thatching , would you have a go?

[Penners]

Last night's programme on greenwood chair-making was kinda interesting, but so many missed opportunities for being a usefully informative programme. Why is TV obsessed with the human story, the failures and successes of human emotion? A programme about how to make a chair would have been much better.

I expect next week's on thatching will follow the same mills&boon formula.

Oh dear. I couldn't watch last night, so recorded it. But I was very much afraid that it would end up as the kind of someone's-gotta-cry-cos-it's-real-life-innit pap that dominates our screens these days.

I had hoped that Monty's presence would lift the series a cut above others, but judging by Biff's critique.....

I'll probably watch it if I get fed up with the enthralling sight of my paint drying.

 

[Flyfisher]

Why is TV obsessed with the human story, the failures and successes of human emotion? A programme about how to make a chair would have been much better.

Probably because commissioning editors have no interest in how to make a chair and, in all fairness, the potential audience for such a programme would be rather too small for a 9pm friday night slot.

I actually made a point of watching it, largely on the basis of Penners' point about Monty's involvement, but although it held my interest I agree with Biff that it wasn't particularly inspiring and I felt I had lazily wasted an hour by the end of it.

The other thing I wondered about was the real point of the whole exercise anyway. I can certainly understand the romance of living in the woods and hand-working bits of trees into far-too-expensive chairs, but the whole thing struck me as an indulgence really. The programme notes states: As Monty says, "This is a real kind of freedom." . Well, perhaps - if you can afford £600 a week for the course, the time to hone the newly learned skills and then to live on £10/hour if you eventually become a real mastercraftsman - assuming you really can find a market for basic chairs costing £500-700 each. But it struck me as more of an 'adventure holiday' really. Nothing wrong with that, of course, it was just the subliminal suggestion of an 'alternative' lifestyle that didn't seem entirely honest to me.

 

[ilona73]

I agree with Penners on this. I don't think I've ever met a poor ( monetary) thatcher. We had our ridge done last year ( first reridge) and I wish I could command the same rate as I was paying. He did do a good job though. The same guy did our roof as his final apprenticship piece about twenty eight years ago and it still has at least ten yers life in it - and it's long straw.

I have just been reading about thatching and have found it fascinating especially, how a well maintained reed thatch can last 80 years or more and a straw one up to 40 and beyond? I was always of the impression they only had a lifespan of 15-20 years at most. It has been the most informative of reads and while i agree they can be costly when you think about the amount of effort that goes into a thatch roof from the sourcing of materials, the time it takes to do, not to mention risk factor as some of the positions those guys get themselves into whilst atop of the said roof you have to agree that thatchers earn every penny they make. I am sure if you sat down and did the maths they probably don't earn as much as you imagine.

 

[fjpdesigns]

All I can say in reply is the ones I know do seem to make a good living. I know it's hard work and hazardous and two that I know have given up earlier than was to be expected, but they do make a tidy living out of it. Of the perhaps half dozen that I know, or knew, I don't recall any having to supplement their income with other work.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

I understand that most "Norfolk" reed nowadays comes from Lake Balaton in Hungary, which is apparently a bit carpier than our home grown stuff, not sure why (go figure).
But then Norfolk reed isn't the thatching material of (traditional) choice anywhere west of Ely, and longstraw, combed wheat reed, heather and the rest do contribute a lot to local distinctiveness.

 

[biffvernon]

to live on £10/hour if you eventually become a real mastercraftsman

I can't see much wrong with £10/hour. That's almost double the minimum wage and more than many people, even in a rich country like this, earn.
It's the payments of £50/hour and more that need to be criticised.

 

[Flyfisher]

I meant that £10/hour didn't seem very much in the context of being a master craftsman who has honed their craft over many years. There are certainly easier ways of making far more money, which was my point about the programme seeming like an 'indulgence' for people who have established themselves in a much higher-paying field, bought their houses, paid off their mortgages, sent the kids on their way and are looking to 'down-shift'. Wasn't one of the programme participants a 'marketing executive'?