Programme
The Bench Award
A £2,000 bursary for one apprentice in an endangered craft, funded entirely by the letter.
In 2023 a thatcher told me he had turned down an apprentice because he could not afford to pay one for the first winter. The letter had money in it doing nothing. It seemed like an easy problem.
The problem
Most craft funding goes to the practitioner who is already established enough to write a good application. The gap is the first year, when an apprentice earns almost nothing and their teacher earns less than usual for having them there.
What we did
- £2,000, paid to the apprentice, not the workshop.
- One award a year. No reporting requirements beyond a letter, if they feel like writing one.
- Nominations come from teachers, never from applicants.
What came of it
Three awards so far: a thatcher’s apprentice in Somerset, a letterpress apprentice in Bristol, and a banker mason at Wells. All three are still in the trade, which at this sample size means nothing statistically and everything to me.
The whole programme is one person’s newsletter and a spreadsheet, and it has been enough.
