There are just over 200 houses left in the country that can boast of having their bread bin in the roof - strange but true. Inside Out reveals all. John Letts is an archeobotanist with a passion for ...

Thatch roofs are normally 12 to 15 centimetres (five to six inches) thick, containing multiple layers of thatch. Slope or ...

Asked to picture a traditional village scene in rural Oxfordshire, many people would point to a thatched cottage. But in fact, the craft of thatching has changed radically since the 1960s. Before that ...

Just when you thought thatched cottages were a thing of the past, along comes a woman who says that straw holds out the promise of a sustainable future. Professional thatcher Marike Leen spoke to Ryan ...

The distance in between is your thatch layer. If you take a close look at this material, you will see it is composed of old roots, leaves and rhizomes (or underground stems) that the grass plant ...

The simplicity of the process appealed to Marike, and while sustainablity wasn't exactly a buzzword in 1980's Ireland, thatching ticked all the environmental boxes: "I thought it was so interesting ...

A thatcher with a three-year waiting list for his services said a shortage of straw had caused problems for his industry. Chris Dodson, who runs a thatching company based in Sawtry, Cambridgeshire, ...