Image: ‘Centre of Excellence for Canals & Traditional Skill’ (Peter Sandground)
Backing from the National Lottery Heritage fund will allow the centre to teach traditional crafts like thatching and stonemasonry at Falkirk’s Forth & Clyde Canal.
A new national training centre for Scotland, focused on traditional and heritage skills, has secured £3.7m of National Lottery support.
Thatching, stonemasonry, black-smithery and environmental conservation will be taught at the ‘Centre of Excellence for Canals & Traditional Skill’.
The centre will focus on developing pathways into heritage skills training, volunteering, and employment within the historic environment sector, as well as upskilling and sector support activities such as a ‘train the trainers’ programme.
It will be located near Lock 16 on the banks of the Forth & Clyde Canal in Falkirk.
Culture secretary Angus Robertson said the centre “will ensure these skills are preserved, passed on, and used to support our historic environment for generations to come.
Caroline Clark, The National Lottery Heritage Fund director for Scotland, explained: “We know that Scotland urgently needs to preserve and develop its traditional building, craft and rural skills so that it can properly care for its historic buildings and industrial heritage, especially in the context of climate change.
“I can’t think of a better project to receive our £1 billionth pound spent in Scotland – marking 30 years of investment in over 5000 projects which have helped to protect and celebrate Scotland’s incredible heritage.”
