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A few weeks ago I was given an envelope containing some photographs. One of them was this picture, probably from the 1920s, which showed a thatched cottage with “At the Quarry” hand written on the back. The person who gave me the envelope felt it must be my house since I live under thatch. It would be nice to think so as the house in the picture has a tidy and probably recently re-done thatch and, with its garden, looks like it could have come from the front of a fancy chocolate box.On closer inspection though, the arrangement was wrong. My house has its chimney on the end of the thatched section, not in the middle. Also the ground falls away from us whereas the photographer is obviously standing above the level of the ground floor in the picture. I looked out of our window and noticed our neighbour’s house opposite. Although much changed in the intervening years it is definitely theirs. The thatch went many years ago when the first floor was raised and there is a large extension sideways on to the left hand side of the former house. The front garden which was in those days a market garden is now mainly lawn. No wonder the donor of the photographs didn’t recognise it!
Which brings me back in a circle because as I write we are having our own cottage rethatched. The south side of the house was last done back in 1966 so it has lasted well. But it was beginning to look a mess. A mess is also what you get when the thatchers remove the old reed and the wind scatters it around the locality. It should be complete in a few weeks and we are looking forward to being as tidy as the cottage in the picture.