This video is a contemporary record of all that lies behind the re-thatching of a Suffolk cottage. It starts with the drilling of the long-stemmed wheat seed forty miles away at Red Barn Farm. Robert and John Foster show how they nurture the growing crop and prepare an 50-year-old binder to cut it. After the binder has done its work, the crop is stood in shocks before being carted and stacked. Then follows an old-fashioned threshing to separate the grain from the straw.
After master thatcher Paul Congdon receives the straw, he prepares the yelms or bundles that he carries up the ladder and on to the cottage roof. We follow Paul as he secures the thatch with broaches, decorates it with hazel rods, and then cuts it out and trims it to a picture-postcard result.
Seedtime, harvest and thatch... a process rooted in tradition, but kept up to date by dedicated farmers and a master craftsman.
Directed and scripted by Brian Bell with a full commentary narrated by Chris Opperman.