A new report has warned that several traditional crafts in the UK are at a risk of becoming extinct.
Research by the Heritage Crafts charity, external has resulted in 17 new additions to a so-called “red list” of endangered skills in the UK.
This includes straw hat weaving, lacquerwork, building wooden boats, and the making of musical bows.
It cited a range of factors including high energy prices, cheaper overseas production and dwindling interest.
At least five traditional crafts are believed to have disappeared from British shores over the last 15 years.
Those listed as “extinct” are the production of hand-stitched cricket balls, lacrosse sticks, handmade paper production – known as mould and deckle – harking back to the 18th Century and gold beating which suffered due to cheaper imports mostly from China.
Mouth-blown flat glass-making is the latest to be categorised as extinct, according to the third edition of the report released on Thursday.
A heritage craft is defined as “a practice which employs manual dexterity and skill at the point of production, an understanding of traditional materials, design and techniques, and which has been practised for two or more successive generations”.
