feature Thatching and thatchers in Melbourn When two March hares recently appeared on the roof of the newly re-thatched house, belonging to Nicola and Ed Emery, on the High Street in Melbourn, people stopped to admire them and asked questions about thatching. The house was thatched by the Dodsons, a well-known family concern going back three generations. The family business split some years ago and now trade as ‘Clive Dodson’ and the ‘Dodson Brothers’ and it was Stuart Dodson one of the ‘brothers’ that worked on the thatch in the High Street (front cover photograph). Both families have been heavily involved in thatching throughout the village for many years and can name each house, when it was re-thatched and what material was used. Clive was responsible for the roof restoration of Sheepshead Row at the north end of the village in 2001–2002. Melbourn had its own thatchers too. The Stanford’s were a well-known family in the village, and at one time one of the largest landowners in the Parish. Over the years the family members had a wide range of occupations, although it is not surprising given Melbourn’s rural surroundings, many worked as agriculture engineers and labours. Daniel Stanford who was born in Melbourn in 1839, worked as an agricultural labourer until he was in his 20s when he turned his trade to thatching. His two sons, Cornelius and Reuben, followed their father into the trade as did his grandchildren. The family were still thatching well into the 1990s. Often referred to as thatcher Stanford, Below Thatcher Stanford working on the White Lion Pub now the Co-op car park. Right: 1934 Working on a cottage that once sat between 64 and 66 High Street
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the family are remembered by the naming of Thatcher Stanford’s Close at The Moor. Thatching methods have been traditionally passed down from generation to generation as with the Dodson and Stanford families. It is one of the oldest crafts and the methods of construction have largely remained unchanged. Thatched cottages and farm buildings were the norm until the mid 1800s as thatch was the only roofing material available to the bulk of the population both in the countryside and in many towns and villages. A good example of a traditional barn can be seen at Wimpole. Many parish churches were also thatched and in Cambridgeshire, two of these still remain; Thatched barn at The Cross
