Long Straw Thatching specialists in Hampshire, Surrey and West Sussex

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Long Straw is grown in several parts of the country and is the material that involves the most preparation.  I am grateful to have worked with different long straw Thatchers, each of whose skills were handed down by their fathers.  Being the most labour intensive material to work with, it is in the preparation of the bundles, known as yealms, where real experience shows.

Long straw is often prepared offsite as it requires a lot of space.  Traditionally, the straws are shaken up into a ‘bed’ sometimes as large as 20ft x 40ft and then loosened from the truss form that they arrive in, with all the straws – ears (tops) and butts (bottoms) mixed – facing in one direction.  This is then soaked, often left overnight to steep, which allows it to be pulled clean from the bed without it bunching together to create the yealms.  These are then tied together in bundles of threes or fours ready to be carried to the roof for thatching.

Long straw yealms are laid in place as opposed to being ‘dressed’ in position as we do with wheat reed and water reed and needs to be laid at a steep pitch for longevity.   As with wheat reed, we always net our long straw roofs.  Perhaps best recognised by its sparred eave and shaggy appearance, finished off with a traditional flush ridge, it really “looks the part”.