Thatching haystacks

By Janet Woodall and Eleanor Waldock, from an article originally in the Walkern Journal

Every year it’s fascinating to see the fields around Walkern being tidied up after harvesting, with straw bales, either cube-shaped or circular briefly dotting the landscape. One can’t help but think of how the countryside would have looked before the advent of combine harvesters, when haystacks were built up by hand. Having been brought up in London, it came as a surprise to me (Janet) to discover that these stacks weren’t just piles of hay – haystacks had to be given a “roof” to keep out the worst of the weather, so it wasn’t only houses that needed thatching.

By chance, I recently noticed the thatched haystack in the background of the photo below (the photo is of the unveiling of the Walkern War Memorial on 3rd July 1921, and is courtesy of the Bardswell family), and it has prompted Eleanor and I to look at what the historical information on Walkern that we’ve gathered over the last few years can tell us about this lost art.

A wonderful insight into this is given in an account book housed in the Herts archives (document D/P114/29/6), written by farmer, William Andrews. In the early 1800s. William Andrews lived in what is now Stephen Lowe’s house, the Walkern Gallery, and farmed a modest amount of land of about 35 acres which was passed on to his son Ebenezer and then to grandson Joseph.

In 1802 William noted each harvested crop that needed thatching and listed their dimensions in feet.
Barley stack                     32 breadth       31 length
Wheat stack                     29 breadth       30 length
Peas & oat stack              34 breadth       30 length
Hay stack                         24 breadth       26 length
Second crop clover          19 breadth       12 length
Meadow hay stack           16 breadth       14 length
Surprisingly large stacks – the compression of the crop under its own weight also helped keep out the rain.

On the right is a page from his account book where on 30 May 1805 he noted payment of 7 shillings to John Warner for thatching the clover rick (31 breadth by 26 width), and in September 4 shillings for “Thatching the clover 4 square 20 by 20” and 5s for “Thatching the hay 5 square”. I am especially fond of this page as farmer Andrews seems to have been rather bored, drawing a doodle of a fine dragon…

Anyway, back to thatching.

John Warner also gets a mention in an account book belonging to John Pearman (doc PC/382), the owner of the White Lion plus several parcels of land and cottages around the village. On 19 October 1825 Pearman paid John Warner, thatcher, £2.13s, though it is unclear whether for thatching one of his cottages or his harvested crops.

John Warner was born in Walkern in 1757 descended from a long line of Warners whose lineage in the village can be traced back to the 1520s. He lived in Totts Lane until his death in 1849 at the grand age of 92. He not only lived there but from the 1838 tithe award (D/P114/27/1) it can be seen that he owned a large parcel of land in that lane and the cottages and orchard thereon, measuring 3 roods 28 poles (nearly an acre) and substantial enough to be rated for tax at 6 shillings 2d.

This is of special interest to me as I live in what was probably one of his cottages, now number 20 Totts Lane, and all of my neighbours living in cottages opposite the Wesleyan chapel live on land that was once John Warner’s. He owned two further plots containing cottages and gardens, not big enough to be rated for tax, roughly where Brockwell Shot joins Froghall Lane.

John Warner married Sarah Hollingsworth from Rushden on Christmas day 1779. They had at least six children, most of whom died in early adulthood, but son William, born in 1796 who lived until his death in 1879 in Totts Lane, was also a thatcher.

William Warner married local girl, Sophia Cock, in 1817, and by the 1851 census most of their children were married and living in the family cottages in Totts and Froghall Lanes – three of the brothers lived side by side and next to their parents. It is worth noting that the Walkern Sanitary Committee in their first survey of the village in 1856 ordered William Warner to remove the “filth hole” next to his property. The order was obeyed the next day…

In the census of 1851 and 1861, several of William and Sophia’s daughters, daughters-in-Law, and granddaughters were described as straw plaiters, including granddaughter Hannah aged 6, the youngest plaiter we know of in the village. A very fitting occupation for the family of a straw thatcher.