heritagecrafts.org.uk

Heritage Crafts is the UK's national charity for heritage craft skills. It exists to celebrate, support and safeguard traditional crafts, and to push for a national conversation about why those skills matter — both now and for future generations. If you want to understand who is defending endangered UK crafts, where to find working craftspeople, or how to get training support, this is the organisation to know.

What the charity actually does

Its stated mission is to ensure everyone has access to craft skills developed over generations, which it sees as vital to tackling future challenges and to living a fulfilled life through making. In practice that mission shows up as four things:

• Advocacy — making the case for heritage crafts at the highest levels.
• Research and publishing — most visibly the Red List of Endangered Crafts.
• Funding and training — grants and bursaries for makers.
• Recognition — awards and honours that spotlight skilled craftspeople.

The charity is relatively young: it was set up about fifteen years ago and has grown into a national voice. Its Patron is His Majesty King Charles III.

The programmes worth knowing about

The Red List of Endangered Crafts

A published list assessing which UK crafts are at risk. It is the reference point the charity uses to argue for protection, and it underpins much of its advocacy work.

The Skills list

A browsable list of 285 UK heritage crafts, including those deemed at-risk. Useful if you want to check whether a particular craft is recognised as part of the UK's heritage craft landscape.

Training bursaries

Heritage Crafts runs a bursary scheme that makers can apply for. The charity reports having awarded 131 training bursaries to date, and has announced 35 new training bursaries in its latest news. If you are trying to fund training in a traditional craft, this is the scheme to look at first.

The Endangered Crafts Fund

A grant programme for crafts under threat. The charity states it has distributed 95 grants through this fund.

The Makers Directory

A directory of craftspeople, so you can find and support working makers directly. Featured profiles have included a canal art decorative paint artist and a woodturner.

Heritage Crafts Awards

An awards scheme open to nominations, used to recognise people contributing to heritage crafts.

Who it is for

How to get involved

• Apply for a training bursary if you need support to learn a heritage craft — check the current application details on the site before preparing anything.
• Browse the Makers Directory to find craftspeople, or the Skills list to see whether your craft of interest is covered.
• Nominate someone for the Heritage Crafts Awards.
• Become a Member to join the craft community supporting the charity's work, or look into the Benefactor scheme if you want to give at a higher level.
• Donate — the charity states plainly that it needs support to continue its work, and describes donations as welcome at any size.

The site also runs a stories section covering events and competitions, such as a five-day ceramic painting masterclass and a calendar photography competition, so it is worth checking back if you follow a particular craft.

The short answer

Heritage Crafts is the body that names which UK crafts are endangered, funds the people trying to keep them alive, and gives those crafts a public platform. Whether you are a maker seeking funding, a researcher checking a craft's status, or someone who simply wants traditional skills to survive, it is the most direct UK entry point to that world.

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:

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.

Heritage Crafts offers three ways to give, and the right one depends on how much you want to commit and whether you want a relationship with the charity beyond a single gift. A donation is the simplest option if you just want to contribute financially. Becoming a Member suits people who want to join a craft community and support the charity's ongoing work. Becoming a Benefactor is for those able to provide an additional level of support. All three fund the same core mission: celebrating, supporting, and safeguarding traditional craft skills in the UK.

What your support actually funds

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. Its stated aim is to ensure everyone has access to craft skills developed over generations.

The charity reports concrete outputs from its first fifteen years:

• Published the Red List of Endangered Crafts
• Distributed 95 grants through the Endangered Crafts Fund
• Awarded 131 training bursaries
• Established the Heritage Crafts Awards
• Achieved 33 National Honours successes spotlighting world-renowned makers

It also maintains a Makers Directory of craftspeople and a list of 285 UK heritage crafts, including those deemed at-risk. Its Patron is His Majesty King Charles III.

That track record is the practical case for giving: your money goes to an organisation that publishes at-risk craft data, funds training, and runs awards and grants.

The three ways to support Heritage Crafts

Make a donation

The site states plainly: "To continue this work we need your support. Please consider making a donation, however big or small." A donation is framed as flexible in size, which makes it the lowest-barrier route. If your goal is simply to help ensure heritage craft skills in the UK "are given the opportunity to thrive," start here.

Become a Member

The membership page invites you to "Join our growing craft community that is helping to support, promote and safeguard heritage crafts skills for the future." Choose this if you want your support to be ongoing and to identify with the charity's community rather than just its finances.

Become a Benefactor

The Benefactor scheme is described as being "for those who are able to provide an additional level of support for our work." This is the tier to consider if a standard membership or donation doesn't match the scale of support you want to give.

How to decide

Ask yourself one question: do you want a transaction or a relationship?

• Transaction → donate. Fastest, no ongoing commitment, and the site explicitly welcomes any size.
• Relationship with the community → become a Member.
• Relationship at a higher level → become a Benefactor.

If you're unsure, donating first is a reasonable way to test your interest before committing to membership or a benefactor arrangement.

A note on cost

The site references a "subscribe" signal and membership/benefactor schemes, but the provided page content does not list specific prices, tiers, or payment methods for any of the three options. Check the individual Member, Benefactor, and Donate pages on heritagecrafts.org.uk for current amounts and terms before committing.

Where to go next

• Donate – for one-off or ongoing giving
• Become a Member – to join the craft community
• Become a Benefactor – for additional levels of support

If your interest is in craft itself rather than funding, the same site hosts the Makers Directory, the list of 285 heritage crafts, training bursaries, and the Heritage Crafts Awards — all separate from the giving options above.

Heritage Crafts runs two separate routes for financial and recognition support: training bursaries (money to help you learn a heritage craft) and the Heritage Crafts Awards (recognition, which you enter by nominating someone). The site confirms both exist and that bursaries are applied for directly, while awards are nomination-based — but the specific eligibility rules, deadlines and forms are not published on the homepage, so you need to go to the dedicated pages linked from it. Use the paths below to find the current criteria before you commit to an application.

Training bursaries: what they are for

According to the site, Heritage Crafts has awarded 131 training bursaries to date, alongside 95 grants distributed through the Endangered Crafts Fund. The bursaries sit within the charity's wider mission to "celebrate, support and safeguard traditional craft skills" and to ensure "everyone has access to craft skills that have developed over generations."

In practice this means a bursary is intended to fund training — learning a craft skill — rather than to buy equipment or fund a finished product. The homepage lists "Training bursaries" as a top-level action with the prompt "Apply for one of our Heritage Crafts training bursaries," which tells you applications are open to individuals rather than organisations.

What the homepage does not state: the bursary amount, the eligible crafts, age or residency requirements, or the application window. Treat any figure you see elsewhere as unverified until you read it on the bursary page itself.

How to apply for a bursary

1. Go to heritagecrafts.org.uk and find the Training bursaries entry in the main navigation (it appears in the same block as "The Makers," "The Skills" and "Awards").
2. Open the bursary page and read the current eligibility and deadline information — this is the authoritative source, not the homepage summary.
3. Check whether the craft you want to learn appears in the charity's list of 285 UK heritage crafts, including those flagged as at-risk. If your craft isn't listed, confirm with Heritage Crafts before applying.
4. Complete and submit the application as instructed on that page.

Expected result: you submit an application against the published criteria. Common blocker: assuming the homepage text is the full brief — it isn't, so always open the bursary page first.

The Heritage Crafts Awards: nomination, not application

The Awards work differently. The homepage action is "Nominate someone for our Heritage Crafts Awards," so this is a route for recognising other people's work rather than applying for yourself. The charity also references 33 National Honours successes, which is a separate recognition track from the Awards themselves.

To take part:

• Find the Awards entry in the same navigation block as the bursaries.
• Read the nomination categories and criteria on the Awards page.
• Prepare details about the person you're nominating and submit through the stated process.

If you're looking for support for your own training, the Awards are the wrong route — use the bursaries instead.

Where to find application details

The site also notes you can subscribe and follow Heritage Crafts on Instagram, where it has been profiling bursary recipients across more than 35 posts — useful if you want to see what successful applicants actually did before you write your own application.

Before you apply: what to verify

Because the homepage gives the what but not the who qualifies, confirm these on the relevant page before investing time:

• Eligibility — who can apply for a bursary, and who can be nominated for an award.
• Deadlines — the homepage shows no dates; the bursary and awards pages should carry the current cycle.
• Scope — whether your craft is on the 285-craft list or the at-risk Red List.
• Cost — membership, benefactor and donation options exist, but the homepage does not state that applying for a bursary or award is free, so check rather than assume.

Start at the Training bursaries or Awards link, read the full criteria there, and only then begin your application or nomination.

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.