Heritage Brands

Since 1475. Since 1919. Since 1928. The Heritage Brands Still Making It the Properly Old Way.

British and European craft heritage is a properly remarkable thing. A glass factory in Haute-Saône has been pressing tableware for the same village families for five and a half centuries. A cricket bat workshop in Sussex has been shaping willow since the First World War. A Burlington Arcade tailor has been outfitting royalty since 1937. A Devon ice cream maker has been working from a recipe unchanged since 1981. The Heritage Brands collection at Sostter brings together the makers who have been quietly doing the same thing — properly, slowly, by hand — for decades and in some cases centuries. The kind of brands that haven't pivoted to TikTok every quarter, haven't outsourced production to wherever's cheapest this year, and haven't compromised on materials to save a few pence. The kind of brands, in short, that make ordinary objects feel like genuinely considered ones.

The collection spans craft traditions across the UK and Europe. From France, La Rochère — the oldest continuously running glass factory in Europe, pressing hammered glass tableware in Haute-Saône since 1475. From Sussex, Newbery Cricket has been hand-shaping willow into cricket bats by the methods of John Newbery since 1919. From Burlington Arcade, Benson & Clegg has held Royal Warrants for tailoring since 1937. From Devon, Salcombe Dairy has been making ice cream from a single unchanged recipe since 1981, and Circle One Surf has been hand-shaping surfboards in Crediton since 1969. From Scotland, Selbrae House has been the Carstairs family's homeware business since 2006, and Asgard has been hand-casting Viking and Pictish replica jewellery at its Dunoon foundry since 2002. From Perth, Highland Fayre has been assembling Scottish hampers since 1985, planting a tree per hamper sold. From Catalonia, Lorena Canals has been weaving washable rugs by hand since 1990. From the Podkarpacie region of Poland, Wicker Stories has been continuing the local basket-making tradition since 1990. Each pays UK or EU tax, supports communities of skilled craftspeople, and refuses the corner-cutting that would compromise the reputations their generations have built.

Discover more from our British Makers directory at Sostter, browse our Family-Run Brands collection, or explore independent artisans in our Small-Batch Artisans edit. For considered gifts rooted in craft, see our Gifts For Him and Gifts For Her directories.