The Yorkshire Film Archive collects, preserves, and shows film made in, or about Yorkshire. Our collections are non-fiction, dating from the 1890s to the present day, and providing a rich and visually compelling record of all aspects of lives, cultures, landscape, industries, major events and everyday activities, many of which are available to watch, free of charge, on our website.
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Thatcher - William Tegetmeier
Yorkshire’s last remaining traditional roof thatcher offers an engrossing in-depth guide to his dying profession.
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Overview
This insightful film begins in a Yorkshire field as we see thatching materials harvested by tractors and farmhands. The second half of the film shifts to a focus on thatcher William Tegetmeier, who offers interesting insight into his highly-skilled, yet dying, trade. Calendar’s production values are of a high standard from the start with soft atmospheric woodwind music and adept camerawork.
Thatcher William Tegetmeier was the only traditional thatcher working in Yorkshire at the time of filming in 1987. It is now believed that there are fewer than 1,000 full-time roof thatchers working in the UK. Thatching was a popular method of roofing in Britain for centuries up until the end of the 19th Century. Nowadays, roof thatching is a rarity in the country. This is largely due to the heavy installation costs and other negative drawbacks that this form of roofing brings, such as attracting unwanted pests.
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