Younger adults are more likely to be able to illegally download music or get hold of a pirate DVD than wire a plug or bake a cake.

Almost a third of them don’t even know how to knot a tie.

Less than half of adults can change a tyre on a car or a bike, the study by internet search engine Ask.com found.

Of 1,000 adults polled, only 49 per cent could darn a sock, though this falls to 21 per cent of the under-30s and rises to 68 per cent of those over 60.

But this could change as more people look to the forgotten arts of domestic life to save money in the current climate.

Ask.com has noticed a big rise in searches for “how to” guides online, from car repairs to baking.