Hazel basket making

These were agricultural frame baskets made using split hazel weavers. They vary in style and technique across the UK. Whilst the tradition is associated with Wales and the borders, it is likely hazel basketry was far more widely practiced.

In North Wales, there was no special name for the hazel baskets. They were referred to according to their use e.g. basged dillad (clothes basket). There was also no particular style of basket. Individual makers used ribs, weavers and hoops creatively to produce the size, shape and style of basket they wanted.

Whiskets (Wales and borders): A whisket is a round or oval bottomed, frame basket. It was made using split hazel weavers, split hazel ribs running along its length and a hazel hoop, the hoop often constructed from two spliced half sections. The basket has two handles formed on the sides of the hoop which are often wrapped around with weavers. Whisket or wisket may have same etymology as whisk.

The last known traditional makers that we are aware of were Bob Williams (North Wales), Charlie Jones (Welsh Borders) and Dai James (Pembrokeshire).

• Sourcing suitable hazel rods at right time of year for yielding good long weavers, although evidence from traditional hazel basket making in Europe indicates hazel can be cut throughout the year for their local styles of basket.
• Selection of hazel rods that have enough growth rings (4 minimum) so that the rod can be bent to make strips without it shattering
• Dressing and preparing rods, splitting consistent hazel weavers and ribs
• Dressing weavers and ribs
• Assembly of frame basket

There are many variations of split hazel basket and they would have been made for the task in hand.

The baskets made by Dai James in Pembrokeshire were round and in their construction had a similar form to the Cyntell (welsh frame basket). The baskets found in North Wales were all made on an oval hoop made in two pieces joined by overlapping side by side. Sometimes the overlapping parts were pinned with a nail and sometimes held with fuse wire. Charlie Jones’s baskets near Hay on Wye were also on an oval hoop but the two hoop pieces overlapped one above and one below.

Some types that are being recreated today include:

• Whiskets
• Cockle baskets of the Gower Peninsular
• Penclawdd Cockle Basket
• Laugharne Cockle Basket

• Market issues: Low potential income for effort involved in processing raw materials.
• Skills issues: Baskets of this kind might have been made on upland farms or in coastal communities where required using limited availability of a raw material (hazel rods, not necessarily coppiced). This was a traditional rural Welsh craft, practiced often by farmers and fishermen for their own use, with limited opportunities for marketing. There is little written evidence of skills or techniques so knowledge and skills faded as old generations of makers died. Baskets were made to be used, so had finite life. Hazel is susceptible to woodworm so old examples are rare.
• Training issues: There have been very few training opportunities available over the past decades. However, there are now more opportunities to learn through short courses and structured tuition.

• Basketmakers Association
• National Coppice Federation 
• Association of Pole Lathe Turners and Green Wood Workers

There are a few tutors who offer regular courses in hazel basket making:

• Lewis Goldwater
• Lorna Singleton – Wood, Water, Weave course in spale basketry
• Clare Revera, Welsh Baskets
• Suze Williams
• Florence Hamer
• Rachel Evans
• Michelle Mateo

Rod Waterfield at the Woodland Skills Centre was also a key researcher in the revival of hazel basketry in North Wales and has kept hazel basket making amongst the courses delivered at the centre.

Individual craftspeople:

• Ruth Pybus & David Brown
• Lorna Singleton
• Lewis Goldwater 
• Dan Lawrence 
• Florence Hamer
• Michelle Mateo
• Ruth Denison
• David Horton
• Liz Balfour
• Dave Jackson 
• Clare Revera 
• Michael Bennett 
• Suz Williams
• Nadine Grundy
• Rachel Evans, Wheatcroft Willow
• Shannon Berry

• How to make a traditional split hazel basket with Lewis Goldwater by Zed Outdoors on YouTube
• 25 minute programme from Byd y Creftwyr, S4C 1986. First-hand evidence of hazel basketry in North Wales – film shows Evan Evans, Nant Melai Farm, Llansannan performing various rural crafts including making hazel strips and weaving a feed basket.
• The Basketmakers’ Association produced a DVD of the process of making a Welsh Smallholders Basket, with Ruth Pybus. This is available to BA members through the website: https://basketmakersassociation.org.uk/
• Hazel basket making in Romania on YouTube
• Endangered Baskets Report 

Our thanks go to our 2025 informants:

• Lewis Goldwater, Turnham Green Wood
• Ruth Pybus
• Florence Hamer
• Clare Revera, Welsh Baskets

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