April 2015 Magazine

In My Day
the ramblings of Hubert James
In my day it was about this time of
year when everything changed in
Finedon. Some of you will remember
the famous failure of the Water Reed
and Rushes crop in the Fens.
I should explain that in my day, most
houses had thatched roofs. With a
good thick thatch and thick stone
walls it was no wonder that nobody
thought of inventing central heating.
The Thatching industry probably
would have survived one bad year.
The situation only became serious
with the arrival of Acker Bilk. Acker
made playing the clarinet popular with
his tune ‘Stranger on the Shore’. Folk
all over the place took up the clarinet,
and the clarinet needed a supply of
reeds to make it work. Soon reeds
were like gold dust.
So the poor old Thatcher was
flummoxed. Locally, we relied on a
chap known as Mr Dennis for all our
thatching needs. Now Mr Dennis
spent a lot of time in The Fens and
married a girl called Peggy Roberts
from Grantham. They came back to
the county and set up home in
Thrapston.
Peggy was a bit of an activist. She
was treasurer of their Parish Council.
She pushed Mr Dennis to find an
alternative to reed thatching.
He wasn’t stupid, rather than traipse
around searching himself, he
organised a competition to find a
suitable alternative. He offered a new
roof to anyone who came up with an
alternative raw material.
Now to the local farmers it was
obvious; straw. Half a dozen offered
the same solution, which gave Mr
Dennis a problem because he was
never going to thatch six farmhouses
for free.
Peggy suggested they should have a
play off, or thatch off. For six weeks,
every Saturday, each farmer
presented his hay solution on stage at
the Star Hall in front of a packed
house. Then after they’d all made
their case, the people voted.
Mr Dennis carried on thatching for a
while with hay after that, but as I say
change was in the air and the spread
of welsh slate changed roofing for
ever.
But we all remember those six weeks
fondly, mainly because we didn’t have
a lot to do on a Saturday night. Who
won? An arable farmer called Kenny
Wolstenholme. You’ll have heard of
the show, it was called Thatch of the
Hay.
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