HCA Red List of Endangered Crafts

The HCA Red List, originally known as the Radcliffe Red List,[7] 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.[8] The publication, which took two years to compile, was launched at the House of Lords[9] and was subsequently featured in various media, including BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour.[10]

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.[11]

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,[12]

“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,[12] and hopes to use the Red List to inform policy decisions on where to invest future funding.[7]

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.[13]

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

• goldbeating,
• the making of cricket balls,
• traditional lacrosse stick manufacturing, and
• paper mould and deckle making, a form of specialised papermaking.

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.[14]

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]

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. Following the closure of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry (Britain's oldest manufacturing company dating from 1570), bell founding was added to the 2019 list,[15] one of 36 critically endangered crafts:

• basketwork furniture making
• bell founding[15]
• clay pipe making
• clog making with hand-carved soles[16]
• damask weaving
• Devon maund making
• fan making
• Fair Isle straw backed chair making
• flute making[17]
• fore-edge painting
• hat plaiting
• horse collar making
• kishie basket making
• maille making
• metal thread making[9]
• millwrighting
• oak bark tanning
• orrery making
• paper making (commercial handmade)[18]
• parchment and vellum making[19][20]
• piano making[21][14]
• plane making
• pottery (industrial)
• reverse glass sign painting[22]
• saw making
• scissor making
• shinty caman making[23]
• sieve and riddle making
• spade making (forged heads)
• spinning wheel making
• swill basket making
• tinsmithing
• wainwrighting
• watch face enamelling
• watchmaking[13]
• withy pot making

• Craft Northern Ireland
• Living Human Treasure
• Rural crafts

• HCA Red List of Endangered Crafts
• The Radcliffe Trust