Culture Minister responds on Heritage Crafts

I finally had a reply via my MP from culture minister Barbara Follet to my letter sent in February asking what the government were doing for heritage crafts in response to the UNESCO convention on living heritage. I am disappointed in the lack of depth to the answer given it took over 3 months to prepare, but at least it is a starting point for discussion.

There are a few good points, "the government is...supportive of the aims of the convention, and is keen that the rich intangible cultural heritage of the UK should be valued, and where necessary, preserved."

She tells us about the excellent Scottish ICH research here and says "I hope that similar research will be carried out in England." though makes no suggestion as to how that would come about, who would conduct it or how it would be funded.

The HLF have funded various projects and Barbara quotes a figure of £446m to 1300 projects though I suspect the figure is the result of searching their past projects with a keyword such as craft. It doesn't tell us that a high proportion goes to building crafts because they have English Heritage, National Trust and the National Heritage Training Group to make applications. The £7m "heritage Skills Bursary Scheme" is a case in point where all the money went to building and conservation crafts, all good projects but it still leaves the basketmakers, scissors makers, craft potters etc out of the picture.

I shall be writing to Tom Levitt asking that we arrange a meeting with Barbara Follett to discuss these issues and in particular to see how we can get a survey like the Scottish one funded.

glowing mazers

I have just been finishing off some mazers for English Heritage, they are for new displays at Dover Castle. They are turned quite thin from maple and when I oiled them and sat them on the table I noticed the sunlight shining through them as if they were glowing.



The rims have been decorated with engraved patterns in Norman style copied from a contemporary stone archway.

spooncarving courses

I have just been reviewing course bookings for the year and am delighted to see that our developers courses are filling up rapidly with folk wanting to come back after doing a foundation course last year. Our June developers course has only 1 place left and October is already half full. I have always said I would like to judge the success of our courses not as many craft teachers do on the objects that folk take home at the end of the course but on whether people have the skills and feel empowered to carry on carving at home. It gives me real pleasure then to see so many folk returning and also showing us photos of work that they have gone on to do.

If you are interested in trying your hand at spoon carving or learning the skills of how to use an axe and knife safely and efficiently to shape wood then we still have places available for the foundation courses in June 12-14 and September, it really is fun.

course dates

My bowls are "Best in Show"

Last weekend was spent camping at Cusworth Hall near Doncaster. It was the agm of the association of pole lathe turners and green woodworkers. At this annual event I run the workshop area where various people teach 40 minute taster sessions on green wood crafts, I also teach basic knife and axe carving sessions. All these workshops book up in minutes after we open booking at 9.30 in the morning, in fact we normally have quite a queue as we are getting everything ready. It is great though to see people getting hands on rather than just watching other people working.


As part of the event the organisers run competitions for a variety of classes of green woodwork. This year I decided to enter my nest of bowls which I turned 50 years to the day after George Lailey "the last bowlturner" died. see here

Not only did I win the "best turned treen" category but also the "best in show". I was rather pleased as this category has always been won before by a fine armchair, it felt a fitting tribute to George Lailey.

forging tools for Ridley Scott

Yesterday I rough forged a set of turners tools to go with my old lathe on the set of Ridley Scott's Robin Hood film. These have been forged then ground and now go back in the forge to have the curved cutting hook forged.

I have also been working on a quote for building an education shelter at the site of an old waterpowered cutlery mill in Sheffield. It would have been an interesting project, the site is gorgeous with wonderful old buildings. The spec called for innovative designs but I had sketched up a hewn timber frame with a stone slab roof to match those on the other buildings. In the end though I decided it would take me away from my core work for too long and the budget was tight to do the job as well as I wanted to. So it's back to the workshop to concentrate on the bowlturning for me. Having taken the decision I spent yesterday morning turning bowls and the afternoon forging tools, both of which gave me great pleasure.

Tom Levitt asks Andy Burnham about craft skills

Tom Levitt has asked Culture minister Andy Burnham to recognize some of England’s dying craft skills as being as worthy of preservation as famous castles and paintings.

“Many of these skills are dying out,” says the MP. “In areas like High Peak they are truly part of the cultural fabric of rural communities in particular, and it is right that they should be preserved.”

Full article on Tom Levitts website here