Folklore: List of Endangered UK Crafts

Subject: Tech: List of Endangered UK Crafts
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 26 Oct 19 - 09:16 PM

BBC news reported this list which may be of some interest here...

https://heritagecrafts.org.uk/redlist/


"From blacksmithing to basketry, from weaving to woodturning,
we have an incredible range of heritage craft skills in the UK
and some of the best craftspeople in the world.
But many of these skills are in the hands of an ageing population.

In 2015, the Heritage Crafts Association received a grant from The Radcliffe Trust
to assess the vitality of traditional heritage crafts in the UK
and identify those crafts most at risk of disappearing."

Subject: RE: Folklore: List of Endangered UK Crafts
From: GUEST,Mike Yates
Date: 27 Oct 19 - 06:33 AM

For the past thirty odd years I have collected studio pottery. Have written about it and have curated several exhibitions. It used to be that wheel-thrown pottery making was taught throughout the country in schools, colleges and evening classes. Today this is not the case and several leading (and now elderly) potters believe that their generation may be the last to use such techniques. Efforts are being made to keep this tradition alive, but, like other traditional 'crafts' it is a struggle. Somebody once said that 'Tradition is a meteor, once extinguished it can never return' (or words to that effect). We have been lucky in this country to have had so many fine craftspeople working here. It would be a shame to see these crafts disappear.

Subject: RE: Folklore: List of Endangered UK Crafts
From: Iains
Date: 27 Oct 19 - 07:42 AM

It may be a matter of regret that traditional crafts are declining but it has been a continual process for a long time. When windmills first replaced querns automation started. With the harnessing of water to drive machinery, followed by the advent of steam power life changed at an accelerating rate.From a rural population with a few craftsmen,we now have factories and mass production. For run of the mill items automation brings economies of scale and the craftsman/woman is priced out.From the spinning shuttle, to interchangeability of parts for firearms, to mass production of the model T, the search has been to maximise production and decrease costs. Contrast with the little mestor
The village I lived in and first went to school had a working blacksmiths shop, now long gone. Today a farrier comes to you with a gas forge and anvil in the back of his van, with a sack of horseshoe blanks.While living in the same place the transition from reaper binder to combine occurred around 1952 and the monks from St Hugh's Charterhouse used to walk through the wheat prior to harvest to maintain the right of way through the field by the house.
By contrast near where I now live the Friday market has a stall selling willow baskets. Today the emphasis is on the art selling the craft. For many today the pursuit of a craft is a hobby that may or may not be remunerative.
I remember reading an article in the 'countryman' decades ago about
bodgers - they now seem totally extinct.
Sadly the crafts that require a long apprenticeship and serves a limited market seem doomed to die.
With the amount of whisky consumed cooperage seems quite safe, if limited.

Subject: RE: Folklore: List of Endangered UK Crafts
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 27 Oct 19 - 10:12 AM

I find this topic very interesting, but also very sad. I read a book some years ago on the subject of lost trades, it covered many of the trades in the article. I suppose some will be kept alive by hobbyists or perhaps a return to less damaging ways of living will revive a few of them, but I do doubt it.
   Much food for thought here, thanks for posting it PFR.

Subject: RE: Folklore: List of Endangered UK Crafts
From: Raggytash
Date: 27 Oct 19 - 12:05 PM

Wringer Out's for one armed window cleaners?

Subject: RE: Folklore: List of Endangered UK Crafts
From: GUEST,Pseudonymous
Date: 27 Oct 19 - 12:09 PM

Well since the last window cleaner I asked quoted me an arm and a leg for cleaning five windows once a month...….

Subject: RE: Folklore: List of Endangered UK Crafts
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 27 Oct 19 - 01:12 PM

Honesty and accuracy? Real mechanics?

Subject: RE: Folklore: List of Endangered UK Crafts
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 28 Oct 19 - 03:14 PM

The vanishing skills of those connected with our waterways are very much to be lamented as transporting goods by water was much more efficient and eco-friendly. Greed and the desire to get all goods from A to B in superfast time destroyed those skills. Only a small percentage of goods need transporting quickly.

Subject: RE: Folklore: List of Endangered UK Crafts
From: Penny S.
Date: 29 Oct 19 - 10:33 AM

There were evening classes in pottery near here. But the Ofsted inspector who was observing classes had no knowledge of the craft, and made the criticism that the plants on the windowsill were dusty.

Subject: RE: Folklore: List of Endangered UK Crafts
From: GUEST,Mike Yates
Date: 29 Oct 19 - 03:30 PM

Iains makes a valid point. Ceramics have certainly been changing directions for many years. Yes, there are still 'potters' working today, but there seem to be many more people who now call themselves 'ceramic artists'. This usually means that what they produce is extremely expensive to buy! (well, after all it is 'art' and not 'craft'!) And they really hate being called 'potters'

I also like Penny S's comment. I am often surprised that more potters/ceramic artists do not suffer from respiratory disease, due to all the clay dust that floats around their workshops. I know that men (and it seems to always have been men) who emptied the large bottle kilns in Stoke-on-Trent and surrounding potteries in the 19th century/early 20th century died young, with very few reaching their mid-forties.

Subject: RE: Folklore: List of Endangered UK Crafts
From: The Sandman
Date: 30 Oct 19 - 04:28 AM

Professional Folk singers

Subject: RE: Folklore: List of Endangered UK Crafts
From: Iains
Date: 30 Oct 19 - 04:39 AM

Is that professional as in a fulltime career making dosh, or professional by way of "authentic" background? or am I in the wrong thread?

Subject: RE: Folklore: List of Endangered UK Crafts
From: Megan L
Date: 30 Oct 19 - 08:40 AM

the association of pole lathe turners and greenwood workers think Bodging is alive and well, they have some excellent videos by Paul Hayden showing the basics

Subject: RE: Folklore: List of Endangered UK Crafts
From: Mr Red
Date: 01 Nov 19 - 05:05 AM

transporting goods by water was much more efficient and eco-friendly

That depends on your criteria, unfortunately. When I were a 'prentice, Hardy Spicer had a barge or two float past where I worked. A factory a few miles away made prop shafts, probably a foundry, and a machining shop 'tother side. It was reckoned they had, in the boat, a warehouse full of stuff. If things got out of sunc they could always drive to the boat and take enough off for the crisis.

But warehousing is bulk money tied up and not "earning". JIT manufacturing rules these days (Just In Time). The limitations of which we are about to find out, here in the UK, when all the worms start creeping out of the woodwork. Unintended consequences they say. Poor thinking I say. Some peeps/firms have already boosted the UK economy temporarily by hedging their bets and stockpiling (aka warehousing). But it is temporary cash flow that suffers. And money
rules! And costs!

Until the world accepts that being eco-friendly creates limitation that they are prepared to suffer - crafts will decline.
The only thing in life is change - what about death you ask - well, as changes go................