Beyond the Island's triple hill, stretching into the distance, was a great shining level of water, sown with sedge and bulrush and the clusters of reed thatch among the willows where the marsh people lived.

The evening sun glowed like bronze upon the reed thatch of the roofs; here and there men were singing about the fires.

Perched on top of this pinnacle of rock was an ungainly, lopsided castle of stone blocks and reed thatch.

A good reed thatch'll give you forty years bone dry.

The roofs of the nave and the south porch are covered in reed thatch and the chancel is tiled.

They came out into the broad square of the village, with the little high-peaked houses around it leaning their reed thatch into the wind, and they ran across it toward the Tall House where all strangers were brought because it was the only one built high enough to receive them comfortably.

It once was surrounded by vineyards, but now reed thatch, vines and a rough wall block out the sight of newly built houses behind the garden.

One of 10 thatchers in Cornwall, he estimates that a totally new reed thatch can cost from £3,500, and lasts around 12 years.

The clay walls and reed thatch of the living houses had long since rotted and been lost but, down under the moundy banks, the abodes of the dead survived.

Threads of silvery smoke wafted up through the reed thatch of the cookhouses; the smells seeping into the air made my empty stomach grumble.