Heritage houses: Wherwell

To wander through the quintessentially English village of Wherwell in Hampshire is to go back in time. Roger Hunt describes how thatch became an important local roofing material for a range of houses that span the 17th to 19th centuries.

Rolling chalk hills, heaths and downland, rivers and streams, tranquil water meadows and woodland, Hampshire can only be described as a county of diversity. The buildings are no different: scattered through this varied landscape there are villages and market towns displaying a wealth of vernacular architecture.

Good building stone was lacking in the county but this does not diminish the comfortable serenity of the buildings. By necessity, those who built the houses and cottages, the mills and the inns used the materials locally to hand. They cut timber from the forests, mined flint from the ground and dug clay from the deposits in the south of the county to form walls of cob and brick. On the roofs they laid thatch, the straw no doubt harvested in the fields round about.

Nowhere is thatch more evident than in Wherwell, which lies to the west of the county within the Test Valley, about four and a half miles south of Andover and close to the Roman road, the Icknield Way, and ancient Harewood Forest. Here over half the buildings are listed or of local interest. The older cottages are long, low and generally timber framed with steeply pitched thatched roofs. They have low overhanging eaves and other traditional details such as decorative bargeboards (boards attached to the gable ends to give added protection against weather), dormer windows and porches.

Traditionally the thatch was long straw. This has a distinctive ‘poured on’ look that gives a house a unique ‘shaggy’ appearance throughout its life. Sadly, in more recent times, combed wheat reed has assumed greater prominence and is now the main thatching material in the village, inevitably changing the character of the buildings with its more compact look.

ABOVE (left-right): The peaceful churchyard of St Peter and Holy Cross, a fine example of mid-19th-century Gothic Revival architecture; The overhanging eaves of this cottage protect its walls and timber frame from rain. Moss is not uncommon on thatch and may not be detrimental – a thatcher will advise on the best course of action.

The benefits of thatch
Originally thatch was a cheap roof covering, and common in rural areas until the mid-19th century, with a wide variety of readily available materials used: heather, bracken, broom, reeds, straw and various grasses. What was used and the thatching styles adopted varied greatly from region to region with strong local traditions.

Thatching depends on the skill of the thatcher, the quality of the material and a steep pitch to the roof so the water runs off. Long straw was once one of the most common thatching types. The work was frequently undertaken by farm labourers and the practice when re-thatching was to lay a new layer of thatch on to an older base layer so, in some cases, these base layers are extremely old and provide an invaluable archaeological resource.

With long straw thatch, the loose straw is drawn into units of thatch called ‘yealms’. These are fixed in courses to a base coat of thatch by hazel spars. The eaves and gables are fixed with surface ‘liggers’ (long, hazel or willow rods tapered at each end), a technique that is not required with other thatching methods. Traditionally long straw would also have had ‘rolled barges’ or edges and a flush fitting ridge without ornamentation. Older wheat varieties producing tall, strong-stemmed straw produce the best quality thatching straw. Unlike grain crops, which are harvested when ripe, straw for thatching is harvested before the stems have fully ripened.

The two other main forms of thatch are combed wheat reed, which is also a wheat straw, and water reed. Unlike long straw, which, once applied, is raked to remove loose straw, combed wheat reed is dressed and knocked into shape so has a much neater, trimmed look.

Water reed, although laid in a similar way to combed wheat reed, is a completely different material. It was traditionally used in areas with access to reed beds and is frequently known as ‘Norfolk reed’, although today it is often imported.

The reeds are laid on to the roof with their ‘butts’ down and fixed laterally by ‘sways’ (hazel rods) hidden beneath the subsequent layer. Only the bottom of the plant is left exposed, the stem being dressed into place to form a tight finish with a tool called a ‘leggett’.

ABOVE (left-right): The master thatcher is a skilled craftsman who will conserve base layers of thatch as far as possible – these offer an invaluable insight into how life was lived in the house in previous centuries; A brick and tile mill house occupies this idyllic spot on the River Test where wildlife thrives – a scene that has changed little in centuries.

Village highlights
Having grown up alongside the river and its water meadows, Wherwell is a relatively compact village, with the historic core encompassing the 17th- to 19th-century houses of Church Street, Mill Lane and Winchester Road. The White Lion dates from 1611 and the inn took advantage of the important coaching link that ran along the then main highway between Winchester and Andover. Although the railway came in the 1880s, it was not a financial success and closed in 1956 with the former ticket office and stationmaster’s house now privately owned.

At the heart of Wherwell, set against a group of white painted, timber-framed, thatched cottages, is the war memorial. Throughout the village the cottages are constructed from timber, cob, brick and flint with some rendered in shades of cream and white and displaying a fascinating variety of windows, doors and other details. Coming into full view beyond its lychgate, the church of St Peter and Holy Cross was rebuilt in 1858 by Henry Woodyer, the Gothic Revival architect, of flint with Bath stone dressings.

Until relatively recently, Wherwell was largely owned by the Wherwell Priory Estate and this undoubtedly influenced the development of the village. Surrounded by parkland, Wherwell Priory, a private, Grade II* listed Georgian fronted house, is on the site of a former Benedictine abbey founded around 986 and dissolved in 1539. At the time of the Domesday Survey of 1086, it included the abbey, convent buildings, three mills, 65 acres of meadow and substantial areas of woodland. By the time of the dissolution, the Priory had its own slaughterhouse, granary, brewing and baking houses. The present Grade I listed stable building dates from the 13th century.

Read all about a thatched cottage restoration...

Visit Roger Hunt's website at huntwriter.com

WORDS ROGER HUNT PHOTOGRAPHS HUGH PALMER (Courtesy of The Most Beautiful Villages of England); GOLAKES.CO.UK (golakes.co.uk)
Featured in the June 2011 issue of Period Living