Rural crafts refers to the traditional crafts production that is carried on, simply for everyday practical use, in the agricultural countryside. Once widespread and commonplace, the survival of some rural crafts is now in doubt. Rural areas are sparsely settled places away from the influence of large cities and towns. ...

Not being generally produced for sale, they do not fall under the description of handicraft. Not being produced as a hobby, they do not qualify as arts and crafts. Not (until very recently) being produced by a dedicated full-time worker, but rather being part of a general repertoire of skills, they have not been produced for sale by an artisan class of makers. The exceptions to the latter would be wheelwrights and blacksmiths. Handicraft, also known as craftwork or simply craft, is a type of work where useful and decorative devices are made completely by hand or using only simple tools. ... Arts and crafts comprise a whole host of activities and hobbies that are related to making things with ones own hands and skill. ... An artisan, also called a craftsman, is a skilled manual worker who uses tools and machinery in a particular craft. ...

Examples of rural crafts would be:

• Basket making (for carrying)
• Basket trap making (for catching animals, e.g.: eels)
• Hurdle making
• Hay crib making
• Spinning yarn
• Hedge laying
• Charcoal burning
• Dry stone walling
• Cob walling
• Thatching
• Pond making
• Coracle making
• Boundary-marker making (e.g.: stone cairns)

A wide variety of joinery construction in wood was also practiced, from tool-making through gate-making and wheel-making, to full-scale barn building. Some add skills such as beekeeping and path laying to the list of rural crafts. Joinery is the part of woodworking that involves the joining together of parts of wood. ... Beekeeping (or apiculture) is the practice of intentional maintenance of honeybee hives by humans. ...

The rural crafts are to be distiguished from the psuedo-primitive "rustic" handicraft goods often seen in rural gift shops.

Further reading

• E.J. Stowe. Crafts of the Countryside. Longmans, Green & Co., 1948.

External links

• Crafts in the English Countryside: Towards a Future.