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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005 Posts: 46052 Location: yes
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 15836
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Posted: Mon Feb 27, 23 8:21 am Post subject: |
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This is something that coppice workers are more than aware of. In fact we had 8 apprentice thatchers come to our wood to cut coppice, make gads out of the produce (the blanks from which spars are cut) and split the spars in our wood just over a week ago. They were taught by two coppice workers in our coppice group, aided and abetted by us.
The major problem with spars is the price. Until recently the price was something like £125 per 1000. That means that to cut the rods, cut 30" lengths from them and split them a coppice worker got £125 per 1000. It is quite possible for a good spar maker to make 1000 spars a day, but that doesn't include cutting the coppice and then making the gads, so our spar maker thinks that perhaps 4000-5000 per week is reasonable for a good spar maker working on his own. The price was kept down to a great extent by cheap imported spars.
The coppice industry has been discussing this with the thatchers for well over a year now. Representatives from the National Society of Master Thatchers, who asked for our course, were at the National Coppice Federation Gathering in 2021, and indicated that they realised the price had to go up to encourage people into spar making.
Our coppice group is running a spar making day in April, and if spars are priced economically, I think that coppice workers will probably be making a lot more. There is no point in making them if you can sell the rods for far more as other things.
I would like to also point out that thatchers are required as part of their apprenticeship to be able to make spars. Liggers are a different thing altogether and must be long and straight; usually what we call 'sun shoots', where the canopy is thick and they grow very fast and long to reach for the sun. |
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dpack
Joined: 02 Jul 2005 Posts: 46052 Location: yes
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Mistress Rose
Joined: 21 Jul 2011 Posts: 15836
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Posted: Tue Feb 28, 23 9:17 am Post subject: |
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Yes, all of that is right. The minimum a roof will cost to rethatch is £20k, so not for those with tight budgets. There are 10s of 1000s of spars in a roof as each bundle of straw or reed has to be pinned down. In many cases it is only the top few layers that are replaced if all is well underneath. A complete strip and rethatch will be needed if there is any problem with the underlying woodwork, but otherwise the bottom layers are left for several cycles, and I have seen some that had tar on them from the smoke from the original hall house of the medieval period.
The National Society of Mater Thatchers is quite willing to pay an economic price for a reliable supply of British spars, but some of their members are not so keen. They have been paying far too low a price for too long, but it either means they will have to increase their prices to thatch a roof, or take a financial hit themselves if the spar price rises.
The tutor we had for our course charges over £200 per 1000 at the moment, so his prices are higher than the norm a few years ago, but some people are talking of doubling that to attract younger workers into spar making. It is also a job that people who can no longer scramble around on roofs do of course.
As with all land based industries, there are more older people than younger ones in coppice work. Schools rarely teach students, or learners as they seem to call them these days, about that sort of thing and push them towards office or factory work, however unsuitable. The experience of our coppice group is that a lot of people come into it having had another profession/job/trade beforehand, but want to really be outside. We have anything from ex rocket scientists, air frame fitters, social workers, chemists and electricians in our circle. We have one or two younger members who have come in from the forestry sector. Our son trained in forestry and wildlife management, but he is a rarity among coppice workers. |
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