Saving flint-working from extinction

Conservation charity English Heritage has announced the launch of a heritage apprenticeship programme and skills training centre aimed at safeguarding endangered specialist skills.

The apprenticeship course will teach heritage brickwork, flint and stone masonry skills to a younger workforce.

The seven-year programme expects to train 48 young heritage skills apprentices and three professional apprentices.

The establishment of a heritage skills training centre in East Anglia and the creation of an in-house heritage crafts team will focus on the maintanence of 34 flint castles and abbeys in the east of England. These include the Roman Wall of St Albans, Bury St Edmuds Abbey and Burgh Castle Roman Fort.

Flint-knapping is listed as an endangered skills on the Heritage Crafts Red List, which means there are serious concerns about its ongoing viability.

Although a third of East Anglia’s historic buildings contain flint, there are only a handful of skilled flint-workers remaining. The region faces the most severe shortage of heritage craft skills in the country, English Heritage said.

The charity wants to raise the profile of heritage skills as a career choice through school visits, hands-on training sessions and onsite ‘conservation in action’ activities.

The project is funded by an £11m donation from the heritage grant-awarding organisation Hamish Ogston Foundation. English Heritage said this is the largest donation it has ever received.

• This article was first published in Construction Management