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Farming Today: Farming Today This Week

Farming Today This Week

09/06/2012

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, Farming Today This Week

From the Royal Cornwall Show, where craftsmen are trying to keep rural skills alive.

Blacksmiths, thatchers and wood turners are wowing the crowds at the Royal Cornwall Show; Sarah Swadling investigates what place rural crafts have in modern life.

The UK has a growing list of traditional trades at risk of disappearing. To combat that, the Government has announced a review into the shortage of craft skills, and the heritage lottery fund has pledged more than £13millon for training the next generation of craft workers. It is estimated there are only a handful of people left who know who to make swill baskets, sieve and riddles and wooden ladders using age-old methods. Sarah Swadling is at the Royal Cornwall Show meeting the blacksmiths, wheelwrights and thatchers to find out if these artisan techniques have a place in modern British manufacturing. 

Presented by Sarah Swadling and produced by Angela Frain.

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