This page has been created as a record of the nineteen thatched buildings that exist in Meldreth in 2014. Of the nineteen houses, sixteen are listed buildings (Grade II). The three that are not listed are Walnut Cottage at 9 Whitecroft Road, 98 North End and Fordham’s Cottage 34 Chiswick End. There is a separate page on the expansion of Fordham’s Cottage.
All the listed buildings were thatched with long straw rather than reed at the time of listing.
Only three have a sculpted thatch feature on the top of the roof: Bluebell Cottage at 41 Whitecroft Road which has a family of ducks and Fordham’s Cottage with a bird. 29 North End (the former Smithy) has a metal sculpted bird on one end.
All photographs were taken in late summer 2014.
A series of pages on building materials used in Meldreth dwellings, including a page on thatching, is available on our website.
If anyone has memories of living in any of these houses and particularly of a rethatching, we would be delighted if you could add a comment to the page.
We are also interested in copies of floor plans of any of these buildings as we would like to develop a page showing the development of village dwellings from their possible medieval frameworks.
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My mother, Marian Thurley, grew up in the cottage at the right hand end of 13, North End and we used to visit my Grandmother there when I was a child in the late 40’s and early 50’s. It appears that the block of cottages has been made in to one now.
My family lived in Applecote on the High Street from September 1957 until March 1958 (when my father had a visiting position at Cavendish Labs and was a fellow at King’s College). During this period, the house was being rethatched by a couple of fellows – slow work. I remember being woken in the morning by birds that had burrowed into the thatching. Magical memories during my tenth year.
In about 1951, when I was a very little boy – maybe 4 or 5 – we lived in Applecote in the High Street. It was a lovely time for the whole family and the people of the village were warm and welcoming. Mr. Pepper kept the garden, and “Auntie Mead” help my mother with the house and looked after us when we needed it. We took part in local events; I particularly remember Guy Fawkes Night and the “guy” topped off with our American Jack-o-Lantern. I’ve explained to my wife that it was rather like the folks of “Midsummer Mysteries”, only without the ill will and bloodshed. :^))
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