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The old thatch revealed |
Buildings Manager, John Hyde-Trutch, stripping off the old thatch |
Roger Evans, the thatcher on the project |
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A straw ridge-roll, tied with straw bonds, ready to go on the roof |
A ridge-roll tied in place with greenwood ties, brambles
and old man's beard |
Another section of ridge-roll tied on with plaited green willow |
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Lengths of green willow used as ties, with a length of plaited willow |
Tying on the straw base coat. Its function is only to provide a fixing for the weather coat and it does not have to shed water
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The first section of base coat, starting
short
of the verge for protection from the weather |
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Using a willow tie to hold down a hazel sway |
Twisting the willow round the hazel to form a knot |
A section of base coat held down by sways and greenwood ties. The ties go round the rafters,
not the battens.
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Tying the end of a sway with willow |
A hazel sway tied with old man's beard, not as easy as using willow |
The base coat as seen from inside, with ties round the rafters |
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Close up of a willow tie |
Close up of an old man's beard tie |
Weaving a mat from water reed. The mat will be laid on the roof to prevent bits of straw from falling in, creating a tidier appearance.
This is known as 'fleaking'
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The mats in place (nine in all), with the base coat of very rough straw (threshing waste was often used) being applied
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The 'fleaking' as seen from inside |
The very rough straw used as base coat over the fleaking mats |
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The base coat tied on |
Starting the weather coat |
Museum volunteer Ted Beeson sparring on the base coat |
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Building up the thickness of the weather coat |
The weather coat is sparred to the base coat with hazel spars, or staples. A twist of straw from each bundle is pulled across and used
to hold the bundle in position
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A section through the weather coat showing the thickness - 10 inches |
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The front slope of the roof has the base coat in place, and one half of it has been weather coated
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Two verge bundles tied up with straw bonds to create a taper for working round from the
vertical to the horizontal
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The completed verge base coat, ready for the weather coat |
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The finished verge |
The base coat was not always made of straw. A variety of materials were used providing they created a good fixing for the spars.
In this case gorse is being used
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The gorse tied in place with hazel sways and willow ties |
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Another suitable base coat material - bracken |
Broom is another material commonly used |
Bundles of birch twigs are being tied on |
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Tying the birch twigs on with willow ties |
Inserting a willow tie from below |
Different base coat materials, from right to left: shoof (marsh grass); broom, with some wood shavings at the top; bracken; gorse
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Starting the weather coat on the rear slope |
More alternative base coats: shoof and heather |
Working along the roof, the weather coat has been applied on the left, covering the shoof, whilst an area of heather has been tied on as base coat. Note the straw bundles at the eaves, so that the heather would not be exposed to the weather
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Roger's apprentice, Nick Surridge, sparring on the weather coat |
Stockpiling staw for the weather coat |
Roger Evans at work on the base coat |
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Tying on rye straw as base coat |
Roger is tying on water reed, while Nick continues with the weather coat |
An area of reed base coat held down with ash sways & tied with stripped willow left to soak for a few hours, making it pliable enough to tie knots
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Rye straw and heather as seen from below |
The front completed, and half the back of the roof now weather coated |
Nearing the end, tying on the reed base coat, and starting the verge. Note the ridge roll |
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Working up the verge - note the hazel tied to the underside of the battens, providing an extra tie near the edge for the verge bundles
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Weather coat being added on top of a base coat of water reed |
The weather coat almost complete. |
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Nick Surridge completing the weather coat |
The last few stages of the weather coat |
Note the depth of the weather coat to keep the rain from penetrating to the base coat |
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Looking along the roof prior to the flush ridge being added |
Adding some extra straw just below the ridge as packing |
The ridge being constructed |
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Consultant Keith Quantrill demonstrating for Errol Rayner from Lafarge Aggregates Ltd |
Left to right: Jenny Mulholland and Tom Crosby, the fund raisers; Errol Rayner - Lafarge Aggregates; Emma Norrington - Groundwork Hertfordshire; John Hyde-Trutch - Project Manager
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The finished ridge. This section was held with split hazel liggers. Other sections used round hazel, ash and willow
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Transition from split hazel to ash |
End detail, with round hazel liggers |
Thatching work completed |
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Front view without the scaffolding. The raised section will allow the doors to open |
View of Arborfield from the Arable Field |
We deliberately left the roof looking 'shaggy', as the clipping of the eaves and verges is a modern idea
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