Kate Hetherington from Somerset is one of the last horse-collar makers in the UK PHIL YEOMANS/BNPSThe handcrafting of cricket balls, sieves and riddles and lacrosse sticks and the beating of gold are all traditional trades that have died out in the past ten years, a study has found. The report, commissioned by the Heritage Crafts Association, also revealed that piano making, paper marbling and hat-block making are among dozens of traditional British crafts that face extinction. Owen Morse-Brown, in Wiltshire, keeps the art of hat blocking alive PHIL YEOMANS/BNPSThe study, The Red List of Endangered Crafts, has examined 169 crafts and identified 17 “critically endangered” professions, classed as such because there are only a few practitioners left scattered around the UK. Ian Keys, chairman of the association, has called on the government to recognise the value of traditional craft skills and to take action to prevent their further decline. “Craft skills today…

Source: The Times August 01, 2017 22:52 UTC