Glossary | ||
| Apron | Single sided section of thatch constructed as a half ridge to make good the joint under a chimney or window. | |
| Arris Rail | See tilting fillet. | |
| Back Filling | Laid above battens and under the main thatch, used to adjust the tilt or angle of reed or straw. | |
| Barge Board | Solid verticle board used as an alternative to turned or cut gable end. | |
Barge or Verge | The finished edge of the thatch overhanging the Gable, also known as the Brow or Gable | |
| Barrel Gable | See rolled Gable. | |
| Base Coat | Roughly thatched coat over the rafters to straighten undulations and provide a sound base for the final coat. | |
| Battens | Horizontal strips of timberfixed to the rafters to prevent materials falling through and to aid fastening. | |
| Bed | A random heap of thatching material from which straws are pulled to remove unwanted rubbish and ensure the stems are parallel. Drawn from yealms for either longstraw or for ridging. | |
| Biddle | Working platform hooked into thatch and or battens instead of a ladder. Also know as a hanging ladder. | |
| Binder | Old machine used to cut thatching straw as part of the harvesting process. | |
| Black Thatch | Heather thatching - Mainly found around the Scottish borders. | |
| Block Ridge | A ridge applied to stand proud of the roofing thatch. Normally thatched in sedgeon a reed roof. | |
| Bottle | Small quantity of material tied at the small end, used for starting the angle needed for setting eaves and gables. | |
| Box Gutter | Leaded gutterand associated flashing behind a chimney or protruding structurepassing through the roof, to maintain weatherproofing. | |
| Brow Course | The first course of material, after the eave wadd is put in, which sets the pitchof the roof and point of the eave. | |
| Bundle | Quantity of thatching material, usually Water Reed approximately 24"(60cm). | |
| Butt | The lower (cut) end of a bundle of straw or reed. | |
| Butting | Dressing the butt ends by dropping on to a hard clean surface. i.e. a butting board / spot board. | |
| Butt-up Ridge | More common in the West country. This method fixes the butt ends pointing up to the apex of the roof, with the butts of the more exposed slope being slightly higher than those on the other slope | |
| Cheek | Side of a window. | |
| Coat | Layer of entire thatch, sometimes over an existing roof. | |
| Coatwork | The surface of the roof, same as "face." | |
| Cob | Generally refers to buildings and boundary walls constructed with various earth-extracted materials. Mainly clay or chalk or mixtures of both in Hampshire. The walls are often rendered with early 19th century patented cements. | |
| Combed Wheat | Wheat straw which has been passed through a reed comber, a modification of a thrashing drum to mechanically straightenand clean outthe unwanted leaf. | |
| Course | A horizontal layer or reed or straw. | |
| Crooks or Hooks | Iron rods of various lengths from 200 to 300mm, pointed at one end and rounded at the other. The thatcher secures the thatch to the roof by laying sways across the straw or reed then using crooks to pin the sways to the rafters. | |
| Cross Rods | Mainly Hazel rods split and used for fixing and ornamentation between liggers, patterns on the ridge and eave. | |
| Cruck Frames | One of three main types of timber frame structures with curved timbers forming the main trusses of the house and support for the roof. | |
| Dressing | Driving the material into final position by striking with a legget or drift. | |
| Drift | See legget. | |
| Dutchman | Type of legget originating from the Netherlands, so called as it is shaped like a clog. | |
| Eave | First course of thatching forming the outermost point. | |
| Eyebrow Window | Small window or eyelet, high in the wall necessitating a curve of the thatched eave over it to keep it functional. | |
| Face | The surface of the main roof. | |
| Flashing | Cement or lead sheet fixed over the thatch and onto the brickwork at the chimney or wall abutments. | |
| Flush Ridge | A ridge applied to the same level as the roofing thatch. Found on long straw and combed wheat thatched roofs. | |
| Gable | The finished end of the thatch over hanging the gable end of a property. | |
| Gadd | Length of Hazel wood before splitting into spars or liggers. | |
| Half Coat | To thatch in any material over the existing thatch after it has been stripped to a reasonable level and re-fastened to the rafters if needed. | |
| Legget | A wooden tool also known as a bat, beetle or dresser, used to drive combed wheat and water reed into position on the roof. | |
| Liggers | Split Hazel or Willow rods used to form a decorative pattern on ridges and around the edge of long straw roofs. | |
| Long Straw | Threshed wheat straw prepared by hand. the straw is thrashed but not combed or combine harvested. | |
| Needle | Used to stitch on the thatch, an iron rod with an eye to apply stitching material around the sway and rafter/batten. | |
| Netting | Galvanised wire or polythene used to protect the thatch from bird damage. | |
| Norfolk Reed | Water Reed, Continental Reed, Reed (Phragmites australis). A member of the grass/bamboo family, ranging from 2 to 8 feet tall. Used for thatching purposes. | |
| Pitch | The angle of the roof- 45o is the accepted minimum for the roof pitch. 50o obviously considered better. | |
| Pinnacle | A raised end of a ridge, gable or top point of a hip. | |
| Pole Rafters | Whole, straight, small tree trunks, found as main structural members in 18th century roof frames covered with thatch. | |
| Ridge | Capping on topmost part of the roof. It is a covering of supple straw or sedge grass, laid along the apex of the roof to bind and protect the main thatch: Flush A) Plain - Finished flush to the surface of the roof with minimal decoration. Other types include wrap-over, butt up, knuckle, rope. B) Decorated - Crossed or herring bone pattern pieces, made with spars and liggers. Block A) Straight cut 3" - 4" (100 - 200mm) thick cut straight line below bottom ligger. B) Ornamental Cut - Cut or shaped to the desired pattern. Patterns include dragons teeth, diamond, scalloped, clubbed, herring- bone and crossed. | |
| Ridge Roll | Sausage like rolls of reed or straw100 - 200mm in diameter and of any suitable length, used to build up the ridge to a sharp apex prior to capping. | |
| Ridge Yealm | A yealm of ridging materialwithout pronounced taper at either end forming the topmost part of the ridge. | |
Rolled Gable | The main roof continues round the gable end and is fixed with liggers. | |
| Rye Straw | Threshed and used now mainly for ridging. | |
| Saddle | The junction of a ridge with a main coat. | |
| Screw Fixing | A screw attached to a stainless steel wireis fixed into the battens and the wire fastened to the sway. | |
| Sedge | (Cladium mariscus) Used for capping a Water Reed Roof. | |
| Set | See Course. | |
| Set Pin | Pointed length of steel used to temporarily hold materials with a cross piece at the top to hold sways. | |
| Sheaf | Bundle of crops as cut from the field by binder or hand - 8 sheafs make a stook, 16 make a stock. | |
| Skirt | The lowest courses of a ridge thickened at the butt when used as a cut pattern roof. | |
| Spar Coat | See Half Coat. | |
| Spars | Split Hazel or Willow sticks sharpened at each end and twisted in the middle to form a staple. Spars are used to secure new thatch to an existing roof. | |
| Spot Board | Board for 'butting up' of reed bundles. See Butt. | |
| Square | Traditional measurement for the area of a thatched roof (10ft x 10ft). | |
| Staunch | Thatching in a verticle strip up the roof rather than horizontally as in course mainly Long Straw. | |
| Stool | A Clump of growing Hazel. | |
| Sways | Split or round rods made of Hazel, willow or steel used with spars or iron crooks to secure thatch over coatsor to rafters horizontally in paralell with the line of the eaves. | |
| Sweep | The forming of a valley. | |
| Tarred Cord | Strong cord treated with Stockholm tar. Synthetics are also used but tying is rare as a permanent fixture, when used the sway is tied to the rafter or batten or no sway is used. | |
| Thatching Nails | See Crooks. | |
| Thrashing | Methods of removing grain from straw manually or mainly mechanically now in a thrashing drum. | |
| Tilting Fillet | Timber used at the eave and gable to start the roof off at the right angle to ensure correct tension is started on the roof. Frequently triangular - usually 4" x 4" or 4" x 3" cut diagonally. | |
| Twisters | Used for twisting wire ties around a sway or rod when fixing thatch to roof. | |
| Verge | See Gable. | |
| Wadd | Small bundle of material to continue the action of the tilting fillet. | |
| Water Reed | (Phragmites Communis) now reclassified as Phragmites australis obtained traditionally from East Anglia now additionally from other countries around the world. | |
| Withy | Willow used for rods, sways and spars. | |
| Yealm | A prepared drawn arm full of Long straw or Sedge 14" - 18" (350-450mm) wide and 4" (100mm) thick. Used like a thick roof tile. | |
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