Vanishing crafts: How Britain’s heritage skills crisis threatens specifications

By Adrian Attwood ACR, Executive Director and Chairman, DBR

There’s a particular satisfaction in watching a master stonemason at work. The precision of each chisel strike, the understanding of bedding planes and geology, the marriage of centuries-old technique with modern conservation standards; these are skills that simply cannot be replicated by technology or learned from textbooks. Yet, after more than three decades working on some of Britain’s most cherished heritage buildings, from Blenheim Palace to Hampton Court, I’m facing up to a new challenge; we’re losing the people who possess these irreplaceable skills.

For those specifying heritage conservation work, this represents a direct threat to project delivery, quality assurance and the very viability of the work you’re designing. Our workforce is ageing rapidly, and the pipeline of young talent has slowed to a trickle. Without taking action, we risk losing the accumulated wisdom of generations.

The reality behind every specification

When you specify conservation work on a heritage building, you’re depending on craftspeople who possess skills that take years, even decades, to master.

Take our work on the Elizabeth Tower. We initially estimated replacing 250-300 stones. After detailed inspection, that expanded to nearly 3,000 individual interventions. Each stone required careful assessment, precise removal, expert carving using traditional techniques, and installation with lime mortar and stainless-steel dowels. A single complex stone can take a skilled mason seven days to complete.

Here’s some sobering mathematics; it takes up to five years to train an accomplished stonemason, ten years to reach master craftsperson level. We currently employ 20 stonemasons. You can see the problem.

Why aren’t young people choosing heritage crafts?

Our education system pushes young people towards academic routes rather than vocational careers. Yet heritage crafts offer genuine fulfilment, excellent earning potential and the opportunity to work on buildings that define our national identity.

It’s important work that deserves far more recognition.

Our response: practical action

In June 2025, we opened our Craft Skills Education Centre, on the Wiston Estate in the South Downs National Park; converting a set of disused barns into a fully-functioning training facility and working conservation space.

The centre operates as an historic building conservation workspace, offering Apprenticeship training for stonemasons, joiners, conservators and stone cleaners. We’ve developed a purpose-built lecture theatre alongside specialist workshops where young people gain hands-on experience in real-world conditions. Heritage introduction taster days bring local schools and colleges through our doors, whilst CPD seminars keep practising professionals and associated trades updated on evolving techniques and standards.

What this means for your projects

The skills shortage delays projects, potentially affecting deliverability and quality assurance. When master craftspeople become scarce, project timelines get extended, costs increase and the pool of contractors capable of tendering competently shrinks.

Consider our Olympia London project, where we reinstated allegorical figures removed in the mid-20th century. This demanded meticulous archival research, collaboration with acclaimed stone carver Simon Smith, and masons who could interpret historical photographs to recreate lost details.

Such projects demand craftspeople who understand historical methods, modern conservation principles and live build environments. Finding individuals with this breadth of capability is becoming more difficult each year.

A collective responsibility

Addressing this crisis requires a combined effort. Schools must promote vocational careers more actively. Industry must invest in training. Government must support skills preservation.

At DBR, we’re contributing through our Skills Centre, our partnership with the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust and our role as a founding member of the Historic Environment Skills Forum. And, through our recently awarded Royal Warrant, we’re also committed to achieving rigorous sustainability credentials that require us to maintain our current levels of expertise.

When you specify heritage conservation work, you’re declaring that quality and authenticity matter, that Britain’s built heritage deserves proper stewardship. But those specifications are only as good as the hands that execute them.

Ultimately, heritage conservation is about ensuring our past has a future; and that future depends on the skilled hands we’re training today.