A project led by the New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham, is working to save traditional craft skills which are at risk of dying out.

Surrey Craft Legacies is focusing on heritage crafts identified in the Red List of Endangered Crafts produced by the Heritage Crafts Association.

Last year the list identified 165 crafts under threat including silver-spinning, marionette-making, silk-weaving and historic stained glass.

These are skills shaped over generations and now under pressure from changing industry, training routes, and demand. Of these, silver-spinning is critically endangered and likely to die out soon while others are under threat.

Surrey Craft Legacies has three connected elements: documentation, participation, and public presentation.

The documentation strand is capturing knowledge at risk of being lost, with leading makers being filmed as they work, recording both technique and lived experience.

These oral-history films document how skills are learned, sustained, and adapted over time. The films will be made freely available online through Surrey History Centre, creating a lasting public resource, and will be shared with local schools and craft enthusiasts alike.

The participation strand will open these skills to new audiences. From March to October 2026, a programme of free workshops will take place across Farnham in which participants will be introduced to processes such as constructing marionettes, working with woven fibres, and understanding stained glass design.

The workshops are delivered with Creative Response, DAiSY (Disability Arts Surrey), Hale Community Centre, Farnham Assist, and Farnham Library, with a focus on reducing barriers linked to cost, access, confidence, and transport.

The summer exhibition, Craft Legacies: Heritage and Endangered Skills, Living Traditions, which will open at the New Ashgate Gallery in July, will present work by both leading makers from across the UK who have shared their knowledge in Farnham, England’s World Craft Town, alongside films, photographs, and handmade objects created through community workshops.

The exhibition will trace how skills move from one generation to the next and will present heritage crafts as living practices, shaped by those who continue to make, teach, and adapt them today.

Dr Outi Remes, director of New Ashgate Gallery, said: “These are highly skilled practices built over generations, yet some are now on the brink of disappearing.

“If they are not actively passed on, they will be lost. This project records that knowledge and makes it accessible, while giving new people the chance to learn directly from experienced makers.”

Rachel Mulligan, a leading stained-glass artist and Surrey Artist of the Year competition winner in 2014 at the New Ashgate, has been instrumental in the recognition of historic stained glass as an endangered craft.

She said: “Since I discovered stained glass more than thirty years ago, education opportunities have declined, and it has become significantly harder and more expensive to buy specialist materials.

“Sharing my skills and engaging with people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities helps to raise awareness of this beautiful art form.”

Further information is available from The New Ashgate Gallery on 01252 713208 or on its website.