Arts and Crafts
The communities of the Forest of Bowland strive to preserve the area’s local crafts and rural skills and their enthusiastic proponents are always eager to share these skills with willing apprentices!
Traditional rural skills such as hedge-laying and dry stone walling continue to thrive along with crafts like weaving, basket-making and furniture making.
These are an important component of the area’s heritage and identity and the distinctive hedgelines and walls of Bowland shape the landscape as much as the agriculture which dominates the local economy.
In recent years, the Forest of Bowland has hosted national and regional hedgelaying and dry stone walling competitions and the areas traditional boundaries have been subject of in-depth study.
The striking upland scenery is increasingly recognised as a source of elemental inspiration for photographers and landscape artists, with some offering residential courses in Bowland.
The National Landscape has compiled a directory of practicing rural skills specialists, many of whom offer regular tuition to newcomers to these trades. Click on the link below to discover more.
