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This beautiful home is a rubble stone lime mortar
reed thatched cottage in
Blaise
Hamlet near Bristol, England. It was designed by John Nash, a master of the
picturesque architectural style and designer of Buckingham Palace. The
cottage, along with the rest of the hamlet, is owned by the UK's National Trust.
In the past people would ‘patch up’ thatch over the years, but
the affluent new owners of thatched houses can afford to
completely overhaul the roof. Sadly this practice, without thought
to the environment, is killing off the now rare thatch moss.
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The beautiful National Trust tearoom (above left),
called
Periwinkle, in Selworthy, England has more than 3,000 plants on its thatched roof, which
represents the largest known population of thatch moss anywhere in
the world. What determines the life of a thatched
roof?
That depends on a lot of variables like the pitch of the roof, the thickness
of the thatch and its packing density. It also depends on the skill of the thatcher,
the climate, the orientation of the house and the surrounding
vegetation but not least the quality and type of the thatch
material. Reed from well managed reed beds of high quality; harvest timing, cutting, cleaning, dry storage
and conditioning all contribute to the reed quality. You can get a
complete overview at the
National Society of Master Thatchers. |
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