What is longstraw thatching?

Longstraw thatching is one of England’s three thatching traditions: a roofing method that uses the full length of wheat straw, drawn from a wetted bed into bundles called yealms and dressed flat over the roof. It is the softest-looking of the three - the finished roof has a poured-over, shaggy character, with a distinctive border of patterned hazel rods running along the ridge, the eaves and the gable ends. The archive has not yet been up on a longstraw roof with a thatcher; this entry is a definition, not a record, and it will say so until that changes. What follows is the craft set out precisely, and the difference between it and the thatch it is most often confused with.

England has three thatching materials, and telling them apart is the first thing to understand. Longstraw uses whole wheat straw, butts and ears mixed together, drawn wet and laid so the straw lies along the slope of the roof. Combed wheat reed (the West Country tradition, sometimes called Devon reed) is also wheat straw, but combed so all the butt ends face outward and dressed tight, giving a closer, more sculpted surface. Water reed (often called Norfolk reed) is not straw at all but the stiff stems of the common reed, packed butt-end-out and dressed hard, the crispest and longest-lasting of the three.

So the tell is the look. A longstraw roof reads as soft and rounded, as if the straw had been poured over the building, and it almost always carries an external lattice of hazel rods along its edges - that exposed sparwork is more or less the signature of longstraw. A water reed or combed wheat roof reads as tight, even, and angular, with the decorative rods confined mostly to the ridge. Longstraw is not a worse version of the others; it is a distinct tradition with its own material, its own method, and its own region, historically central and eastern England.

A yealm is a compact, layered bundle of straw drawn from the wetted bed, ready to carry up and lay - the working unit of longstraw thatch. Drawing is the act of pulling the straw from the bed into yealms with the lengths roughly aligned. A spar (also called a broach) is a length of hazel twisted and bent into a staple that pins the thatch down; sways are the long horizontal rods that hold each course to the rafters, fixed by the spars. Liggers are the rods left visible on the surface along the ridge and edges, cross-pinned in patterns. The leggett (or legget) is the bat-faced tool used to dress the courses into place; the brow course is the first course at the eaves.

It starts with the straw, and that is half the problem the craft now faces. Longstraw needs wheat grown tall, with the straw kept long and unbruised - which means older, taller-strawed varieties and gentle threshing, not a modern combine that chops the straw short. The straw is wetted and built into a bed, then drawn into yealms.

The thatcher works up the roof from the eaves, laying course over course, each held to the rafters by sways pinned down with spars driven into the coatwork below, and dressing the surface flat and even with the leggett as the work rises. The ridge is built up and cut to finish, and finally the visible hazel liggers are pinned along ridge, eaves and barge in the patterned border that marks the roof as longstraw. A longstraw coat is thick, and on a steep pitch it sheds water by sheer depth and angle. It lasts perhaps twenty to twenty-five years before it needs re-coating - less than reed, which is part of why it is the tradition under most pressure.

The archive has written on thatching in general terms but has not yet documented a longstraw thatcher first-hand - has not watched the straw drawn, carried up, and dressed onto a roof. That is the honest position, and naming it matters more than pretending otherwise. Longstraw is one of the crafts the archive intends to document, ideally in its East Anglian heartland, and when it is, this page will link the thatcher, the building, and the day’s work in place of this paragraph.

Thatching as a whole is in reasonable health - there are working thatchers across England, supported by national and regional master thatchers associations, and a steady demand driven by the country’s thatched listed buildings. But the three traditions are not equally secure, and longstraw is the most at risk. It is the most labour-intensive to lay, the shortest-lived, and the most dependent on a straw supply that modern farming has made scarce. Where a listed building is recorded as longstraw, conservation rules generally require it to be re-thatched in longstraw, which is the main thing keeping the tradition alive.

It is learned, like the rest of thatching, by apprenticeship to a master thatcher rather than in a classroom. The skill of drawing yealms and dressing a soft coat true is held in the hands and passed roof by roof. The archive’s Learn a Craft directory points to where thatching is taught and to the bodies that support it.

What is the difference between longstraw and water reed thatching?
Longstraw uses the whole length of wheat straw, mixed butt and ear, drawn from a wetted bed and dressed flat, which gives a soft, poured-over look with hazel rods patterned along the edges. Water reed (Norfolk reed) uses stiff reed stems packed butt-end outward and dressed tight, giving a crisper, more angular finish that lasts longer.

How long does a longstraw thatch last?
A longstraw roof typically lasts around 20 to 25 years before it needs re-coating, with the ridge replaced more often. That is shorter than combed wheat reed or water reed, which is one reason longstraw is the most at-risk of the three traditions.

Can you still learn thatching in England?
Yes. Thatching is learned by apprenticeship to a master thatcher, supported by the national and regional master thatchers associations. Thatching overall remains viable, but the longstraw tradition specifically is the most endangered of the three and depends on a small number of thatchers keeping it in practice.