Country diary: bad weather leaves thatchers with the short straw

Buckland in the Moor, Devon: An unpromising wheat harvest results in scruffy raw material for thatchers this year, but looks aren't everything It began life as a cow shed. The low building at the edge of St Peter's Church in Buckland in the Moor looks unremarkable enough - rough granite walls, a simple roof of Devon wheat - yet it is believed to be the only surviving thatched vestry in the country.I am here to repair the roof. The church treasurer, Patrick Watson, shows me inside to inspect the damp around the chimney; he explains that the building probably began its second life as a vestry in the second half of the 19th century. We shine our torches up on to crooked hazel battens and a basecoat (underlayer) of wheat as old as the building. Continue reading...