A CRAFTSMAN from Bridport has been given a coveted award at the Houses of Parliament.

Bridport artist designer Hugh Dunford Wood, who specialises in wallpaper hand printing, was awarded the President's Award for Endangered Crafts while attending the Heritage Crafts Awards at a reception in the House of Lords.

As part of the award, Mr Wood was given a medal and £3,000 by the Heritage Crafts Association’s President HRH The Prince of Wales - with the cash used to secure the survival of an endangered craft such as hand printing.

Mr Wood, 72, said: "I have made wallpaper by hand since 1974, but it is a dying art.

"I've been hand-printing wallpaper designs for over 45 years, inter-related with the practise as a fine artist.

"I trained as a figurative painter at The Ruskin School of Art at Oxford University.

"My paintings influence my designs and vice versa. The designs are developed from sketchbook studies of leaf forms and branches - so nature is the original pattern-maker.

"Every six months I offer a workshop, training students to design and print their own papers with lino blocks."

Bridport and Lyme Regis News:

Mr Wood raised concerns with his dying craft.

He said: "In the UK, traditional crafts are not recognised as either arts nor heritage - so fall outside the remit of all current support and promotion bodies.

"Heritage Crafts are doing what they can to address that situation and to safeguard craft skills and knowledge for the future."

Heritage Crafts is the advocacy body for traditional heritage crafts. Working in partnership with the Government and key agencies, it provides a focus for craftspeople, groups, societies and guilds, as well as individuals who care about the loss of traditional crafts skills, and works towards a sustainable framework for the future.

It embraces all craftsmen and women including hedgelayers and thatchers, furniture makers, potters, scissor makers, hatters, watch makers, potters, pargetters, blockmakers and others. It offers bursaries for individual projects, to apprentices, and The President’s Award for Endangered Crafts, the President of Heritage Crafts being the Prince of Wales.