Thatching at ‘danger point’ due to straw shortage

A grower has warned the thatching industry is at “danger point” of dying without more young people entering the industry.

Thatching straw is a specific crop for the thatching of roofs, that requires particular skills to grow and cultivate.

Robin Kurzaj, from Billinghay, Lincolnshire, said factors such as climate change, maintenance of old machinery and labour intensive harvesting meant finding new people to learn a trade “that comes with huge risks”, was getting harder.

“I get phone calls every week, basically crying out for thatching straw,” he added.

Kurzaj, who learnt about thatching and the growing of thatching straw in the 1970s through his father, Joe, said he wanted to see more people getting involved, including through apprenticeship schemes.

“People are retiring, people don’t want to do it, and the government doesn’t want to help in any way, so it’s just a fighting battle really to get the material.

“It’s the material, not the thatchers, we are short on.

“It’s dying a big death now. It is really getting to a danger point where the thatch will go,” he said.

Kurzaj said three other growers he had spoken to this week had already lost their crops this year due to the weather.