Yorkshire crafts and craftspeople
The David Morgan Rees collection
at Sheffield Hallam University

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Extract from a Journal article by David

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Building
Cutlery
Fabric work
Furniture making
Glasswork
Leather work
Metal work
Stone work
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Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous

Basket maker
Jet carver
Ropemaker

Basket maker

Basket making is one of the oldest crafts in existence and there is a direct continuity stretching back over the centuries to earlier primitive communities where baskets were essential to survival.

John Taylor, basket maker John Taylor of Ulleskelf North Yorkshire makes a basket from willow grown on the family's land nearby.

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Jet carver

Said to be the oldest industry in that part of the North York Moors, jet working was active in the Bronze age and continued through the Roman occupation into the middle ages. Queen Victoria is usually given the credit for turning jet into a fashion craze after introducing it to her court, and after Prince Albert died in 1861 jet ornaments were worn as a token of the nation's mourning.

Roy Jay, jet carver Roy Jay, a craftsman apprenticed in a long tradition carves jet jewellery in his workshop above church street in Old Whitby.

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Ropemaker

Small fibre rope-making businesses were as closely in touch with the needs of farmers as rope makers in ports were with those of a shipping or fishing industry still largely powered by sail.

Ropemaker Changing patterns of demand as well as the growth of larger rope-making companies and the introduction of new, man-made materials into the industry in place of traditional natural fibres hastened the disappearance of the small country rope maker.
Ropemaker You only have to notice the number of streets or lanes in towns and villages with names like The Ropewalk, Rope Street or Rope maker Street to realise the former extent of this traditional craft industry.

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