What is the Red List of Endangered Crafts and the Endangered Crafts Fund?

The Red List of Endangered Crafts is a publication by Heritage Crafts, the UK national charity for heritage craft skills, that identifies which of the country's traditional crafts are at risk of disappearing. The Endangered Crafts Fund is the charity's grant programme that distributes money to help those at-risk crafts survive. Heritage Crafts states it has distributed 95 grants through the Endangered Crafts Fund since the charity was set up.

What the Red List of Endangered Crafts does

Heritage Crafts describes itself as the national charity set up to celebrate, support and safeguard traditional craft skills, and to facilitate a national conversation about their importance now and in the future. Publishing the Red List is one of the ways it does that.

The list's purpose is to name and track crafts that are under threat, so that makers, funders, policymakers and the public can see where the risk is concentrated. Heritage Crafts says it advocates at the highest levels for crafts and publishes the Red List of Endangered Crafts as part of that work.

Which crafts count as at-risk

Heritage Crafts maintains a list of 285 UK heritage crafts, "including those deemed at-risk." So the at-risk crafts are a subset of that wider list of 285, not a separate register. The site's Skills section is where you browse the full list and see which entries carry an at-risk designation.

If you want to know whether a specific craft is considered endangered, the practical route is to go to the Skills section of heritagecrafts.org.uk and look up that craft rather than relying on a general definition.

What the Endangered Crafts Fund does

The Endangered Crafts Fund is the funding arm that follows from the Red List. Its role is to move money to the crafts identified as endangered, so that the skills and techniques passed down through generations are not lost.

According to Heritage Crafts, the fund has distributed 95 grants. That figure is the charity's own count of its grantmaking through this specific fund, and it sits alongside other support the charity provides, such as training bursaries (131 awarded, per the site) and the Heritage Crafts Awards.

How the pieces fit together

The logic is sequential: the Red List establishes which crafts need help, and the Endangered Crafts Fund is one mechanism for delivering that help.

Why this matters beyond the crafts themselves

Heritage Crafts frames its work around access and the future, not just preservation. The charity says it is passionate about ensuring everyone has access to craft skills that have developed over generations, and that it believes these skills will be vital in helping tackle future challenges — and in enjoying making as part of a fulfilled life. Its patron is His Majesty King Charles III.

That framing is worth keeping in mind when reading the Red List: the point is not only to record what is vanishing, but to argue that these skills remain useful and worth passing on.

How to use these resources

• To check if a craft is at risk: browse the Skills section on heritagecrafts.org.uk and look for the at-risk designation among the 285 listed crafts.
• To find a maker: the Makers Directory lists craftspeople, including featured makers such as a canal art decorative paint artist and a woodturner.
• To apply for funding: Heritage Crafts invites applications for its training bursaries, and the Endangered Crafts Fund is the route for grants aimed at endangered crafts specifically.
• To support the work: the charity asks for donations and offers membership and a benefactor scheme for those who want to give ongoing support.

The site notes it has awarded 33 National Honours successes and established the Heritage Crafts Awards, so if your interest is recognition rather than funding, the Awards route is the relevant one.