12 SOUTH CAMBRIDGSHIRE'S THATCHING CONTROVERSY Beth Davies on the threat to traditional Cambridgeshire longstraw thatch. Longstraw thatch has long been the traditional roof covering of farmhouses, cottages and farm buildings in Cambridgeshire with the exception of villages along the fen edge where water reed and sedge were more commonly used. There are 16th century records of churches with thatched roofs and two churches still have thatched roofs to this day. In the Great Chishill post mill is a delightful graffito of a thatched windmill. Daniel Defoe described Cambridgeshire as almost wholly a corn country, of all sorts especially barley for malting. Wheat is the common thatching straw today, though there is evidence of the use of rye on some old thatched roofs. Many cottages and barns still have a reed matting which was woven diagonally and laid over the rafters and under the thatch. This is exposed with smoke blackening on its underside in a small 13th century cottage at Shudy Camps. Thatched roofs must have been the most common roof type in Cambridgeshire until the introduction of slate and clay pantile. Clay plain tiles, in production from before the 14th century, were a costly item and like brick were slowly introduced at the vernacular level from the 17th century. Our earliest illustrated records show most thatched roofs as untidy and much repaired. Thatching was possibly then a seasonal occupation where, after the harvest, the roofs were thatched and patched ready for winter storms. The presenc thatching methods muse owe some of their technique to these days. There is evidence of how the roofs of previous centuries were thatched in the under coatings of some longstraw roofs. At Foxton, for example, a small cottage with a huge weight of thatch was recoated this year by Mr Stamford whose father and grandfather had thatched the roof before him. It had only been repaired in the fifty years since then. By removing some of the weathered thatch Mr Stamford found thick twisted ropes of straw twine laid along the ridge to build it up from the sloping roof levels. It is common to see tarred hemp or straw twine used for stitching the straw to the rafters and thatch malting. Traditional Cambridgeshire longsrraw thatch at Heydon. It was also common in attic rooms to 'torch' plaster between the rafters against the thatch to seal the roof from draughts and birds. Longstraw thatch is laid on top of the old coating of thatch after the weathered thatch has been removed. The longstraw is prepared on site by the thatcher wetting the straw and pulling the straw towards him with the ears of the corn to one side (the strongest part of the seem) forming yealms. The yealms are then carried in a jack to the roof and laid in 'lanes' from the eaves to the ridge on the right hand side of the thatcher's ladder and in widths of about 30 in. The straw is tightly packed to a depth of about 12 in. and secured by spars made from split hazel or willow spars. When the roof is complete it is dressed with spars and ligers just above the eaves and beside the verges and openings. The original Cambridgeshire longstraw roofs had flush ridges decorated in a similar manner to the eaves and verges but today this has been superseded by the patterned straw ridge which is used on water reed thatches. Clearly thatching is a developing craft. Gone are the shaggy days of longstraw patched with different materials and unguarded by wire mesh. The eaves and verges are sharply cut and most cottages have deep, decorated ridges, often the signature of the thatcher. The coating of thatch is renewed or repaired every 15-25 years or for the life of the wire mesh and the bedding down of the thatch beside the chimney stack. The soft combed longstraw, tightly pinned by the eaves boarder and swept to the verge of the gables, is still a distinctive feature. Many longstraw thatchers in the district work single-handedly though some have a trainee. Thatching is still essentially a THATCHED ROOFS IN SOUTH CAMBRJDGESHIRE 1983 July July 1988 1988 Survey 1984 Estimate Sample Survey* Total thatch 837 835 825 244 Total reed + combed wheat 295(35) 300(36) 305(3 7) 112(46) Total longstraw 542(65) 535(64) 520(63) 132(54) Condition of longstraw: Good 128(24) 137(26) 151(29) 33(25) Fair 220(41) 222( 42) 208(40) 66(50) Poor 159(29) 147(27) 116(22) 20(15) Very poor 35(6) 29(5) 45(9) 13(10) Figures in parenthesis give percentages * Sample of 20 parishes and 244 roofs. CONTEXT 29
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