The Book of Forgotten Crafts

The decline of traditional hand crafts attracts growing attention. In some cases, in thatching and glass engraving perhaps, there is a continuing need for these skills. In other cases, clog making and flint knapping maybe, the interest may be just “academic”. In between there are crafts that are required occasionally such as tanning, basket making and hedge laying. The rise of the heritage industry expressed in the needs of museum curators, restoration architects, industrial archaeologists, cultural historians, craft shop entrepreneurs, tourists and family historians, all testify to an interest in “forgotten” crafts.

Under the aegis of the Heritage Crafts Association,...