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The only barrel-making apprentice left in England hopes to keep the 700-year-old tradition alive – amid fears it could die out. Joseph Dunlop, 20, began a four-year traineeship last November to become a ‘cooper’, the name given to a craftsman skilled in creating wooden kegs by hand. But he admitted feeling a ‘weight on his shoulders’ as there are just five professionals left in the country – and he is now the only person in the running to succeed them. He said: “I feel some responsibility. I’m the only apprentice in England, and there’s some sort of weight on your shoulders. “But also, I love …

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