Leslie Brame in his ‘As I Remember It’ recalled seeing his Uncle Happy ‘clad as an ordinary country farmhand. Being a professionaal thatcher I picture him on a high ladder fixing new straw thatch to one of the cottages. He is wearing the heavy clodhooper boots he alsway used for work. They were treated with dubbin which removed any suggestion of shine, but they kept his feet dry, and as well as the waterproofing effect of the treatment, dubblin kept the heavy boot supple and comfortable to wear. Above the ankles his “lijahs” held his trousers close to his legs and showed thick grey wollen socks, worn both summer and winter. The corduroy trousers were held at the top with a thick leather belt, which usually had begun life as a piece of horse harness. the weight of the trousers wa carried by substantial braces, buttoned to his trouser belt. Tucked into each arm of the braces was a bundle of binder twine cut to about four feet: a lenght of twine was used to tie a bundle of straw and fix it to the purlings in the framework of the roof, and those bundles were almost like the insignia of the thatcher’s craft, along with his hunting knife in a sheath fixed on his leather belt. ‘