Rietdekker / Thatcher #03

TVGreen's Time Machine presents "The Thatcher"
from the series "Claim to Fame"

Berend doesn't need many tools for his work.
We've already seen the long knife, which he used to cut away the tufts from the spread. Then there's the extra slat of wood. It also helps to keep the bundles from being blown off the roof when they're being beaten into shape. Berend leans and stands on the slat while he's putting on the spread.
Soon we'll come across a girder of sorts, but that only appears when the thatcher can't reach the reeds from the scaffolding.

One last gauging of thickness with the straight needle and a sideways glance from both corners of the roof, and the reeds are fastened with a thick piece of twine.
To anchor the reeds firmly, you use a round needle, which is passed around the roof slats. The twine comes into play only at the last moment.
Once the twine is completely pulled through, a special pair of thatcher's pliers is brought out from its hiding place in the overalls pliers with extra long and flat jaws.
The straight needle, also used as gauging stick, is for those parts of the roof which you can't get to with the rounded needle.
So that's the thatcher's tool supply.
In a minute you won't see all those pieces of twine. They get covered with a second layer of reed.

The thatched roof takes shape, bundle by bundle by bundle. it seems like an endless job, but you can calculate it to the minute.
Every workday he covers about ten square metres of roof. About 10 bundles of 55 centimetres each goes on one square metre. At least 800 bunches of reed will cover this roof, which makes 100 a day. However you look at this job, not much can go wrong. It is a simple roof, nothing fancy. only one window needs to be cut out. A neighbour wanders by to talk about village goings-on: the music, the reed, the roof, the fields and the cement that will be needed soon for the very top.

The whole time we've been watching him work, he's been wearing old worn-down clogs. Dangerous, you would think. You'd be wrong. A really worn-down clog, with no heel left, is the safest thing to wear up on a roof. Your shoe doesn't get caught on something and you don't slip on the reeds. Berend's clogs are quite new, but he wore them down behind the mower out there in the field. Water and reed marshes characterise this region, which provides about a fourth of the reed Holland needs. Hungary, Poland and France bring in the rest. It is an area that is partly man-made. Craftsmanship and nature, hand in hand.Bundled reeds look all the same to most people. But if you look carefully, you can read the history of each reed field. Sometimes populated by cat's tail, in other places with morning glory and woundwort.
And sometimes it's left to itself, becomes overgrown. The circle. closes; and the craft dies out.

broadcast footage: http://www.stockshot.nl/stockshots/beroepen.htm

Music title Hypnothis by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) licensed under Creative Commons "Attribution 3.0"

webcasted by http://www.tvgreen.nl

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