Under The Thatch Accommodation

A typically irresistable Under the Thatch self-catering cottage, Southwest WalesGreg Stevenson’s holiday letting agency, Under The Thatch, has an intriguing collection of self-catering properties: a Romany Caravan, a Shepherd's Hut, and several charming-looking thatched cottages. Most are relatively inexpensive, and they all seem to be in beautiful settings in the Welsh countryside. Yet whenever I’ve tried to book one for a weekend, his properties have always already been taken, months beforehand. Then late last summer, lady luck struck: the gypsy caravan in south-west Wales – Greg’s most popular let – had a cancellation. So before someone else snapped up the opportunity, I hired a car with a friend and drove the six hours from London to the village of Rhydlewis, Ceredigion, to spend the weekend ‘Under the Thatch’.

Under the Thatch's Romany Caravan is tucked away in an idyllic setting. Photo: Richard HammondThe gypsy caravan (pictured right) is certainly in a picturesque setting, just as the website promises. Tucked in front of a clump of aspen and poplar trees, the bright green caravan, ornately painted, stands in an acre of wildflower meadow beside the river Ceri, in a Site of Special Scientific Interest designed to protect the resident brown trout and otters. It’s the smallest accommodation I’ve ever seen, but as snug as they come. Up a few steps behind the caravan there’s a wooden cabin with all the essentials for self-catering, including a kitchenette, shower room and toilet, as well as a covered veranda with a table and a basket of fuel for a wood burner. Neither the caravan nor the cabin has thatched roofs, however.

‘Under the Thatch isn’t at all what it seems,’ Greg explains. ‘What customers see is a holiday cottage agency, but behind that – and the reason the company exists – is what we do to conserve historic buildings at risk. In some ways we’re like a smaller version of the Landmark Trust, only we’re working as a private business on a different scale. All of the profits from Under the Thatch go back into funding the building conservation work.’

Greg’s passion is renovating derelict cottages, mainly thatched cottages, though he also works on tin-roofed buildings. He began the business in 2001 by renovating a dilapidated part of his own house using earth and thatch – in the traditional way – which he then rented out as a holiday let. He thought it would be a good idea to let somewhere that was much more rustic, authentic and affordable than anything else on the market, and soon saw the potential.

‘It was full from day one, so we soon realised there was a huge demand for a historically interesting house,’ Greg says. ‘People were fascinated; they wanted to know more about the building, so it was paying for itself.’

Building success
At that time there were a lot of derelict buildings going for low prices in south west Wales, so Greg began buying up several other old buildings and renovating them with thatch and tin. In 2003, he bought his second, Troed Rhiw-Fallen – a derelict cottage that had been on the market for 15 years.

'The next-cheapest house in the village was a small terraced cottage that cost about £60,000. The cottage I wanted was a quarter of the price, yet no-one wanted to touch it. It was structurally unsound, but it was the most historically important building in the village, the oldest that had survived, the only one that really reflected the local tradition.’

Nant-y-Bargoed is a beautifully restored stone cottage in traditional West Wales styleGreg bought the derelict cottage for £15,000 and renovated it with support from Cadw (the Government heritage body in Wales). A small grant from the Welsh Tourist Board enabled him to build an extension in a corrugated Victorian style.

Greg’s renovations typically use only traditional materials. He uses lime instead of cement (his cottages are characteristically white lime-washed with yellow ochre); nor does he use modern gypsum plasters. Paints are natural oil-based, rather than modern synthetic, and, of course, he uses local thatched materials. Though his style of renovation is essentially environmentally friendly, Greg admits his green credentials came about by chance: ‘It hadn’t occurred to me before but the traditional methods also happen to be the most sustainable.’

Greg’s reputation as a restorer of derelict cottages grew, and he soon began consulting on other people’s properties, some of which he agreed to let as part of his Under the Thatch business, in addition to his thatched cottages.. One of his most famous commissions was from actor and presenter Griff Rhys Jones, who asked Greg to renovate his cottage Trehilyn Uchaf, near the Strumble Head peninsula in Pembrokeshire, which became the subject of the BBC4 TV series A Pembrokeshire Farm... Cont'd on Page 2

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