Surrey Craft Legacies is a heritage craft exhibition celebrating traditional and endangered craft skills being staged at the New Ashgate Gallery in Farnham from July 4 until September 5.

It brings together historic stained-glass window-making, silk weaving, rush work, brush-making and encaustic tile-making with jewellery, woodturning, tapestry, studio glass and other skilled contemporary crafts.

Across the UK traditional craft skills once central to daily life are quietly disappearing. Some now survive through only a small number of practitioners.

Surrey Craft Legacies, led by the New Ashgate Gallery, records these skills, shares them with new audiences and supports their continuation.

The exhibition brings together work by skilled craftspeople from across the UK who have shared their knowledge in Farnham and Surrey.

Their work is shown alongside oral history films and hand-made objects created through community workshops. The films will be on show in the gallery during the exhibition.

Featured makers include Adam Aaronson, Lydia Asscher, Jill Billings, Jane Browne, Caroline Egleston, Rosa Harradine, Sheila McDonald, Ella Merriman, Rachel Mulligan, Casandra Ponta, Fiona Rutherford, Martin Saban-Smith, Jessica Stroud, Jonathan Waights, Carolyn Wallis, Rae Weaver, Rosie Wesley and Anne Wolf.

The heritage skills outreach workshops took place in the spring with community partners including Farnham Library, Hale Community Centre, Disability Arts in Surrey and Farnham Assist.

Some of the work made by participants during Jane Browne’s community workshop at Farnham Library will be shown in the exhibition, bringing local learning into the public display.

Together the exhibition, films and workshop objects show how craft traditions are learned, adapted and passed on. They reveal the knowledge held in materials, tools and hand skills, and show heritage crafts as living practices shaped by makers and communities today.

The films and school resources will later form part of a free digital archive with the Surrey History Centre, preserving these stories and skills for future learners, researchers and communities.

New Ashgate Gallery director Dr Outi Remes said: “These are highly skilled practices built over generations, yet some are now at serious risk. If they are not actively passed on, they will be lost.

“This project records that knowledge and makes it accessible, while giving new people the chance to learn directly from experienced makers.

“The response from participants already shows how much these skills matter. People are gaining confidence, learning about heritage craft and feeling more connected through making.”

Rachel Mulligan, a leading stained-glass artist and Surrey Artist of the Year winner at the New Ashgate Gallery in 2014, has been instrumental in the recognition of historic stained glass window making as an endangered craft.

She said: “Since I discovered stained glass more than 30 years ago, education opportunities have declined, and it has become significantly harder and more expensive to buy specialised materials.

“Sharing my skills and engaging with people of all ages, backgrounds and abilities helps to raise awareness of this beautiful art form.”

Everyone is welcome to an opening evening event on July 3 from 6pm until 8pm, alongside a free heritage skills demonstration and have-a-go activity from 5pm until 7.30pm.