BCD 2018

79 C AT H E D R A L COMMU N C I AT I O N S C E L E B R AT I N G T W E N T Y F I V E Y E A R S O F T H E B U I L D I N G CO N S E R VAT I O N D I R E C TO R Y 1 9 9 3 – 2 0 1 8 ROOFING 3.1 are available. Recently, advice was sought from HES by an owner on the Western Isles seeking to re-thatch a marram roof with locally grown bere straw, as marram could not be sourced. In future, perhaps this type of local responsiveness may be part of the answer to maintaining thatch, allowing for seasonal and regional changes over time as part of the natural life-cycle of the building without being too dogmatic about historical precedent, while adhering to local traditions of application, fixing and detailing. SKILLS As serious as the sourcing of suitable materials is the lack of skills in traditional thatching. Following the publication of the survey, a thatched buildings conference was held at Culloden in Inverness-shire on 4 May 2017. It was well attended by planning officers and craftspeople. It raised hope that there are A cottage on the Isle of Benbecula, re-thatched using marram swept over the ridge. Netting covers the thatch and is weighted at the eaves with large stones tied on with wire. A 19th-century cottage at Plockton, Wester Ross, which is listed as having a ‘piended [hipped] heather thatched roof’. Unusually, it still retains one. As the SPAB’s survey notes, the ridge is continuous, with the heather secured by a single horizontal wire to the ridge by pegs, partially obscured by the timber poles which delineate the ridge. A late 19th- or early 20th-century cottage, also on Benbecula, which according to the list description had a ‘muran [marram] thatched roof secured with ropes and modern bricks as weights’. The SPAB records that it appears to be thatched in reed and/or straw, scobed (secured) with hazel spars at the ridge.