Why Britain’s clog-makers are endangered... and our sieve-makers are extinct

TRADITIONAL crafts such as making clogs and paper-marbling are at risk of dying out, a body backed by Prince Charles says.

And the Heritage Crafts Association warned that four crafts – making cricket balls and lacrosse sticks, gold-beating, and sieve-making – had become extinct over the past ten years.

The association, of which Charles is president, compiled a list of Britain’s ‘critically endangered’ crafts in a bid to save them from extinction.

Some 17 are listed on the basis that they have only a handful of practitioners and few have any trainees.

These include making saws, hat blocks, horse collars, pianos, as well as paper-marbling.

However, those who are keeping the crafts alive have long waiting lists because there is still a demand for their specialised skills. Sawmaker Shane Skelton, 38, who set up his business in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, three years ago with wife Jacqueline, has customers as far afield as New Zealand and the US.

It takes two-and-a-half days to make each saw using methods from 250 years ago, and their waiting list is nine months.

Victoria Hall, 54, works out of a workshop near Fakenham in Norfolk, where she replicates historical marbled papers required by experts for restoration purposes.

They are made by floating watercolours on a slightly viscous liquid prepared from a type of seaweed, then laying the paper on it to transfer the design.

She said: ‘The antiquarian books that are in circulation need repairs done and there are also people who like things with the look of that period.’

Horse collar-maker Kate Hetherington, 38, has perfected her craft over 21 years. The most advanced piece of technology in her workshop in Dulverton, Somerset is a sewing machine from the 1800s.

She said: ‘To get the collar the exact size and shape to fit a horse is quite an art. My first collar took me a week to make although I have got that down to two days. You have to invest a lot of time and money into perfecting the craft.’

The Heritage Crafts Association examined 169 crafts to find those at greatest risk of disappearing, looking at the number of craftsmen and trainees, their average age and how likely the skills were to be passed on.