Thatching Styles
Long Straw
For hundreds of years thatchers in Oxfordshire have made their roofs with threshed wheat straw, soaked and pulled into organised wads then fastened to the roof with hazel spars twisted into staples.
With its thick multi-layered coat, soft sweeping shapes and tussled appearance this ancient style of thatching is known as LONG STRAW.
Restoring Our Heritage
This local long straw style has virtually disappeared from the villages of Oxfordshire and surrounding counties, a generation of thatchers has been replaced by one that has rarely encountered long straw at all. However, there are still retired thatchers who remember the long straw methods that were used locally. Perhaps most interestingly, because of the build up of layers of old straw in a spar fixed thatch we have hundreds of examples of historic coats preserved within our roofs.
The Rumpelstiltskin Thatching Company used this evidence from old roofs, from thatchers experienced in long straw, advice from archeobotanist John Letts and organisations such as English heritage and COHT (Conservation of historic thatch committee) to breath new life into our traditional thatching style.
The fashion for Water Reed
In the 1920s East Anglian Style water reed thatching arrived in Oxfordshire. A fashion in architecture and the ability to move bulky materials by rail saw many new thatched houses being built throughout the country.
Water reed is attached directly to the roof structure and because of rigidity of the material, it can be used to form very sharp shapes and follow complex roof designs.
Unlike straw, water reed is not flexible enough to be wrapped over the apex of the roof, so sedge is used instead. Sedge is a marsh grass that grows next to water reed, it has many qualities to please a thatcher, it is long, flexible, durable and sheds water quickly, however the two edges of the leaf are razor sharp.
Combed Wheat Read
If the arrival of water reed was due to architectural fashion, then the arrival of combed wheat reed was the result of changes in agriculture. The coming of the combine harvester in the mid 20th century meant that for the first time traditional local materials became unavailable to the thatcher. A new material was transported in from the West Country.
In the West Country wheat had been processed quite differently for thatching, and the combing of straw for thatchers had been mechanised. A group of enterprising producers sold their material across the traditionally long straw areas.
From its arrival in Oxfordshire in the 1960s, combed wheat reed undoubtedly saved the thatching industry from collapsing. This material is dressed into place with only the butts of reeds on the surface just like water reed. It can be fixed to the roof with hazel spars, as with the familiar long straw method. It was adopted wholeheartedly by local thatchers and by the start of this century had all but entirely replaced long straw.