CONTEXT 189 : SEPTEMBER 2026 27 INFRASTRUCTURE A house at Great Tew, Oxfordshire, thatched by Ian Parkinson with water reed and a combed wheat straw ridge (Photo: Sally Stradling) THREATENED MATERIALS AND CRAFTS SALLY STRADLING Thatch spars for a sustainable tradition With around 18 million hazel or willow spars needed annually to maintain thatched roofs in the UK, new sources of supply and a new generation of skilled spar makers are needed. There is nothing more quintessentially English than a thatched cottage with roses round the door. Timeless, comforting even, the stuff of Miss Marple films or The Vicar of Dibley. Yet this rural idyll is at risk as never before. There are some 60,000 thatched buildings in Britain, including around 200 in Scotland, a handful in Wales and about 2,000 in Ireland. Threats include shortages of thatch materials (both reed and straw); skills shortages; antiquated machinery reaching the end of its life; and climate change, with excessive wet affecting growing seasons, followed by drought impacting crop production. Factor in pandemics and wars interrupting supply chains for imported materials, the availability of seasonal labour and increasing difficulty in obtaining insurance cover for thatched properties, and a rather bleak picture emerges. Take the case of thatch spars as part of the raft of materials needed for thatching. There is currently an identified skills and materials shortage (access to hazel coppice) to make spars in sufficient numbers to support thatchers in the UK. About 90 per cent of hazel spars (already twisted) have in recent years been imported from Poland. A more local solution would negate spiralling costs and delays, and reduce the carbon footprint of the spars. Spar making is on the red list of endangered heritage crafts, with between one and five full-time spar makers and 21–50 part-timers. It is estimated that some 18 million spars are needed annually to maintain thatched roofs in the UK, based on about 800 working thatchers. Spars are fundamental to thatching roofs: they are staple-like fixings, made from short lengths of about 27–30 inches, of coppiced hazel or willow, which are hand twisted and used to secure bundles of thatch to roofs. They are also used in patternwork on ridges and verges. An average-sized, three-bay cottage roof of about 15 to 18 thatching squares (a square = 10 x 10 feet, or 3 x 3 metres) would require approximately 7,000 spars, including ridgework. Spars are sold in quantities of 1,000, made up of four bundles of 250, or five bundles of 200. Spar makers charge around £250 per thousand – 25p each. In recent years a crisis point has been reached with a lack of spars being available to thatchers, whether home produced or imported. Without spars, thatchers can not thatch. In the past, thatchers produced their own spars or bought them from local spar makers. On average a proficient spar maker can produce about 800 to 1,000 spars a day. This skilled and laborious work involves standing or sitting bent over splitting hazel gads (prepared lengths) with a billhook, and finally sharpening them to a point and twisting them. In recent times many thatchers have found it more cost effective and convenient to buy imported spars from eastern Europe from UK thatch-materials suppliers.
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