A new partnership with the National Trust
to protect and preserve professional silversmithing craft skills for the next 30 years
Training and education in the craft of silversmithing
Bishopsland Educational Trust is an internationally recognised charity dedicated to the training and education of emerging makers in the heritage craft of silversmithing. It is a residential organisation that mixes workshop space with accommodation to train silversmiths. A long standing charity with a proven 30-year track record, we have mentored and trained emerging silversmiths, creating opportunities for them to connect and learn from one another and establish networks of skilled craftspeople across the UK and beyond.
Bishopsland recognises the importance of professional hand and traditional craft skills, reduction of barriers to entry to education for individuals more inclined towards vocational and practical career routes regardless of academic ability or means.
From our dedicated facilities in Oxfordshire, we have nurtured the careers of over 230 silversmiths and jewellers regardless of means, background or academic ability. Over 70% of our Fellows still work in the industry, with many having become the leading craftspeople in our industry today.
We believe the transference of craft skills is vital to preserving our cultural heritage. We link strategically with the historic decision announced by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) for UK ratification of the 2003 UNESCO Convention on the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, led by the Heritage Crafts Association. This will bring the UK in line with the 182 other UNESCO Member States already ratified, opening the way to greater international cooperation on the importance of the UK’s knowledge, skills and practices as part of our living heritage and helping address endangered crafts on the HCA Red List. This sits in line with the UK Government’s Levelling Up agenda where creativity and culture are spotlighted as important aspects of achieving this.
A new home for silversmithing
In 2023, we appointed our new Principal Angela Cork MA RCA and announced plans to move from the home of our Founders, the Makower Family, to a new site at the National Trust property of Buscot in West Oxfordshire.
We are taking out a 30-year lease on a 7,750sq ft historic Grade II listed building to create a new home for Bishopsland, with spacious workshops, dedicated machine/hammering rooms, flexible creative and digital working areas, incubation workshops, offices, meeting facilities and accommodation.
Buscot is the home of the new, National Trust Heritage and Rural Skills Centre a community of heritage craft and conservation skills in which community Bishopsland will be an active partner. We hope our new site will open our craft to a wider audience and increase opportunities for our cohorts to work with, and learn from, associated heritage craft trades, such as carpenters and blacksmiths.
This is an exciting time for silversmithing in the UK. The industry faces multiple significant challenges and we believe that as a small agile organisation we will be well placed in our new home to pivot quickly to meet some of the industry’s needs in fast changing times. Silversmithing as a craft needs help to reach wider audiences internationally and articulate value, foster greater recognition for British craftsmanship and develop routes to market.
We are confident our partnership with the National Trust will open up new opportunities for our students: we aim to develop Buscot as a leading centre for silversmithing, a place where aspiring makers can not only train to become a silversmith, but learn the key business skills to forge a career either as a self-employed or employed maker. Our new home will enable us to engage even more energetically with our community of fellows, local schools and communities.
In our new meeting rooms, we will hold industry seminars and master classes and ensure we are stimulating professional practice across the UK whilst speaking up for, and working with, the industry as a whole.
“Bishopsland’s focus on teaching the traditional heritage skills of a master silversmith adds a dynamic new string to the work of the National Trust’s Heritage and Rural Skills Centre at Coleshill and builds on the estate’s rich past as a creative hub inspiring creativity alongside tradition”.
Christian Walker, General Manager Buscot & Coleshill Estates
“We are delighted to be working with the National Trust and Buscot and Coleshill Estates and to have found a beautiful, flexible, adaptable location for our workshops, offices, incubation spaces, Tools Library and students. Working alongside other heritage and skills organisations on the estate was a major factor in our selection of the site. By entering this agreement with the National Trust, we are securing the future of our programme of professional craft skills training”.
Howard Dellar, Chair of Trustees Bishopsland Educational Trust
Phased site conversion – Summer 2024
Bishopsland will renovate the Buscot site in three phases over the next five years, with Phase One already underway. We move onto the site in summer 2024 with a new cohort and have embarked on a £2.5M fundraising campaign to undertake the necessary work.
Phase 0: complete
Jan – Sept 2023
Engage consultant
Select new site
Associated planning
Investment £60k BET funds.
Phase 1: in progress
Oct 2023 – Sept 2024
Partial occupation from Summer 2024
Planning permission [secured]
Heritage conversion
Development of spacious H&S compliant student workshop, staff offices, kitchen, rest area and toilets.
Phase 2
Oct 2024 – Sept 2025
Development of incubation spaces
Visitor area
Meeting areas
Second large workshop
Phase 3
Oct 2025 – Sept 2026
Development of heritage barn as events space.
Wider development of site
Site plan
An invitation to support, engage and contribute to Bishopsland’s future
Bishopsland Educational Trust is inviting visionary founding partners, dedicated funders, forward-thinking corporate sponsors and those keen to support emerging makers and silversmithing at all levels to join hands with the organisation to shape a brighter future and protect and preserve professional silversmithing skills through a £2.5M fundraising campaign. Funders will be pivotal in providing the essential resources needed to develop Hill’s Yard and secure its future.
BET has invested nearly £100k of its own reserves into the project to date and we continue to work closely with our partners, the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, the Goldsmiths’ Centre, the Clothworkers’ Company, the Radcliffe Trust, South Square Trust, the Radcliffe Trust and a number of private donors.
For further details and arrangements, kindly contact our CEO, Claire Murdoch at: E: c.murdoch@bishopsland.org.uk or T: +44 (0) 7880 504974.
Become our Founding Patron
We are seeking a visionary Founding Patron to help secure the future of our charity and promote, support and enhance the education of young people in excellence in design and craftsmanship.
By becoming the Founding Patron for our new home with the National Trust, you will play an integral role in shaping the development of this exciting project, securing exclusive naming rights for the site alongside Bishopsland and leaving a lasting legacy that demonstrates your commitment to protecting and preserving professional craft skills for future generations.
– Site naming rights to site alongside Bishopsland name and National Trust
– Engraved plaque on site
– Listing on our Patrons wall
– Named on all marketing materials and exhibitions circa 3+ events per year in Central London and Buscot
– VIP access to all events and exhibitions
– Preview access to selling events and auctions of Fellows’ work
To fully develop the site over five years, we need to raise £2.5M.
Become a Corporate Patron
Our three Corporate Patrons will have the opportunity to align their brands with our mission, demonstrating a commitment to supporting skills training education and protecting and preserving professional skills for future generations.
We will offer you exclusive naming rights that resonate with your commitment to fostering innovation and cultural enrichment
– Workshop or Courtyard naming rights
– Engraved plaque on site
– Named on all marketing materials and exhibitions circa 3+ events per year in Central London and Buscot
£200k – three available
Corporate Sponsor - GOLD
By partnering with our new silversmithing school, your brand will gain exposure and alignment with our aims to protect and preserve professional craft skills future generations.
– Recognition in our marketing materials, including website features, social media shoutouts, and event signage circa 3+ events per year in Central London and Buscot
– Prominent display of your company’s brand logo on our supporters board.
– Access to VIP workshops and networking events where your team can engage directly with master craftspeople.
Join us in preserving the legacy of silversmithing while elevating your brand to new heights of distinction and prestige.
£75,000
Corporate Sponsor - SILVER
By partnering with us as we develop our new silversmithing school, your brand will gain exposure and alignment with our aims to protect and preserve professional craft skills future generations.
– Recognition in our marketing materials, including website features, social media shoutouts, and event signage circa 3+ events per year in Central London and Buscot
Join us in preserving the legacy of silversmithing while elevating your brand to new heights of distinction and prestige.
£35,000
Sponsor a Workbench
A silversmith’s workbench is the focus of their time at Bishopsland. Your name will be engraved on a plaque that will be permanently attached to the bench, and additionally cited on our Supporter’s Board.
By supporting a workbench you will be laying the foundation of our workshop fit out and enabling a maker as well as playing an integral role in the development of the site.
£3,500 – 14 available
Make a Private Donation
By making a donation, you will play an integral role in laying the foundation for the protection and preservation of professional heritage crafts.
If you are able to, adding gift aid to your donation would be much appreciated
We welcome donations, however small.
Support new Accommodation
Join the Supporter's Board
Have your name prominently displayed on our Supporter’s Board.
£500 per year for three years – unlimited slots
Support our Tools Library
Bishopsland is developing a Tools Library to protect, preserve and pass on hand tools for future generations – to collect, curate and care for them. Launched at Goldsmiths’ Fair in 2023, tools from the library will be loaned, gifted or sold back to training, incubation or workspace environments.
We welcome sets of good condition tools and stakes. We aim to digitise our collection in time and would welcome donations and archiving expertise.
Recycle and Gift
In 2023, Bishopsland signed the Ethical Making Pledge, signifying our commitment to implementing ethical making practices into the curriculum, workshop practices and sourcing of materials.
Gift unused silver (for example cutlery sets, unwanted tea services etc) which can be recycled to be used as bullion for training purposes. A recent gift from the Clothworkers Company enabled us to do this in 2023.
About Bishopsland – skills training, education, incubation
Charity Details
Our Supporters
We are hugely grateful to all our supporters who continue to invest in Bishopsland and its students and secure the longterm training of young people over many years:
The Goldsmiths’ Company
The Clothworkers’ Company
Radcliffe Trust
Arts Society
Arts Council England
South Square Trust
Friends of Bishopsland
And myriad of one off and smaller regular donators who support us
Management Team &Trustees
CEO
Claire Murdoch
Principal
Angela Cork MA RCA
Chairman
Howard Dellar, Senior Partner and Head of the Ecclesiastical Education & Charities Department at Lee Bolton Monier-Williams
Treasurer
Craig Menzies, Senior Finance Manager and Project Manager
Trustees
Jo Gregory, Partner Joelson Law
Andrew Nugee, CEO Imagineear
Rebecca van Rooijen MA CMktr FCIM FRSA, Benchpeg
Rebecca Knott, Curator V&A
Karin Paynter MA RCA FRSA, Consultant
Rebecca Kirk, Consultant
Contact Details
Bishopsland Educational Trust
Lee Bolton Monier Williams
1 The Sanctuary
London SW1P 3JT
T: 07557 994732
E: c.murdoch@bishopsland.org.uk
Registered Charity No: 1093301
Registered Company No: 4156143
Site development
Dedicated facilities for training silversmiths in core skills and creative making.
Foster and develop important skills for the future. As a small agile organisation, we feel with the right support we can help to meet the industry’s needs.
A home for professional skills training and a champion for our industry
Through our key partners develop Buscot as a leading centre for silversmithing, a place where aspiring makers can not only train to become a silversmith, but learn the key business skills to forge a career either as a self-employed or employed maker.
Audience Development & Collaboration
We hope our new site will open our craft to a wider audience and increase opportunities for our cohorts to work with, and learn from, associated heritage craft trades, such as carpenters and blacksmiths.
This is a wonderful opportunity to breathe new life into Bishopsland and help address some of the key challenges faced by our industry that include:
Addressing the shortage of skilled silversmiths
The silversmithing industry in the United Kingdom faces significant challenges, including a shortage of skilled silversmiths and some allied trades and an aging workforce.
Concern for non-academic training provision
City and Guilds qualification funding support likely to be withdrawn for foundation level jewellery programmes. Risk to continuation of core programmes that feed industry. T levels are alternative but main providers fall short of the requirements for running these due to organisation size. General concern for practical skills-based learning for all young adults entering the industry. Bishopsland is a small agile organisation that can pivot quickly and work collaboratively with other organisations to meet the industry’s needs.
Market Development
Silversmithing as a craft needs help to reach wider audiences internationally and articulate value, foster greater recognition for British craftsmanship and develop routes to market. A partnership with an organisation as large as the National Trust will open up new opportunities.
An external offer
More opportunities for former fellows to engage. Hireable external space will be available in future phases. Strong Links with local communities and possible local workshop opportunities for makers to settle in the area. Incubation spaces and opportunities for masterclasses and other industry gatherings.
