Traditional skills at risk of dying out, says craft group

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/dec/30/traditional-skills-endangered-heritage-craft

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Skills such as weaving, forging and soldering are in danger of being lost as demand for them falls in the digital age, the Heritage Crafts Association has warned.

It said some traditional crafts were now “in the hands of an ageing population” and at risk of fading away in the next five years.

The group listed nine of Britain’s most endangered professions, including the crafting of traditional wooden beer barrels and the manufacture of denim. It said there was one master cooper and one denim-maker left in the UK, as well as one clog-maker and two scissor-makers.

Owen Jones, the last full-time craftsperson of oak swill baskets in Britain, first learned his trade in 1988. “I learned from one of the last swillers, a man called John Barker, who had served his time since his internship in the 1930s in the swill shops in Furness,” he said. “He recognised the skill was becoming extinct and so was keen to pass it on.

The oak baskets, which are woven around a hazel rim, are very traditional to the Furness Fells in South Cumbria and have been around since at least the sixteenth century.

“I do feel proud to have taken this on and kept it alive” Jones added. “I did feel this was a real responsibility so I have now taught two people, who do it in a small, part-time way, so it’s not quite as endangered as it would have been five years ago. It is still very important.”

Pat Reynolds, co-coordinator at the Heritage Crafts Association, said centuries-old crafts would die out unless younger people made a concerted effort to learn them.

“We have an incredible range of craft skills in the UK and some of the best craftspeople in the world,” she said. “These skills will only survive if they live in each generation. They provide a link to our roots, and they are part of our shared heritage.”

The association has launched a photography competition to celebrate the work of practitioners of traditional British crafts. The winning entries will be announced and displayed during London Craft Week in May.

The future is not bleak for all UK craft industries: there has been a boom in craft breweries, with many small breweries experiencing a doubling in sales over the past two years as both national and international as demand has grown for locally and independently made beers.