Year Award

£1,000

Message from HM The King

“As Patron of the Heritage Crafts Association, I am delighted to endorse this new awards scheme which supports and rewards excellence in the heritage craft sector.

Crafts are such a vital part of our British heritage and I have always been passionately concerned to promote the best aspects of our country’s traditions ― and, equally importantly, to enable these highly specialised skills to be transferred from one generation to the next.

These new awards for heritage craft celebrate excellence across the sector in a variety of ways. They reward those who give so much by volunteering to support the many different crafts, those who pass on their skills, those who wish to improve their craft skills and those who continue to produce great British craft.”

Previous award winners

Owen Bushell, Millwright

Lorna Singleton – Oak swill basket maker

Nikki Laird, Kilt Maker

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Wow! As a small charity we literally do a happy dance every time someone signs up to be a member, donates and chooses to be part of our community. Welcome to all our new followers! We are overwhelmed with gratitude. 20k followers in two days is incredible. 🤯

We have worked hard over the last 16 years to build an argument to protect craft skills as living heritage and none of this would be possible without you. It is truely the community of makers that inform what we do. There’s also the fans and the supporters who are local and across the world, that enable us to continue too. We couldn’t do it without you.

For context, we made a post pretending to do a Netflix documentary, and its success shows that many of you are interested in the work that we do around the Red list of Endangered Crafts. It’s research that we undertake every two years and research for the next edition is just about to start, due to be published nearly next year. 

Stay in touch, be part of the community and once again we are so grateful you’ve chosen to follow us.

#redlistofendangeredcrafts #heritagecrafts #make #craft
Behind the scenes of the Netflix documentary trend, which that blew up. We are in awe! Thank you for following us and supporting heritage craft skills. We hope that with so many new faces around here will be able to do so much more to help Heritage Craft in the UK.

We had a person volunteering with us to help with social media and after three months, this was their last day. They suggested that we try out this new Netflix documentary trend while we were at the festival of making and next thing you know, the followers started rolling in. We hope this is a sign that everyone is starting to value craft, making and the handmade. We hope that people now know about the Red List of Endangered Crafts and that we are the authors of it. We also hope that people realise that we aren’t publicly funded which means every Membership or donation helps us to do what we need to do to support Heritage Crafters. 

Thank you for your support! We have more details on our website if you would like to get involved. 

Many thanks! The Heritage Crafts team 💖

#heritagecraft #redlistofendangeredcrafts #maker #craft #saxophone
Passing on the skills to keep the craft alive, with @heritagecrafts at the @thefestivalofmaking in Blackburn this weekend. 

Thank you to all our workshop demonstrators for being so generous with your knowledge and to everyone that came to talk to us, learn about the Red List and took part in a workshop. 

We love creating opportunities for makers to demonstrate their work and connect with others. 

Thank you to @phillgregson for your wheel spoke making, @fishbone.sycamore for your weaving sessions, @welbyandwright for the encaustic tile making and to @ernestwrightltd for making us all obsessed with your scissors. We loved meeting @vicjay_art, thank you for teaching your corn dollie craft with us. 
Anyone reading this should go give them a follow and support their work!
✂️
🧵
🪚
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#heritagecraft #endangeredcraft #redlistofendangeredcrafts #festivalofmaking blackburn
When 50k of you have decide to follow us, we must be doing something right. 

When we formed 16 years ago, we could never have imagined to have uncovered so many amazing makers doing incredible things to keep their craft skills alive. 

The first Red List was published in 2017 and every two years since then and it’s impacting the public debate more than we could ever have imagined. 

We’re about to start work on the 2027 edition - due to be published next May. We rely on makers to help us shape it so do get in touch, share our work and follow for updates. 

Thanks for being part of our community and helping to keep the skills alive. 

#heritagecrafts #redlistofendangeredcrafts #craft #netflixdocumentary
Try your hand at endangered @heritagecrafts at the @thefestivalofmaking this weekend. 

12.00pm shave a wheel spoke with Wheelwright @phillgregson 

2.30pm try hand weaving with @fishbone.sycamore 

4pm learn encaustic tile making with @welbyandwright