News
MBEs for three heritage craftspeople in the Birthday Honours
Plaster worker Geoffrey Preston, basket maker Hilary Burns, and coppice worker Rebecca Oaks have been awarded MBEs in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2021, in recognition of their unparalleled craftsmanship and tireless work in ensuring their skills are passed on to current and future generations.
Craft skills under threat with 27 additions to the HCA Red List of Endangered Crafts
New research by the Heritage Crafts Association has unearthed more traditional craft skills on the verge of extinction in the UK, in the latest major update of its pioneering project, the HCA Red List of Endangered Crafts, funded by the Pilgrim Trust.
read moreNine new grants awarded to help save endangered crafts from extinction
A chair seater, a concertina maker and a brick and tile maker are among the recipients of the latest round of grants awarded to help safeguard some of the UK’s most endangered craft skills.
President’s Award for Endangered Crafts
The second President's Award for Endangered Crafts, established by Heritage Crafts Association President HRH The Prince of Wales, is at the judging stage. Each year the President’s Award presents £3,000 to a heritage craftsperson who will use the funding to ensure...
read moreHCA receives Ruskin Society Award
The Heritage Crafts Association has been recognised by the Ruskin Society with a special award for its contribution to supporting and safeguarding heritage crafts during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Watch our past online events
Throughout the COVID-19 lockdown we have been running a series of free online events on Zoom. Here you can re-watch the recordings for some of the previous events. Click here for details of our forthcoming events. Katharina Pieper in Conversation – 27 May 2021 ...
read moreMBE for Buckinghamshire straw worker Veronica Main
Veronica Main from Hazelmere in Buckinghamshire has been awarded an MBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours, in recognition of a lifetime spent researching, practicing and teaching the craft of straw plaiting for the hat industry.
Luton hatmaking facing crisis with the closure of ‘Peaky Blinders’ company
Traditional British hat making skills have suffered a major hit with the announcement of the closure of historic firm Olney Headwear Ltd, makers of the iconic Peaky Blinders hats. On Monday 21 December the company left its factory to make way for housing developers to build 31 apartments.
Let the bells ring out for Christmas!
The last operating bellfoundry in Britain has been saved just in time for Christmas, thanks to £3.45m from the National Lottery. As well as to protect the site, our aim is to make the Loughborough Bellfoundry the global centre for the art of bell making and learning and provide an engaging and exciting visitor experience.
read moreEndangered Crafts Fund for Sussex
We are working in partnership with the Sussex Heritage Trust to provide Sussex-based applicants with grants of up to £2,000 to help save endangered crafts from extinction. The Trust has recently received funding from the Ian M Foulerton Trust, alongside other donations, to fund the Sussex-based grants, which will be administered through our Endangered Crafts Fund.
Red List 2021 support from the Pilgrim Trust
We are pleased to announce a new six-month research project funded by the Pilgrim Trust, which will provide a major update and expansion of our groundbreaking Red List of Endangered Crafts, first published in 2017.
Winners of the 2020 Heritage Crafts Awards
Sheffield scissor makers Ernest Wright have won the inaugural President’s Award for Endangered Crafts in this year’s Heritage Crafts Awards. The prestigious award, and £3,000 bursary, was initiated by Heritage Crafts Association (HCA) President HRH The Prince of Wales.
Five new grants awarded to help save endangered crafts from extinction
A coppersmith, a withy pot maker and a disappearing fore-edge painter are among the recipients of the latest round of grants awarded to help safeguard some of the UK’s most endangered craft skills.
Bookbinding Apprenticeship Scheme to close due to COVID-19
The Queen’s Bindery Apprenticeship Scheme will close in October, three years earlier than planned. Led by the Royal Collection Trust, the scheme had aimed to train six apprentices in the specialist techniques of traditional bookbinding. With all full time courses now...
read morePresident’s Award for Endangered Crafts finalists announced
A scissor maker (pictured with his team), a paper maker and an industrial ceramics practitioner have been selected as the three finalists from a shortlist of eight, as part of the inaugural President’s Award for Endangered Crafts.
Shortlists for the 2020 Heritage Crafts Awards
The first round of judging for this year’s Heritage Crafts Awards, in association with the Marsh Christian Trust, has taken place and we are delighted to announce the 12 entries that have been selected as finalists.
COVID-19 grants
We are offering grants of up to £500 for craftspeople operating as sole traders and small businesses to invest in something that will help make their business more sustainable during and after the COVID-19 pandemic or to ‘bridge the gap’ until future income can be secured.
Eight more grants awarded to help save endangered crafts
An apprentice sail maker, boot tree maker and folding knife maker are among the recipients of the latest round of grants awarded to help safeguard some of the UK’s most endangered craft skills.
HCA joins forces with the Michelangelo Foundation to bring the Red List to Europe
The Heritage Crafts Association is delighted to announce a partnership with the Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship to bring the HCA Red List of Endangered Crafts to a European level.
Trainee sought to help secure the endangered craft of boot tree making
Horace Batten Bootmakers in Northamptonshire is currently seeking a trainee boot tree maker to help secure the future of its business, whilst at the same time safeguarding an endangered craft skill.
Metal thread making business for sale
The Golden Threads workshop in East Sussex, one of only two remaining UK producers of metal threads for embroidery, is currently up for sale as a going concern, as owners William and Diana Kentish Barnes plan to retire.
Three MBEs awarded to heritage craftspeople
Three of the best heritage craftspeople from across the UK have been awarded MBEs in the New Year Honours List 2020, in recognition of their unparalleled craftsmanship and tireless work in ensuring their skills are passed on to current and future generations.
HCA and Allchurches Trust working together to save endangered heritage crafts
The Heritage Crafts Association (HCA) is delighted to announce that it has received a grant of £12,000 from Allchurches Trust to help save endangered heritage crafts from extinction. The Allchurches Trust project will be administered through the HCA’s Endangered Crafts Fund.
Millwright training opportunity
Millwrighting has been identified by the Red List of Endangered Crafts as a critically endangered skill. As a result, SPAB is inviting applications for one place on its Craft Fellowship scheme from a craftsperson in any relevant trade who has an interest in mills, and in using and extending their skills to repair and maintain them.
Five grants awarded to help save endangered crafts
A new mobile facility to teach neon bending and the restoration of one of the last surviving damask looms are among the projects that have recently received funds to help ensure a better future for some of the UK’s most endangered crafts.
Siân represents the UK in Uzbekistan
Coppersmith and HCA member Siân Evans represented the UK heritage crafts sector at the first International Handicrafters Festival in Uzbekistan in September.
The Prince’s Foundation and QEST launch building arts programme
QEST and The Prince’s Foundation have launched the Building Arts Programme, focused on the core belief that our built environmental is a collaboration between a vast array of different disciplines which are all fundamentally linked. Intended for students of...
read moreFlutemaking trainee sought to avert craft extinction
The Heritage Crafts Association (HCA) has set out to save British flutemaking by seeking potential trainees interested in learning this intricate and highly-skilled craft from a retiring master.
New fund inundated with proposals to save endangered crafts
The Heritage Crafts Association (HCA), which earlier this year published the latest edition of its groundbreaking Red List of Endangered Crafts, has been overwhelmed with high-quality applications to its new Endangered Crafts Fund, launched on 1 July 2019.
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Tinsmithing, currach making and letterpress on first register of Irish intangible heritage
The Irish Government have registered their first list of 30 cultural practices as part of their commitment to the 2003 UNESCO Convention on the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, including traditional crafts such as tinsmithing, currach making, lacemaking, embroidery and basketmaking.
read moreApply to the Endangered Crafts Fund
We are inviting craft practitioners and organisations to apply for small grants to fund projects that support and promote endangered crafts (as featured in the Red List of Endangered Crafts).
Winners of the 2019 Heritage Crafts Awards
Handmade paper maker James Patterson has been named Maker of the Year in this year’s Heritage Crafts Awards. Maker of the Year was one of six awards presented at the Heritage Crafts Association’s (HCA) annual conference at Cecil Sharp House, London on 9th March.
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Craft skills under threat with 37 additions to the Red List of Endangered Crafts
New research by the Heritage Crafts Association has unearthed dozens more traditional craft skills on the verge of extinction in the UK, in the first major update of its pioneering project, the Red List of Endangered Crafts launched on Saturday 9 March.
read moreHCA teams up with AirBnB Experiences
We have linked up with AirBnB Experiences, to offer a range of heritage crafts experiences from tassel making to building your own cart wheel.
World-renowned photographer Rankin captures heritage craftspeople
As part of our link-up with AirBnB Experiences, world renowned photographer Rankin has captured craftspeople featured on the HCA Red List of Endangered Crafts.
read moreResearch project aims to shine light on the plight of endangered crafts
The Heritage Crafts Association is pleased to announce a new six-month research project that will provide a major update and expansion of its groundbreaking Red List of Endangered Crafts, first published in 2017.
Are you the HCA’s next Maker of the Year?
Nominations open on 1st September 2018 for Maker of the Year, one of five prestigious awards awarded annually by the Heritage Crafts Association in recognition of people working in traditional skills. Craftspeople can also apply for, or be nominated for, HCA/Marsh...
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Gilding the Gingerbread
View the film trailer Two fortunate trainees, Ellen Wood and Tony Hassett, learned the traditional craft skills of gilding on the Cutty Sark ship in Greenwich on 6th and 7th August. Master craftswoman Rachael Linton demonstrated the skills and explained the processes...
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Two trainee craftspeople needed
Are you a stone mason, letter cutter, wood carver etc? Would you like to be taught how to gild using gold leaf by a master craftsperson? The Heritage Crafts Association has an opportunity for two people to learn the endangered craft for free in Greenwich, south...
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A fabulous exhibition of works at Manchester Craft and Design Centre
Endangered Crafts, which was based on the HCA’s Red List, culminated in a fabulous exhibition of works at Manchester Craft and Design Centre in May. Over 150 students from across the School participated in the project, with selected works exhibited as part of the School of Art’s Unit X Festival.
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Freelance project manager sought for Gilding DVD project
With the generous assistance of The Goldsmiths’ Company, and in association with the National Maritime Museum’s ‘Gilding the Gingerbread’ project, the Heritage Crafts Association wish to contract a freelance project manager to oversee the creation of a documentary film about gilding.
read moreCraftspeople sought for new BBC Two series
BBC Two is making a new history series about British industry and craft, filming summer 2018, and is looking for skilled craftspeople to take part.
Winners of the 2018 Heritage Crafts Awards
Basket maker Hilary Burns has been named Maker of the Year in the 2018 Heritage Crafts Awards. Hilary won the award in recognition of her work on numerous projects that have put British basket making and heritage crafts at the centre of public consciousness.
Making It! The HCA and QEST at the Worshipful Company of Carpenters
Craftspeople from the Heritage Crafts Association and QEST demonstrated an array of skills with opportunities for visitors to join in at the Carpenters’ Company on 9 May 2018.
read moreProfessor May Cassar becomes Patron of the HCA
Professor May Cassar has recently accepted The Heritage Crafts Association’s invitation to become a Patron. Professor Cassar joins an existing group of Patrons who support the HCA and its fundraising and campaigning work through their individual public profile.
Once in a lifetime opportunity to become the next in a historic line of chair makers
An amazing opportunity has come up for two people to learn from one of the country’s top traditional craftspeople and carry forward an important traditional craft.
Endangered Crafts project with Manchester School of Art
The Heritage Crafts Association is delighted to be working with Manchester School of Art on its forthcoming project, Endangered Crafts. Over the next nine weeks, students from across the Faculty of Art and Design are being challenged to respond to the HCA Red List of Endangered Crafts.
HCA project participant Zoe set for a career in papermaking
When we set out on our Ernest Cook Trust funded Countryside Crafts Pre-apprenticeship project last year our main aim was to trial low-risk opportunities for heritage crafts businesses and young people to come together to explore the possibility of apprenticeship-style training…
New £23.5k round of awards and bursaries launched
We are delighted to be partnering with the Marsh Christian Trust, The Arts Society and the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust to offer a suite of awards and bursaries to celebrate and highlight traditional living crafts.
Traineeship offered in one of UK’s critically endangered crafts
The Heritage Crafts Association is delighted to report that one of the seventeen critically endangered crafts identified in the Radcliffe Red List for Endangered Crafts is looking for a new trainee. William Cowley Ltd., maker of high quality parchment and vellum, is looking for an additional employee to ensure that craft skills which have been passed down through the generations are continued into the future.
Extended deadline! The Cockpit Arts / The Arts Society Award 2017
Extended deadline: 17 July 2017, 10am
This annual award from Cockpit Arts is supported by The Arts Society and supports a maker practicing a traditional craft that requires skills at risk of dying out. On offer is one year’s sponsored workshop space at one of Cockpit’s creative business incubators. Since 2012, the Award has been organised in conjunction with the HCA.
Honours for heritage craftspeople
Heritage crafts have received royal recognition and high honour with three craftspeople – Wim Visscher, Felicity Irons and John Lord – included in The Queen’s Birthday Honours Lists this year.
QEST/HCA Apprenticeship now open for applications
Deadline: 3 August 2017
The Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) Heritage Crafts Association Apprenticeship provides funding to enable Apprentices to learn craft skills within companies and from master craftsmen and to support employers to take on Apprentices and nurture a new generation of craftspeople.
Heritage Crafts Awards winners 2017 announced
The last remaining professional fore-edge painter Martin Frost has been awarded Maker of the Year by the Heritage Crafts Association at its Textures of Craft conference on 6 May 2017. Fore-edge painting is one of the seventeen critically endangered crafts identified by the HCA.
Rare craft skills on the brink of extinction new research shows
New research by the Heritage Crafts Association and supported by The Radcliffe Trust has found many traditional craft skills in the UK to be hanging on by a thread.
Prestigious Churchill Fellowships awarded to the heritage craft sector
The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust has just awarded eight Travelling Fellowships to people dedicated to working in the traditional crafts, including the woodworking crafts such as joinery, cabinet and furniture making.
We are recruiting new trustees!
We are looking for trustees with experience of fundraising, PR and external communications (including social media), membership development (including Customer Relationship Management) and HR to join our passionate board.
read moreAdopt a Potter launches Clay College Stoke Crowdfunder
The Adopt a Potter charitable trust has launched a Crowdfunder to raise £20,000 towards the £200,000 total needed to open Clay College Stoke, a not-for-profit, independent training college set up by potters for the new generation of students.
read moreHCA welcomes new Trustee
New Ernest Cook funded project
The HCA has been awarded a grant from the Ernest Cook Trust to pilot a new programme of pre-apprenticeships in countryside crafts in West Somerset.
read moreTwo new craftspeople honoured
We are delighted that two members nominated by the HCA have been recognised in the New Years honours list.
read moreThe Radcliffe Red List of crafts in jeopardy in the UK
The Radcliffe Red List of crafts in jeopardy in the UK – kindly funded by the Radcliffe Trust – is a strategic project which will provide essential decision-making information to all those concerned to increase the sustainability of crafts.
read moreShoemaker and paper marbler win awards
The Cockpit Arts/NADFAS/HCA Award provides a year’s free workshop space at Cockpit Arts, as well as dedicated business support and training, to a craftsperson whose work contributes to the continuation of heritage craft skills.
read moreBalfour of Burleigh Tercentenary Prizes
The wonderful Radcliffe Trust are celebrating their tercentenary this year and have decided to mark this by creating the Balfour of Burleigh Prizes for Exceptional Achievement in Crafts.
read moreHCA Furniture Village Photography Competition
The Heritage Crafts Association in association with Furniture Village has launched its first ever Photography Competition to highlight the wide variety of crafts and makers in the UK.
read moreSave our Skills Appeal
Until the 1960’s many wooden ladders were made in the UK, one of the largest makers being John Ward and Son Ladder Makers, where Stanley learnt his craft.
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