GRASPING AT STRAWS is all the rage among a growing number of British homeowners, as Mark Phillips now shows us: When it comes to housing design, it's hard to get more retro than this: a thatched roof, ...

OWNERS of properties with thatched roofing have received safety advice from Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service. Recent research published on the Thatch Advice Centre has suggested a strong ...

How does a thatch roof work and why don’t they leak? When visiting northern Uganda last week, I asked a wise soul, whose name was Francis, how a thatch roof actually worked. Francis’s nephew, Erick, ...

An English cottage with a roof thatched with straw or reeds was once considered a hallmark of poverty—fit only for those who couldn’t afford tiles or slate. Today, thatched-roof houses sell at premium ...

Visitors to the historic mountain villages in central Japan marvel at the elegance of the steep thatched-roof farmhouses found there. Known as "gassho-zukuri," Japanese for "constructed like hands in ...

At the Donegal Thatching School, master thatchers teach their skills to help preserve Ireland's long tradition of thatched-roofed cottages A new school in Ireland is training up a fresh generation of ...

Researchers conducted a special fire test to learn how to protect steep thatched-roof farmhouses that emerged more than 250 years ago to ruggedly withstand Central Japan's heavy winter snowfalls.