Time was, in England and France, that many houses were thatched, and in France they were often made of straw. Mechanisation of harvesting meant that the straw was no longer in the straight lengths needed for thatching.
Houses made of straw became a lot easier to make with straw bales, but progress in baling technology has meant that farmers prefer to use BIG balers that produce large round bales.
Nowadays, thatchers are rare in England, and very few use straw, which they have to obtain from places where they still harvest traditionally. There are a few heritage farms in England, but the straw may sometimes have to be obtained from places like Lithuania!
Also, many thatchers work with reeds, which are becoming hard to get because of people with progressive attitudes declaring the places where the reeds grow to be nature reserves. More “progress”.
People wanting to build houses from straw are mostly re-baling the large round bales into smaller rectangular bales, using baling machines that have not been in production since the 1960s. There are a few farmers that still use their old balers to make rectangular bales the old way, and find they can sell the straw for a lot more money than when it is in big round bales.
Of course, the world is mostly a better place for the improvements in harvesting methods since the days when men and scythes were what you needed. Mechanical harvesting keeps prices down. But this is just one example of arts which are dying out because of modern methods.
CRABFILES - the crabfoot rant spot 