Agricultural History Review, Volume 56 Part 2 (2008), p. 243

This reprint of Staniforth’s 1981 classic, with its detailed and finely-illustrated descriptions of the traditional straw-using trades, comes as a welcome reminder of the value of this versatile natural product at a time when the cost of fossil fuels and products associated with them is spiralling almost beyond control. While horse collar making is now of little contemporary relevance, thatching is every bit as important as it was twenty-five years ago and the onwards expansion of the heritage building industry continues to stimulate demand for cob walls and traditionally-made basket ware. Paula Sunshine’s 2006 Shire volume on wattle and daub emphasized the environmentally advantageous benefits of straw in the building industry and Staniforth’s work further underlines her comments. At present the vast majority of straw produced in this country is employed either as livestock bedding or as a source of domestic or agricultural heating, despite the wide scope of alternative uses. As demand for traditional hand-crafted products increases in line with advancing prosperity, there is good reason to predict a bright future for the 900 thatchers, 120 basket makers and the various other straw workers scattered around Britain in the early years of the twenty-first century.