Community Stories: The Thatched Roof

Leagrave Cottage is just one of the thatched buildings at Chiltern Open Air Museum.

In 2017 the Flourish project recorded stories of the local community, reflecting the multi-cultural heritage surrounding the buildings at Chiltern Open Air Museum. It was supported by Arts Council England. We look back on one of these community stories, as told by Justin Merry & written by Mai sim Merry.

‘In the 1980s, we lived in Devon and ran a 45 acres traditional farm.  The house we lived in had a thatched roof and we also had an Aga as a cooker.

A thatched roof meant that we had quite a few Thatch spiders living in the roof. Some were really big and I remember watching them pick up their prey, such a wasp, and tear it apart. If you don’t like spiders then living under thatch would probably be your biggest nightmare, but for me it was not that bad!

My Father fancied himself as a bit of a City farmer. He had always been curious about how the thatched roof was constructed, so one day he decided to go up into the attic and take a look. He had expected to see nicely cut and treated timbers solidly joined with nails and brackets. But instead he was shocked to find various untreated tree branches tied together! He was so scared of the thought of such an unsafe roof that he decided it was best not to know anymore and promptly shut up the loft door and never to venture back up again!

The most exciting event living under a thatched roof was when my cousin nearly burnt the house down!

I was working outside, when my cousin ran out screaming “Get away, the house is going to be burnt down.” I looked up at house to see flames leaping out of the chimney. I immediately rang the fire bridge before using a pressure washer to damp down the chimney and the thatch around it.

The fire brigade arrived promptly, climbed up to the chimney and pushed a hand-held Stirrup pump down it. Within five minutes the fire was out with just a soggy kitchen and minimum mess.

Meanwhile, my Father was chin -wagging down the road with a neighbour. They were watching 3 speeding Fire engines with the Fire chief in tow, and wondering where they were off to. “Mmm, must be a serious fire…” they were saying, before they realised that the convoy were heading to our farm!

After the fire was put out, I just realised what a close call it had been. My Dad was really angry with everyone, including me, until the Fire Chief approached him and praised my action. Without me hosing down the chimney prior to their arrival, we would have lost everything and the spiders in the thatch would have been made homeless!

The Fireman found my cousin cowering in his locked car, with his children, about 15 feet foot away in the Car port when they were packing the hoses away.

The cause of the fire, was the over filling of the Aga with fuel by another City Dweller – my cousin.  The Aga did not sustain any damage and continued its service which included lining it with towels and reviving winter born little lambs suffering from the cold. It takes 10-15 minutes to ‘defrost’ the lambs then they would climb out by themselves and be reunited with the anxious ‘Mums’ waiting outside the house.’