Letterpress printing is among the traditional crafts considered endangered by Heritage Crafts, an organisation which promotes the value of traditional skills and industries across the UK.
The endangered status means that Heritage Crafts considers there to be serious concerns about the ongoing viability of the trade beyond the current generation of craftspeople. There are, it says, “sufficient craftspeople to transmit craft skills to the next generation, but for which there are serious concerns about their ongoing viability”.
This comes despite the apparent flourishing of letterpress printing with a number of studio style businesses starting up, run by individuals hoping to tap into a desire for artisan style production. Many though are run on a shoestring and are not passing on these skills to a new generation.
Letterpress is not unique as a print process in being listed alongside coracle making, harp making and split cane fishing rod making as endangered. Heritage Crafts also lists lithography (from the stone) and block printing for textile and wallpapers as endangered, while fore edge painting, handmade paper production and parchment and vellum making are considered to be critically endangered. This means they are “at serious risk of no longer being practised in the UK”. Mould and deckle making for paper is a craft skill that is now reckoned extinct in the UK.
In contrast bookbinding is a craft which is recognised but not considered in danger. Heritage Crafts has added screen printing to the register this year. It works with other organisations to channel grants to businesses able to pass on skills to a new generation or to help make artisan businesses commercially viable.
In receipt of one of these Endangered Crafts Fund grants is Sarah Burns, a textile block printer, who operates in West Sussex and uses dyes made from hedgerows and fields near her home. The grant has enabled investment in new dye kettles and to fund an apprentice.
