HCA Red List of Endangered Crafts

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The HCA Red List of Endangered Crafts is an inventory of traditional crafts and trades practiced in the UK that are at risk of dying out in the succeeding generation. The original HCA Red List, which took two years to compile,[1] was first published by the Heritage Crafts Association in on 3 May 2017 with financial support from The Radcliffe Trust.[2] The inventory evaluated 169 crafts[3] and all are graded along the model of animal species at risk, using categories: least concern, endangered, critically endangered, near-extinct and extinct.[4]

The second edition of the Red List was published on 9 March 2019, with 212 crafts evaluated; the critically endangered list increased to 36 crafts. 102 crafts were classified as currently viable.[5][6]

Research for the third edition of the Red List began in September 2020, with financial support from the Pilgrim Trust, and was released on 24 May 2021. This edition evaluated 244 crafts and, added a further 27 skills added to the list including kilt making and sheet glass blowing.[7][8]

Red List

The HCA Red List, originally known as the Radcliffe Red List,[9] was modelled on the IUCN Red List and other such inventories, and was influenced by UNESCO's work on the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage. The United Kingdom is one of only a few countries whose intangible cultural heritage is not yet recognised by UNESCO.[10] The publication, which took two years to compile, was launched at the House of Lords[11] and was subsequently featured in various media, including BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour.[12]

It is the first report of its kind in the UK, although an earlier general analysis of the heritage craft sector and its contribution to the economy in England was undertaken in 2012 by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.[13]

The report identifies a heritage craft as “a practice which employs manual dexterity and skill and an understanding of traditional materials, design and techniques, and which has been practised for two or more successive generations”.[1] It also summarises some of the reasons for the decline of heritage crafts in the UK including the difficulties recruiting apprentices, the increased age of the artisan workforce, high prices for articles made by hand and an overall decline in demand.[1] Greta Bertram, who managed the original report, identified one of the principle aims of the report was to bring pressure upon the government to help preserve the crafts for the future, saying,[14]

“We would like to see the government recognise the importance of traditional craft skills as part of our cultural heritage, and take action to ensure they are passed on to the next generation."

Whilst heritage conservation has gained widespread popularity over the last century, preserving buildings and architecture for the future, the HCA has championed craft skills as part of British cultural heritage for similar preservation,[14] and hopes to use the Red List to inform policy decisions on where to invest future funding.[9]

The foreword to the original Red List was written by the Prince of Wales in his capacity as President of the Heritage Crafts Association, stating,[3]

“I urgently believe that we must gather more information on the crafts identified so far to ensure that no more treasured skills are lost for ever.”

The second edition of the Red List was published in March 2019 and watchmaking joined the critically endangered category, with fewer than 30 watchmakers able to commercially create a watch from scratch. It is hoped that its inclusion may encourage the UK to become a signatory of UNESCO's Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.[15]

The third edition, released in May 2021, added a further 20 crafts to the list, citing the COVID-19 lockdown in the UK as a contributing factor. Sheet glass blowing, barometer making, Scottish kilt making, Shetlands lace making and glass eye making were all added.[8]

Extinct crafts

In the 2019 and 2021 editions of the Red List, four crafts were identified as having been already lost in the UK in the preceding decade:

The last British goldbeaters, W. Habberley Meadows, and Dukes Cricket Balls of London both stopped production in the UK after being unable to recruit an apprentice, having both suffered the effects of cheaper foreign competition.[16]

The original Red List included the manufacture of riddles, a kind of sieve.[3] Following the publication of the report in 2017, however, two individuals came forward to revive the craft, one of whom persuaded the last riddle maker to train them, despite him having retired. The trainees are currently attempting to become commercially viable, thus removing the craft from the extinct category.[5]

Paper mould and deckle making was added to extinct category in the 2019 following the death of the last UK maker Ron MacDonald in 2017.[5]

Critically endangered crafts

At the time of the report's release in 2017, there were seventeen traditional crafts in the 'critically endangered' category, defined as having no trainees to continue the skills involved and as being practiced by either a very small number of artisans or produced by two or fewer companies in the UK. The list grew to 36 in 2019, and then to 56 in 2021.

Following the closure of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry (Britain's oldest manufacturing company dating from 1570), bell founding was added to the 2019 list.[17]

A week after the inclusion of sporran making in the critically endangered category of the 2021 list, the Ministry of Defence was criticised in an article in The Times for taking the decision to import military sporrans, leaving Scottish manufacturers on the brink of ruin.[18]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Handmade in Britain". The Countryman. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  2. ^ "The HCA Red List of Endangered Crafts". Heritage Crafts Association.
  3. ^ a b c Adams, Callum. "Cricket ball makers declare the end of their handcraft". The Times. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  4. ^ "Crafts in the UK: een kennismaking". Expertisecentrum voor Technisch, Wetenschappelijk en Industrieel Erfgoed. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  5. ^ a b c "The HCA Red List of Endangered Crafts 2019 edition" (PDF). HCA. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
  6. ^ "Sixteen ancient British crafts in new danger of vanishing forever, says Heritage Crafts Association". The Mail. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  7. ^ "The HCA Red List of Endangered Crafts 2021 edition" (PDF). HCA. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  8. ^ a b Morris, Steven. "Kilt-making and sheet glass-blowing added to list of UK's endangered crafts". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
  9. ^ a b Illgner, Amalia. "Raiders of the lost crafts". The Independent. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  10. ^ Williams, Rhiannon. "Meet the British endangered craft practitioners passing on their skills through Airbnb". i News. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
  11. ^ a b "Rare craft skills are on the brink of extinction…". The Guild of Master Craftsmen. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  12. ^ "Endangered Crafts". Woman's Hour. 4 May 2017. BBC Radio 4.
  13. ^ "Mapping Heritage Craft : The Economic Contribution of the Heritage Craft Sector in England". Creative & Cultural Skills. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  14. ^ a b Morris, Steven. "Hats off to craft skills – before they disappear for good". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  15. ^ a b Swithinbank, Robin. "Just How Endangered Is Watchmaking?". New York Times. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  16. ^ a b Sawer, Patrick. "Prince Charles bemoans decline of 'treasured' craft skills". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  17. ^ a b "Pearl Binder At The Whitechapel Bell Foundry". Spitalfields Life. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
  18. ^ Wade, Mike. "Sporran maker given marching orders". The Times. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  19. ^ "The Last Clog Maker in England".
  20. ^ "Pictures: Sixteen ancient British crafts in danger of disappearing forever". Dorset Echo. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  21. ^ Morris, Greg. "Sheet glass blowing added to list of UK's endangered crafts". Glass International. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  22. ^ "Craft skills under threat - including hand papermaking and mould making - PITA - Paper Industry Technical Association". www.pita.org.uk. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
  23. ^ "The UK's last vellum producer fights on after losing Parliament's business".
  24. ^ Doughty, Eleanor (22 March 2017). "Papering over tradition: the fury of Britain's last vellum maker" – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  25. ^ Wainwright, Martin (20 March 2012). "Cowsheds resound with output of first British piano maker for 78 years". The Guardian.
  26. ^ Munro, Alistair. "Shinty stick-making craft at risk of extinction". Press and Journal. Retrieved 2019-03-26.

External links

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