Axminster Tools and Heritage Crafts are delighted to announce a brand new partnership featuring a new Woodworker of the Year award. Launching later this summer, the award aims to celebrate British woodworking.

Heritage Crafts

Heritage Crafts is the UK charity set up in 2010 to support and safeguard traditional craft skills. The charity now has a membership of more than 1,200 makers. It does vital work advocating on behalf of the heritage crafts sector to policymakers and politicians. Furthermore, it raises awareness of the importance of craft skills through projects. For instance, The Red List of Endangered Crafts and the President’s Award for Endangered Crafts, set up by the charity’s President, HRH The Prince of Wales.


A shared passion

At Axminster Tools, we share our customers' passion for great craftsmanship. Having spent the past 50 years working with makers and creators, we understand the importance of preserving traditional craft skills. Likewise, we're committed to promoting and encouraging practical skills so that appreciation for woodworking continues through generations to come.

We see part of our role in the woodworking community as helping to ensure practical skills and knowledge are not only sustainable and protected but shared with others. Built from industry professionals, craftspeople and passionate woodworkers, our teams work hard to ensure that their knowledge is freely accessible to all. We believe the benefits of celebrating and encouraging craft skills are far-reaching. Hence, we’re delighted to partner with Heritage Crafts.

Alan Styles (Managing Director, Axminster Tools)

A future for crafts

Along with the new Woodworker of the Year award, Heritage Crafts and Axminster Tools will be collaborating on a range of other exciting initiatives to be announced in due course.

We are thrilled to be working with Axminster Tools on this partnership, continuing to lift the profile of woodworking skills as part of the UK’s cultural life and economy. Axminster Tools’ support for skills at all levels fits perfectly with our vision of a healthy and viable ‘craft skills ecology’; providing a range of fulfilling careers and pastimes for the next generation.

Daniel Carpenter (Director, Heritage Crafts)