Context 164 - May 2020

C O N T E X T 1 6 4 : M A Y 2 0 2 0 39 MATTHEW PRICE The Scots reed thatching tradition The beds that produced Tay river reed for thatching ceased to be commercially harvested in 2005 but there are hopes that they may produce a truly vernacular building material once again. Two buildings in Fife have benefited from Historic Environment Scotland grants in the last 12 months and now have new thatched roofs. Representing a quarter of all our thatched buildings, this is a double cause for celebration as they both used local Tay river reed. The Tay beds, once the largest in the UK, had ceased to be commercially harvested in 2005. A few years ago, while preparing a conservation area appraisal for the village of Auchtermuchty in Fife, I received a copy of the recently published SPAB report A Survey of Thatched Buildings in Scotland . I had just noted that 10 listed buildings in the conservation area, described when listed as thatched, were no longer. I wanted to see what the report said about Fife, and Scotland as a whole. The results were grim. In Fife there were 48 per cent fewer thatched buildings than the survey in 2014/15 had expected to find. The rate of loss had accelerated since the 1970s when, for example, there were some 40 thatched buildings in Auchtermuchty alone. Today there is one. This rapid decline was despite Historic Environment Scotland offering up to 50 per cent grants for the repair of thatched roofs; and statutory list protection. To quote SPAB director Matthew Slocombe in his introduction to the report: ‘Thatch provides a protective roof covering for many historic buildings, but in comparison with most tradi- tional building materials it is almost ephemeral. Its relatively short lifespan means that in a gen- eration or two a thatched roof can disappear if not adequately maintained. As such, thatch might be viewed as a good litmus test for the state of vernacular building conservation since problems with its care and repair become evident rapidly.’ This was seen to be sadly all too true. The survey had found that in the whole of Scotland there were only 215 thatched buildings left. In common with most of Scotland, up until the early 20th century thatch in its various forms was a common roofing material, particularly Recent rethatching in progress in Auchtermuchty using Tay River reed A Fife turf ridge