Hatching a new style of thatching

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By Victoria Bone BBC News <a href="/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/07/uk_the_art_of_thatching/html/1.stm" onClick="window.open('http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/07/uk_the_art_of_thatching/html/1.stm', '1188376056', 'toolbar=0,scrollbars=0,location=0,statusbar=0,menubar=0,resizable=1,width=500,height=400,left=312,top=100'); return false;"></a>Every thatched roof tells a story about its maker<a href="/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/07/uk_the_art_of_thatching/html/1.stm" onClick="window.open('http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/07/uk_the_art_of_thatching/html/1.stm', '1188376056', 'toolbar=0,scrollbars=0,location=0,statusbar=0,menubar=0,resizable=1,width=500,height=400,left=312,top=100'); return false;" >In pictures</a> Thatched cottages were a feature of ancient Britain. But like so many traditional crafts, thatching has failed to attract willing young apprentices. So what made one 19-year-old quit sixth form to train as a thatcher?

There's not a flat cap or a chewed piece of straw between them, but Dave Bragg and Matt Williams are on a two-man mission to breathe new life into the ancient practice of thatching.

Encouraging young people into the thatching trade is vital to its survival - in 2005, there were vacancies for 300 thatchers in England alone.

It appears too many potential apprentices are put off by the fuddy-duddy image.

An afternoon with Dave,34, and Matt, 33, would change that.

As the Rumpelstiltskin Thatching Company, based in Oxfordshire, they are marrying 21st Century ideas about sustainability and locally-sourced materials, with the long-established traditions of their area.

And they have taken on their own apprentice, Tom Cummins, to make sure their skills are passed on.

'Something different'

Dave and Matt's latest project is a pub - the Horse and Groom in the village of Caulcott - and they are willingly assisted by 19-year-old Tom.

The thatchers are passionate about their area's heritageDave says: "We've had lots of work experience kids and to be honest they're a nightmare. The work ethic is usually appalling, but Tom really impressed us."

Tom says: "I'd started sixth form because I didn't know what else to do, but I left after a year.

"I decided I wanted to learn a skill, but not something ordinary like bricklaying, something different. I thought about being a blacksmith or a farrier, but went for thatching."

Tom's apprenticeship takes four years and includes 12 weeks at Knuston Hall college in Northamptonshire.

Each week he learns a different thatching feature - eave, gable, window, chimney and so on. Students work on small mocked-up roofs and their efforts are assessed.

Even Matt and Dave could find themselves back at school soon. That's because a new level three NVQ in Heritage has just been created which they hope to gain.

Long straw

Thatch has been used for roofs in the UK since the Bronze Age, 4,000 years ago. But in the mid-20th Century it was dying out.

In Oxfordshire and elsewhere, thatched buildings were seen as old-fashioned and the long straw needed to maintain them was expensive, hard to find and time-consuming to lay. As a result many were destroyed.

When you look at a roof you can see how generations of thatchers before you did it Dave Bragg, thatcher <a class="" href="/1/hi/magazine/6904194.stm">Revival in traditional skills</a> <a class="" href="/1/hi/magazine/6902219.stm">A classroom for heritage</a>

But just when things looked grim, a different material appeared - combed wheat reed. It was cheaper and more readily available and so thatchers seized on it and used it to revive their trade.

Thatching survived thanks to combed wheat, but at the expense of tradition - something Dave and Matt now want to change.

"Combed wheat doesn't fit at all in Oxfordshire," Matt explains. "It was never traditionally used.

"Without combed wheat there wouldn't be a thatching tradition to carry on and we don't want to rage against that, but in the 60s and 70s, they ripped out so much long straw, it was sacrilege."

The thatchers want to go back in time and have set about returning combed wheat roofs to long straw, one building at a time.

Dave smiles: "It's quite controversial what we're trying to do."

All-English

Before deciding to be a thatcher, Dave was a motorbike courier in London.

Apprentices learn their trade at college then put it into practice

Matt, by his own admission, was an Oxford University drop-out. He got into thatching by accident after answering an advert in a shop window.

He later found out there had been thatchers in his family for hundreds of years.

Both found apprenticeships at the same firm and after learning their craft, decided to go it alone.

Dave says: "Our old boss would say to people, 'Oh thatching hasn't changed for a thousand years', and we would look at each other and think, 'That's completely wrong.' It has, and it has to keep changing to survive."

A key part of Rumpelstiltskin's philosophy is to use only English materials and no imported straw.

They are also taking the radical step of growing their own materials using medieval seed varieties.

Matt explains: "We're working with an archaeo-biologist - he's been digging ancient seed out of roofs.

"You see, over time, straw was deliberately bred to be short and weak because it was easier to harvest, but that's the opposite of what we need for thatch. Old varieties are much stronger and longer."

Matt and Dave also work closely with local conservation officers because they need listed building permission to convert roofs back to long straw. Once converted, however, they are protected forever in that state.

"We still find the occasional roof with an unbroken long-straw history and it's such a buzz," Dave says. "When you look at a roof you can see how generations of thatchers before you did it and we try to incorporate that."