Description:A unique heritage crafts festival is to be staged in Lincoln again this year after the spectacular launch event proved a smash-hit – and for 2012 it will be even bigger.
Held in the heart of historic Lincoln, ‘1000 Years of Traditional Crafts’ will bring together two of the city’s top attractions for a two day festival featuring heritage skills and crafts from across the UK and Europe.
Staged over the weekend of 29/30 September 2012, the event should also herald the completion of the city’s brand new Heritage Skills Centre, to be built over the next year in the grounds of Lincoln Castle
The £2.1m innovative centre – which will be the first new building inside the Norman castle for 150 years – will provide training workshops for new recruits to learn bygone trades.
But it will also offer a chance for the public to view craftsmen at work, creating a new visitor attraction for Lincoln.
“The key inspiration behind the ‘1000 Years of Traditional Crafts’ event is a desire to give visitors a chance to learn more about heritage skills that could be lost to the nation if we do not safeguard them.” said Mary Powell, Tourism Development Manager, Lincolnshire County Council.
“And the new Heritage Skills Centre will be a major part of that initiative to keep traditional skills alive. It will have a striking architectural design and be built to the highest quality to fit within this atmospheric medieval setting.
“Providing a halfway house between building site and classroom, the centre will not only showcase skills that help maintain the city’s historic buildings, but will also be an investment in our future by helping those vital skills survive and thrive.”
The event will see specialist Lincolnshire stonemasons who use ancient skills to maintain the magnificent 1,000-year-old Lincoln Cathedral joined by craftspeople from across the UK and Europe.
On display in special areas at both the Museum of Lincolnshire Life and Lincoln Castle will be experts demonstrating traditional crafts ranging from lace making to silver smithing and stained glass window making to blacksmith skills.
As well as hands-on activities, displays and crafts people at work, there will also be Tastes of Lincolnshire food stalls and food demonstrations around the medieval cobbled streets of the city’s Castle Square.
