Country diary: English thatchers are having to take to the woods | Tom Allan

Start Bay, Devon: I'm on the hunt for straight hazel for a roof, and supple hazel for a fiddly porch. Normally I wouldn't be doing thisThe sun has turned the bay indigo, and in this hazel hedgerow above the sea, you can almost hear the sap rising. The first buds are forming, and the catkins send puffs of lime green pollen into the air as I brush through the branches in search of hazel to cut.English thatching is unimaginable without the hazel tree. Its wood is used to make spars - pointed staple-like fixings that hold the wheat or reed in place. For the last two decades, spars have mostly been imported from Poland, due not to a lack of English hazel, but to cheaper Polish labour costs. Continue reading...