DYING CRAFTS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 46, 5 December 1949, Page 3

DYING CRAFTS

REVIVAL IN BRITAIN EFFECT OF SHORTAGE OF DOLLARS .(By Robert Brown—Beuter Correspondent) ' ■ LONDON. Britain’s shortage of dollars has resulted in a big drive to reviye the traditional country crafts .. which were in danger of dying out. Experts on rural, industry, with Government backing, are cam- ‘ palgnin£ for young recruits to help rebuild the tottering trades of-the blacksmith, {he saddler, the tliatcher, the potter, the handweaver, * the stonemason and the country woodworker.

A small but steady stream of young men is passing through the recently established training centres. As the village craftsmen of the future, these will not only play a vital part in the British economy but will keep alive a traditional and colourful feature of the rural scene. 1

Before the war, industrialisation, threatened *to eclipse the country craftsmen. Their products could often * he imported, at less cost. Cheap food from abroad undermined agricultural economy, but to-day, the dollar shortage has transformed the situation. Maximum heme food production is essential and the British countryside is showing new vitality. The thatcher and the stonemason—where they can still he found —are benefitting from the shortages of alternative building materials and find more work than they can do. The potter and the hand-weav-er are fully engaged in the expert drive for dollar®. , The drive to build up 2 lie rural industries is in the hands of the Rural Industries Bureau, an independent organisation established in 1921 with Government backing, which acts as an advisory service and an agency through which grants can he obtained from .the Treasury to assist country craftsmen.

Recruitment of Workers

The recruitment qnd training of new workers is only a small part of the Bureau’s functions. ‘ The larger part of its resources is used to educate > and advise established craftsmen cn how to mak° better use of their facilities. It appoints instructors who tour the country seeking out individuals, giving advice in workshops, and oiganising group classes. It administers twe funds, the Rural Industries Equipment Loan Fund and the Rural Craftsmen’s Workshop® Loan Fund. The fust was established in 1940 to provide machinery and equipment to enable craftsmen to adapt themselves to wartime heeds.

In the first seven years, it provided £150,000 sterling .worth of equipment to 5000 applicants. The second was started in. 1947 to help craftsmen build, extend or improve their working premises, often .necessary as a direct result of the installation of modern* equipment. This fund makes cash loans bearing interest at 3 per cent. The Bureau's first post-war task was to make a nationwide 'economic survey, to assess the prospects of surviyal of certain trades and to decide where and how to recruit youths for training. This task was eased by the fact that a wartime survey had already been made in 1942, when it was discovered that Britain had about 25,000 rural craftsmen of various kinds. The latest survey produced encouraging conclusions., Only in some kinds of country woodworking were the prospects considered gloomy. For blacksmiths, agricultural * engineers, saddlers, harneeis-makers and thatehers, the Bureau foresaw a prosperous future and co-operated with the Ministry, of Labour in launching training schemes. The work now being done has produced curious problems. Volunteers for training as blacksmiths, for example, are biassed towards the new engineering aspects of the work and are disinterested in the traditional role of the ■< blacksmith-shoeing horses. Recruits for thatching have found that the older craftsmen, under whom they work, have sometimes been reluctant to pass on the secrets to anyone outside their own families.

Standard of Work The Bureau has had some difficulty in raising the standard of work of the older generation, of craftsmen. The British public has tended to regard its country craftsmen as master® of their trades, with very little indeed to learn. The Bureau!s instructors. have found that this view is not entirely true. Of the blacksmith, they say, for instance: “The general standard of farriery throughout the country is extremely low t&nd "there i© a great shortage of skilled farriers. Referring to the newei’ types of blacksmiths work, for which machinery has been provided, they add: “A big task, lies ahead to educate the smiths to a realisation of the much fuller use which can be made of the equipment which most of them already have in their shops.” The same story is told of the rural woodworker®: “Many of the craftsmen, who had installed modern equipment, were not making the fullest use of it; and moreover in a number of cases the machinery was being ill-treated through lack of knowledge. Rural furniture makers, though highly skilled need guidance in design, while rural boat-building yards are badly in need ,of such modern equipment as band-saws and blaclcsmithing ma* chines.