Crossword Genius

Almost broke, English woman welcoming offspring’s building skill (12)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

stonemasonry

'building skill' is the definition.

'almost broke english woman welcoming' is the wordplay.
'almost' means to remove the last letter (most of the word but not all of it).
'broke' becomes 'stony' (stony-broke is old-fashioned slang meaning poor).
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'woman welcoming' becomes 'masonry' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'stony' with its final letter taken away is 'ston'.
'ston'+'e'+'masonry'='STONEMASONRY'

'offspring's' is the link.
This may not be right. It may belong to another bit of the clue.

(Other definitions for stonemasonry that I've seen before include "building walls" , "building work" , "craft" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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