I suppose the obvious question to ask
is why thatch a wall? Well, around these parts, a chalk valley, chalk was a
readily available building material that could be dug at no cost. Building
a chalk wall is pretty simple, albeit time consuming and labour intensive.
First create a foundation of flints to just above ground level. Next layer
a foot thick mix to a consistency of stiff dough of crushed chalk, straw
and water. With shuttering to hold it in place then tramp down the mix
wearing shoes with iron plates attached. Leave for a week to dry (walls are
best built in summer) and then add further layers until the required height
is reached. It will take another year for the wall to be considered ‘cured’
at which point it will be coated with a chalk slurry.
Once built the wall has to be kept
bone dry, hence the thatch cap. Without it, the wall will melt like a
linear ice cream. However, for all its beauty I do wonder why some previous
owner of The Mill went to all the time and expense of building our wall. It
was hardly like the road was busy. Three or four hundred years ago, the
traffic was at most a few passing horse and carts or docile sheep. Maybe it
was a status thing? Millers were high up the pecking order in feudal times,
so maybe in the absence of a Bentley or Gucci handbag this was the way to
announce your wealth. I have read that chalk walls, that retain heat and
provide shelter from frost, were useful for growing soft fruit so, as ours
is south facing, maybe that is another clue.
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Regardless of all that history, in
the present, village thatchers Simon and Geoff Gates have been working on
the wall for the past three weeks, starting with the old thatch which
literally rolled off and then fell into the road in a rotten heap when the
chicken wire was peeled off. This is because there is no subframe or wall
fixing; the thatch cap is held in place by way of the shape and weight.
First, a triangular stack of straw rolls are put on the top of the wall.
Next straw eaves are bent over that stack to then by thatched over, held in
place by hazel pegs and the decorative, but practical, hazel weave pattern,
with each thatcher having his particular ‘signature’ style for this
final flourish.
It will be good to have it done, and
though we still have a few days to go it looks, I am sure you will agree,
amazing. However my neighbour, who still has his to do is looking on with a
certain amount of trepidation …….
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