wHY sTRAW?

history of straw

Straw skills are a traditional craft and have been practiced for hundreds of years around the world. Saxons used corn dollies for pagan rituals with magical powers credited to them by the witches of the middle ages. Straw has always been used in rural and folk crafts. Rural communities would create tokens for love, prosperity and fertility, etc.

Straw work fell out of main stream practice mainly due to a mechanisation of harvesting crops, until a big resurgence starting at the Festival of Britain in 1951 where a large corn dolly display was created by Fred Mizen.

RED LIST OF ENDANGERED CRAFTS

Have you heard of the Red List of Endangered Crafts produced by Heritage Crafts? A number of straw crafts are sadly included: Critically Endangered: Hat Plaiting. Endangered: Corn Dolly Making, Straw Working.

Heritage Crafts is the advocacy body for traditional heritage crafts. Working in partnership with Government and key agencies, it provides a focus for craftspeople, groups, societies and guilds, as well as individuals who care about the loss of traditional crafts skills, and works towards a healthy and sustainable framework for the future.