Someone mentioned a local basket maker and said, “You’d love to photograph him,” so I headed up to North Yorkshire to meet 77-year-old Mr Taylor, who has spent his entire life making baskets. His great-grandfather founded the business, which has operated from the same site since 1867.

Mr Taylor told me he began basket making at just eight years old and has never known any other way of life. At its peak in the 1960s, the business employed 12 people, supplying mills, factories, and farms across Yorkshire with baskets for textiles and vegetables. Back then, the whole village would turn out to help cut the willow. Today, he gathers only what he needs for the year ahead.

In the 1970s and ’80s, the trade declined as mills closed and cheaper imported baskets arrived from China. Now Mr Taylor works alone, though he still has enough orders to keep him going. Recently, he’s been making caskets for funerals and fencing, which is beginning to see a resurgence.

When Mr Taylor eventually retires (something he has no plans to do anytime soon), it will mark the end of J.W. Taylor’s as there is no one to take over. He told me he’s at peace with that, knowing the business is no longer what it once was, and never will be again.