Free Heritage Craft Workshops for Families and Young People
Maille-making Workshop with MAKE Southwest Maker Member Anna Rennie
Letter Press Workshop with Green Maker Initiative Member Princetown Press
MAKE Southwest has teamed up with South West Heritage Trust and the Heritage Crafts Association to deliver a series of free workshops, fully funded by The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust, to provide opportunities for children and young people to experience heritage crafts, some of which are at risk of dying out.
The Heritage Crafts Red List is produced annually by the Heritage Crafts Association to assess the viability of traditional crafts. Amongst the crafts considered ‘endangered’ are brick-making, hurdle-making, and hewing. These activities, among others, will feature in free workshops taking place at museums across Somerset and at MAKE Southwest in Devon to encourage the next generation to learn about heritage crafts.
Laura Wasley, MAKE Southwest CEO, said: “We are really excited to be working with the Heritage Crafts Association and South West Heritage Trust on delivering these free workshops. This will give young people a chance to connect and learn an endangered craft skill, working with old tools and techniques. A huge thank you to the D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust for their support.”
Susie Simmons, Operations Manager at South West Heritage Trust Museums, said: “We’re delighted to be providing an opportunity for children and young people to learn about these traditional crafts that make up an important part of our rural heritage.”
On Monday 17 February, families and young people are invited to a Woodworking Workshop at Avalon Archaeology, Glastonbury, where they can discover woodworking techniques through time. Participants will use flint, bronze, and steel tools to experience how people made wooden objects, from the Stone Age to the Saxon era. Amongst the crafts being taught is hurdle-making. Evidence of these woven wooden panels has been found on the Somerset Levels, where they were used by our Neolithic ancestors. Participants will also try hewing, which is the process of shaping a log to create flat surfaces using only hand tools.
Woodworking Workshop at Avalon Archaeology
Credit: Draca Beordor
On Tuesday 18 February young people aged 14-18 are invited to a Maille-making Workshop at MAKE Southwest, led by MAKE Southwest Maker Member Anna Rennie. Maille is a type of armour consisting of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to form a mesh. In this workshop, young people will learn how to construct a piece of maille using endangered heritage craft skills, and will come away with a bracelet. Time permitting, you will also be shown how to make a Saxon era ring made from a single piece of copper wire.
Maille-making Workshop with MAKE Southwest Maker Member Anna Rennie
On Thursday 20 February, young people aged 14-18 are invited to a Letter Press Workshop at MAKE Southwest hosted by Green Maker Initiative Member Princetown Press. Letter press printing is a type of relief printing where designs are created by selecting and arranging individual metal and wooden letters by hand and then printing the design in a printing press. In this workshop, you will learn how to set and print type using endangered heritage craft skills. You will come away with two unique posters that you've designed and printed yourself on two different hand-powered presses, each with their own inking technique.
Letter Press Workshop with Green Maker Initiative Member Princetown Press
On Saturday 8 March, families are invited to come along to a free Rag Rug Workshop at Somerset Rural Life Museum, Glastonbury, where they can learn about the history of how rugs were made and have a go at making their own. The tradition of making rag rugs became widespread during the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century. However, by the 1920s the craft was dying. The necessity for thrift during World War II brought a brief revival, and interest in the craft grew again in the 1980s. It remains a sustainable lifestyle activity, practised by many amateur makers, and a few professional rug makers.
Rag Rug Workshop at Somerset Rural Life Museum
On Saturday 22 March families are invited to attend a free Brick-making Workshop at Somerset Brick and Tile Museum, Bridgwater, where they can learn about this aspect to Somerset’s industrial heritage, and have a go at making their own brick. The making of clay bricks by hand or in small batches is now an endangered craft. For nearly 200 years, brick kilns flourished across Somerset, fuelled by the Industrial Revolution. Bridgwater’s transport links helped make it a centre of production. The decline of the brick and tile industry began with World War I, and the craft was almost obsolete by the 1960s. The kiln at Somerset Brick and Tile Museum was last fired in 1965, and the last brickworks in the county closed in Wellington in 1996.
Brick-making Workshop at Somerset Brick and Tile Museum
Brick and tile production at the Browne & Company brick and tile works in Somerset