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Roofing Material: Thatch

Hundred of Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire

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Renewing the roof of the Thatched Cottage in Masons Lane, Bradford on Avon in 2012.

Although the word thatch originally referred to the covering a roof, regardless of the material, it has come to be restricted to roofing a building with plant material. In this area this generally means using straw. Many, perhaps most, of the houses in the area of the Hundred of Bradford are likely to have been thatched before the 18th century. Nineteenth century census records and directories list thatchers in the villages and the town and photographs from early 20th century show those that survived and even then seem to have been considered as curiosities.

Today, very few houses are thatched, notably that at the junction of Market Street, Masons Lane and Newtown in Bradford which owes its survival to being a cottage ornée, a romantic item in the estate of the manor house that came to be known as The Priory.

Houses that were formerly thatched can usually be identified by having a steeper roof than others, often, like this row at Ham Green, Holt, with dormer windows.