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EnglishHow to Explore Heritage Crafts and Makers on heritagecrafts.org.uk
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Heritage Crafts is the national charity for heritage craft skills in the UK, and its website is built around three browsable collections: a Makers Directory of craftspeople, a list of 285 UK heritage crafts (including those deemed at-risk), and a Stories section with news and maker profiles. You can reach all three from the homepage, and none of them require an account to browse. The site is most useful if you want to find a specific maker, check whether a particular craft is listed or at risk, or read current news such as training bursary announcements.
Start from the homepage
The homepage is organised around a short set of entry points rather than a deep menu. The main routes into the content you're looking for are:
- The Makers – "Discover the craftspeople on our Makers Directory"
- The Skills – "Browse our list of 285 UK heritage crafts, including those deemed at-risk"
- Latest stories – news items and features, with a "View all Stories" link
- Featured makers – a rotating selection of profiles, with a "View all makers" link
If you only want to browse rather than search, the "View all" links are the fastest way in. If you already know what you're looking for, go straight to the Makers Directory or the skills list.
Finding craftspeople in the Makers Directory
The Makers Directory is the section for locating individual craftspeople. The homepage surfaces a few of them under "Featured makers" — the examples shown there are a Canal Art decorative paint artist and a woodturner (Michael Sinclair RPT) — and the "View all makers" link takes you to the full directory.
Use it when you want to:
- Identify who practises a specific heritage craft
- See the range of crafts represented by named makers
- Move from a craft you're interested in to the people actually working in it
A practical approach is to start from the skills list if you have a craft in mind, then cross over to the directory to find makers associated with it. If you're browsing without a target, the featured makers on the homepage are a reasonable starting sample before you commit to the full list.
Browsing the list of 285 UK heritage crafts
The skills section is the reference layer of the site: a list of 285 UK heritage crafts, explicitly including those deemed at-risk. This is the page to use when your question is "is this craft recognised, and is it endangered?" rather than "who makes it?"
Two things are worth knowing before you use it:
- The at-risk designation matters. Heritage Crafts separately publishes the Red List of Endangered Crafts, and the skills list flags crafts deemed at-risk. If you're researching endangerment specifically, treat the Red List as the authoritative source and the skills list as the broader inventory.
- 285 is a snapshot, not a fixed number. The charity describes the list as its current count, so expect it to be updated over time rather than treated as permanent.
Reading stories and keeping up with news
The "Latest stories" block on the homepage carries current items, with a "View all Stories" link for the full archive. Examples of the kind of content published there include:
- A five-day Ceramic Painting Masterclass with Lee Price at Duchess China 1888
- An announcement that 35 new training bursaries were awarded
- A 2027 Calendar Photography Competition
This section is where organisational news (bursaries, awards, competitions) sits alongside craft-specific features. If you're tracking opportunities rather than browsing crafts, this is the section to check first.
Related sections worth knowing about
Beyond browsing, the site provides routes into the charity's programmes. These aren't directories, but they're the natural next step if browsing turns into wanting to take part:
| Section | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Training bursaries | Applying for a Heritage Crafts training bursary |
| Awards | Nominating someone for the Heritage Crafts Awards |
| Membership | Joining the craft community as a Member |
| Benefactor scheme | An additional level of support for the charity's work |
| Donations | Making a one-off or ongoing donation |
The charity's stated track record gives a sense of scale: it has distributed 95 grants through the Endangered Crafts Fund, awarded 131 training bursaries, and recorded 33 National Honours successes. Its Patron is His Majesty King Charles III.
A quick route for each goal
- Find a maker: homepage → "View all makers" (Makers Directory)
- Check a craft or its risk status: homepage → "Browse our list of 285 UK heritage crafts"
- Read news or opportunities: homepage → "Latest stories" → "View all Stories"
- Get involved: use the Training bursaries, Awards, Membership or Benefactor links
One caveat on cost and access: the site mentions subscribing and offers membership and donation options, but the pages summarised here don't state prices or whether any content sits behind a login. Treat browsing the directories and stories as open unless you find otherwise on the specific page you land on.