Master of a traditional craft

Mudford, Somerset This roof was made in the local tradition. Its "undercoats" (the original layer of thatch) are probably about 400 years old

The thatcher had almost finished his work on the roof of my friend's house in the village, a few miles from Yeovil, and told me about his trade as he cleared up among heaps of straw. He was working with combed wheat-reed, he said, wheat being the traditional thatching material in Somerset.

In the old days, the straw was just a by-product of cereal production. But that was when stooks of corn were built by hand, before the coming of combine harvesters and the mechanical baling up of straw. Now the wheat reed for thatching must be grown specifically for the purpose. He was using an old variety called Widgeon, grown locally at Ilminster; others were Huntsman and Victor. The ideal length was three feet, and a workable minimum would be twenty-seven inches.