Since I moved up to the Yorkshire Dales, the drystone walls that crisscross the valley pastures and fell tops have become an ever-present feature of my new northern life. Many of these beautiful walls are hundreds of years old and have borne the brunt of the worst the northern weather can throw at them. They are thus often in need of repair. This is no simple task. It calls for a certain kind of laborer: one who is well-versed in age-old practical knowledge and whose tactile instincts have become so well trained that he knows exactly what shape and size of rock is required to complete the three-dimensional puzzle confronting him.

Drystone wallers are among the hundreds of traditional craftsmen still plying their trades across Britain and are the first that James Fox, an art historian at Emmanuel College Cambridge, visits on his tour of endangered crafts in his book Craftland. Fox meets the men and women responsible for crafting some of the United Kingdoms’ most loved and beautiful creations: thatched cottages in the Scottish Highlands, Windsor chairs in the Chilterns, and the church bells that ring across the nation. Each craftsman is characterized by a single-minded devotion to his trade, a commitment to defending handworking methods from modern efficiency and automation, and a deep affection for the tools, many of which have been passed down from generation to generation.

One thing that becomes clear throughout the book is that many of the traditional crafts, in contrast to industrialism, are in harmony with nature. Fox visits willow-coppice workers and reed harvesters who sustainably utilize local natural resources at rates that allow nature to recover. Further, in an age where wildlife is so often made homeless by human development, many of the crafts provide homes for creatures, such as voles and mice sheltering inside the crevices of the lichen-encrusted drystone walls. We see in this harmony a glimpse of how humanity’s work was meant to be back in Eden – work that benefits the whole community of creation, people and creatures alike.

All is not well, though, with the crafts. Fox wishes to alert us to a tragedy. Many traditional crafts are becoming extinct as they are outcompeted by modern industries or as their last practitioners retire or die without an apprentice to whom to hand over the reins. There were a few poignant moments where Fox traveled to interview a craftsman only to arrive a day or two after he had died – his skills perishing along with him. Whenever this happens a part of the nation’s soul is lost. Traditional crafts “are part of who we are and where we come from. They connect us to our ancestors and our local communities, weaving the past with present, forging collective identities, shaping our immediate surroundings.”

Though many crafts have been lost and many more are threatened with extinction, Fox ends on a hopeful note. If we learn to value the crafts again, viewing them not only as luxuries or hobbies but as an essential part of our societies, the future might be one where the crafts and craftsmen thrive. It will be a world where many more of us enjoy the pleasure of holding in our hands beautiful products made with skill, love, and wisdom, and which display, in their little imperfections, the unmistakable marks of a human touch.