Heritage Crafts and the Sussex Heritage Trust announced that they are working in partnership to provide Sussex-based applicants with grants of up to £2,000 ($2,500) to help save endangered crafts such as brick making, masonry flint knapping and hurdle making from extinction.
In 2021 Heritage Crafts published the third edition of its groundbreaking Red List of Endangered Crafts, the first research of its kind to rank the UK’s traditional crafts by the likelihood that they will survive into the next generation. The report assessed 244 crafts to ascertain those which are at greatest risk of disappearing, of which four were classified as extinct, 74 as ‘endangered’ and a further 56 as ‘critically endangered’.
Recently, Sussex-based Deborah Bowness completed one-to-one training with a wallpaper conservationist to learn traditional wallpaper making techniques. This was funded through the Endangered Crafts Fund which offers ring-fenced grants to Sussex-based practitioners of endangered crafts listed on the Red list.
There is a maximum of £2,000 available for each project and Heritage Crafts will work with applicants to develop and support their work. Projects could include training to learn a new craft or technique for the applicant or their apprentice, specialist equipment that will enable them to continue practising a craft or add a new product to their business, materials and equipment to start running workshops, or other innovative approaches to supporting and promoting endangered crafts.
