Old Tiles

Mrs B went to a talk on the history of our village and she gave me a bit of a guided tour as we walked this afternoon.  This old farmhouse has oak shingles, dating from a fair old time ago, it seems.  But the structure of the roof, the gable end, shows it proud of the roof and was the support for the original thatch.  It would have been laid against the upstanding wall and draped around the near end, cloaking this end of the top of the house.

And if you look at the side of the chimney you can see the top of some sort of former structure – perhaps the shroud necessary to protect the thatch from sparks from the chimney.

We were tempted by houses with thatched roofs, but we were warned of the cost – loads of dosh every fifteen or twenty years apparently.