Wheat reed

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In the south west of England wheat is grown for thatching. It is a hard-wearing material perfectly suited to re-thatching some of the westcountry’s oldest roofs. A hollow stemmed winter-grown wheat is used which will usually have an average cut length of 30 inches or more.

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The straw should not be discoloured; it should be reasonably stiff and yet supple, able to resist efforts to break it by twisting a handful continuously. When the wheat is ripe a binder is used to harvest it into sheaths, which are stood up into stooks for a few days to season on the field before being gathered into weatherproof ricks.

The sheaths are passed through a reed comber fixed to the top of the threshing machine which removes the grain, weeds and leaf, leaving the straw (largely) un-bruised. The straw is now known as ‘combed wheat reed’ and is presented in bundles with all the butts at one end and all the empty ears at the other.

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Spars are made from coppiced hazel. Many thousands are used on each roof, twisted into wooden staples. They are driven through the new Reed into the background surface to fix down the thatch. They are also used to hold on the ridge, as temporary pegs and cradles and are extremely useful in many aspects of thatching.

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First the top layer of old thatch is stripped off and all wet material is removed. Then the undercoat is repaired, shaped and made firm. Careful preparation of this background surface is very important to ensure a good and consistent grip with the fixing spars.

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The ideal thickness of any coat-work is a balance between achieving the best cover over the fixings and not allowing the Reed to lay too flat. This means that the actual thickness varies with the length of the Reed and is occasionally limited by the pitch of the roof. 14 inches overall thickness gives around 9 inches cover over the bonds, when measured at 90 degrees to the background surface.