Manaton, Devon
Village green flanked by thatched cottages beside St Winifred's church belie the location in an exposed village on Dartmoor, near high hills and granite tors. 
: @morgrugyn
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#thatch
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Higher Ashton, Devon
Cottages on perimeter of the churchyard. C18 or earlier. Whitewashed rendered cob and stone rubble, thatched roofs, in an exceptionally unspoilt village.
East Titchbury Farm, Hartland, Devon
Former granary C18 mainly cob walls and thatched roof. First floor with external access via stone steps. Ground floor doorway in end wall and dovecote above. One of only a few examples of this combination of granary and dovecote.
Honiton, Devon
Two thatched grade II* cottages C17 or earlier. Old thatch c. 4' thick. Replacement thatch roof set on old walls with new ridge to allow original timbers to be left in situ. Cat skeleton found, probably apotropaic. : Brian Ralph
#ThrowbackThursday to when the cottage roof had its thatch replaced in November 2018. It was very exciting to watch!
Thatching uses the rain’s angle of descent against it. The material isn’t in itself waterproof, but it guides the drops from the roof’s surface to the ground. It’s gravity judo. I watched the thatch going up on this row of cottages. It was weirdly restful.
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@PaulWermer @RolfAE @straphanger
Just read a fantastic one, on the work of John Letts, from 2001:
"No one had excavated a thatched roof before."
"Before systematic crop breeding, cereals evolved into local land races. Different soils, slope, shading and drainage gave endless possibilities for adaptation. With variety in the seed stock, crops would grow differently even across a single farm. Whatever the weather or diseases, something would always flourish."
"Old thatch provides an opportunity to study this lost diversity. Letts often finds a mix of bread wheat, English rivet wheat - not grown commercially for more than a century - rye, oats and barley. He has also found 35 different weeds, from corn cockle and cornflower - now vanished from English farms - to yellow rattle and cow wheat."
The Guardian · The last straw?
