Reed has been used for thatching for many centuries, probably since man first settled near wetlands, since the obvious roofing material is that which is close at hand and forms a durable roof. It was not until the development of the rail network in the early and middle nineteenth century, which brought cheap Welsh slate across the country, that tiled roofs became abundant. As this coincided with an increase in population, and so of housing, the decline of thatch was slow. Thatching reached its ebb about 1935-60. It was then boosted by the introduction of short-stemmed cereals, and combine harvesters, which decreased the amount of ‘wheat reed’ and straw available for thatching. If thatched roofs were to continue as before reed thatching had to extend into new areas (although the total thatch in Britain is still predominantly from wheat straw)

Originally reed was cut with a scythe with a bow shaped attachment to catch the cut stalks or even more labour intensive a sickle, and tied with a sedge or willow band. Reed is extremely difficult to cut due to its hard and fibrous nature As farm mechanisation came in a modified Alan Scythe some with two or three extra wheels bolted on to improve buoyancy increased cutting productivity by many times. Now even Rice harvesters are employed, instead of cutting and cleaning through the bed the roughly cut bundle is cleaned off the marsh. These methods and modernisation is mirrored and even copied from the changes in cereal production.

British thatching might have almost disappeared, as it has done over much of the continent, where "thatch" implies unacceptable poverty this can be seen near the Danube. Fortunately, to the English mind, ‘thatch’ means "The Proper English Countryside" and so the rural (including commuting) population wish to preserve, and even sometimes to increase this form of roofing. Reed growing was thus saved by two factors, the practical one of the decline in other thatching material, and the psychological one of considering thatch desirable.

However, new markets means altering traditional ways, which in turn means some difficulties. In Norfolk, thatched houses were built, as is best for reed, with at least 50 deg pitch to the roofs. This requires some alterations and adjustments by reed-thatchers, and also can lead to the loss of the more "soft" rounded look of the straw, in favour of the more usual sharp outline of the reed.

Another difficulty affected growers, cutters and dealers. Instead of mainly supplying thatchers within East Anglia, working with county networks of well-known requirements, (for e.g. a certain reed length) , reed was wanted over a much larger area, and in climates and for roof types where it had not previously been used, and for thatchers they had not supplied before, and indeed had no traditions to guide them about preferred reed types. The loss of quality long straw encouraged an increase of conversions of straw thatch to reed. The way reed is marketed often makes it difficult, or indeed impossible, to trace a reed grower, let alone a reed bed whose reed does not meet the wishes of the thatcher. A thatcher requiring long reed has every right to be upset when receiving short or medium instead, but it is now difficult to put the matter right by having the same grower send reed from a different bed. There have probably always been some complaints about reed, as about any other crop, but while these were confined to the local network, they were probably expected and rectifiable.

A third difficulty affected all three partners: growers, dealers and thatchers. Although some disused East Anglian reed beds were brought back into production, many others were not, for a variety of reasons, and few new ones were developed. Consequently East Anglia, the major source of supply, was unable to meet the new demand.

Continental countries with large reed marshes and little or no internal demand (e.g. Hungary and Turkey) began a flourishing export trade. Obviously if imports increased enough to harm those employed in East Anglia, this would be detrimental, but if England is to preserve its thatched cottages, some imported reed is desirable. Indeed It would probably be impossible to supply the demand for reed from British reed beds.

Reeds, are wild plants with a crop that can be useful to man. A harvest is available every year (although in some areas two years’ reed crops are in fact cut together, "double wale", rather than "single wale") This annual harvest is taken from plants which live for many years. However, in reeds, it is the entire above-ground winter parts which are harvested as a "dead" stalk while the long-living reed bed is underground. As a rule of thumb the roots or rhizomes extend as far underground as the visible parts This long-living part affects next years’ crop, but it is not seen. This unfortunately means that while sick apple trees can be noticed, and will not be expected to bear good crops, it is less easy to tell whether something is wrong with the reed bed.

All crops have good and bad years (like the bad 1982 strawberry season in East Anglia), and reeds are no exception. The summers most likely to give poor reeds are cool damp ones, but disasters can come with e.g. deep floods or severe drying in local areas in May. Complaints about reeds which are due to a single year’s weather deserve as much, but no more, consideration than those for any other crop (i.e. normal patterns resume the next year).

Although reeds have been, in some places, harvested and managed for centuries, they remain, like crab-apples and unlike orchard apples, the same wild strain, reed is a natural wild growth and not a crop in the true sense of the word. Reeds are increased by proper management, but that is all. Management can be very intensive, even with the regular cutting preventing the invasion of woody plants and shading out the reeds. The natural cycle of the plant means that a large amount of vegetable matter builds up over the years. Reeds are cut after the frosts and wind have removed the leaves as only the stalk is of interest to the thatcher. This debris can raise the land level to the point that it is too dry to support good growth.

In natural conditions, reeds grow in water up to about 2 m deep, or in wet marshy ground. With a suitable cut-and-burn management they can do well on drier marshes which are only intermittently flooded. Now the burn technique is frowned upon due to smoke pollution, possible destruction of rare plants and disruption of wild life. If dry reed beds are abandoned, however, other plants will invade, and scrub or wasteland will develop. The East Anglian reed beds are marshes, some wetter, some drier.

Earlier, parishes containing wetland typically held some of this as common land from which villagers could cut reed, and other useful items like peat for fuel. These are effectively discontinued. Some farmers produced, and still produce, reed for sale, though only a very little of the East Anglian wetlands are used to grow reed. There are two main types of grower: the farmer who chooses reed in preference to another crop, and the Nature Reserve Manager who cuts for conservation, and aids further conservation by the profits from the reed sales. It should be emphasised that wetland habitats are seriously threatened and lost now, through drainage etc, and commercial reed beds are one of the best ways of preserving wetlands. If there was no crop, there would be no incentive not to drain, and conversion to arable is all too likely (conversion to wet grassland is easier but less profitable) . The reed growers are performing a vital national service, since without them, this habitat is likely to disappear except in Nature Reserves and these, necessarily, are very few.

In the main reed-growing areas, each area is subdivided into "beds" by ditches. The ditches provided not only water level, drainage and irrigation, but also allowed boats to remove cut reed from each bed for storage on dry land. (Intersecting ditches are also found in wet grassland etc., but there they did not have to be large enough for boats). Beds may also be divided by banks etc., where more recent management patterns enable the bed to be intermittently flooded, and the crop to be removed by land. Either way, there are different beds within each grower’s land. They may differ in history (e.g. harvested from time immemorial, restored in 1972) , in management (always cut, burnt and flooded in different months) , in "strain" of reed (reeds are all one plant species, but, like blackberries, they vary in detail) , and in adjacent land use (near or far from drained area, polluted water, arable, seepage springs etc.). Reed from one bed can, therefore, differ to that of another within, as well as between, each owner’s or cutter’s area. As already noted, it is seldom possible to trace the exact bed from which a certain batch of reed was taken.

In addition to the reed growers, there are numerous cutters continuing an ancient practice of cutting reeds from places outside the "farmed" reed beds, e.g. centres and sides of ditches, patches at the edges of various types of wetland. This means reed is taken from a wide range of places and environments, and so the difficulty of tracing origins, and the likelihood of including "bad" patches, however small, is greater than in the reed beds.

A reed bed is typically two to four acres in size, and a grower often holds between about three and ten beds. There are no accurate estimates of the total East Anglian reed production, largely because of the freelance cutters whose areas, unlike those of the growers, are not easy to count. Guesses range from about 200,000 to about 300,000 bunches a year. Allowing 400 bunches to the acre, this suggests about 500-750 acres, or about 150-350 beds or equivalent strip etc. areas.

Reed has various uses:

Thatch. The only important use in Britain - and indeed, for exporting countries. Only this use requires reed of specified quality (see below)

Minor farm uses, such as fences, bedding, thatching of sheds.

Reed board and paper. Both are manufactured on the continent. The quantity of reed must be great, and be in easy range of the factory to keep transport costs low. Unfortunately, this means the small and scattered reed beds of East Anglia cannot be used for either purpose.

Energy. Reed beds have an unusually high productivity, and interest is often expressed in using reeds for energy production. To the writer’s knowledge, however, no pilot plant exists.

Most East Anglian wetland could potentially bear reed. If the profitability were reversed, most of the drained arable land could be re-flooded and used for reeds. Wet grassland is in fact less profitable than reed beds, but the management and harvesting of reed beds is quite a different skill to that of managing wet grassland, and this deters potential growers from making the initial investment of creating new reed beds. (Also, no EEC grants are available for reed).

STOP PRESS  (Hansard)

Thatching Reeds