Surrey Craft Legacies: Heritage and Endangered Skills, Living Traditions

Surrey Craft Legacies is a heritage craft exhibition at New Ashgate Gallery in Farnham, England’s World Craft Town. It celebrates traditional and endangered craft skills, from historic stained glass window making, silk weaving, rush basketry, brush making and encaustic tile making to jewellery, woodturning, tapestry and studio glass.

The exhibition brings together work by skilled craftspeople from across the UK who have shared their knowledge in Farnham and Surrey. Their work is shown alongside oral history films, photographs and handmade objects created through community workshops. Together, these works reveal the knowledge held in materials, tools and hand skills, and show how craft traditions are learned, adapted and passed on.

Featured makers include Adam Aaronson, Lydia Asscher, Lydia Asscher, Jill Billings, Jane Browne, Caroline Egleston, Rosa Harradine, Sheila McDonald, Ella Merriman, Rachel Mulligan, Casandra Ponta, Fiona Rutherford, Martin Saban-Smith, Jessica Stroud, Jonathan Waights, Carolyn Wallis, Rae Weaver, Rosie Wesley and Anne Wolf.

Through workshops, oral histories and film, the project explores how heritage crafts continue to support learning, wellbeing and community connection today. The films and workshop resources will also form part of a free digital archive with Surrey History Centre, preserving these stories and skills for future learners, researchers and communities.

Led by New Ashgate Gallery. Funded by the Community Foundation for Surrey, made possible by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, and developed with the involvement of Farnham Assist, Farnham Library, Hale Community Centre and DAiSY.

Name: New Ashgate Gallery

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://www.newashgate.org.uk/whats-on