'Essential' works on weather-damaged cottage begin

Harry Kelly's cottage is now part of a living history museum in Cregneash

"Essential" conservation works to the thatched roof of a cottage which is a key feature in a 19th Century folk village are underway after suffering damage by high winds and heavy rain earlier this year.

Manx National Heritage (MNH) has placed a tarpaulin across the roof of Harry Kelly's cottage in Cregneash to protect the "rare structure" from further deterioration.

The organisation said it would help to safeguard the cottage's interior ahead of the thatch being replaced in spring next year.

The building is designated as an ancient monument because of its architectural rarity and as the former home of the respected native Manx speaker, who died in 1935.

It was donated to the Manx Museum Trustees by the Kelly family and became the first building in the village to open three years later to the public, establishing Cregneash as the first open air folk museum in the British Isles.

A tarpaulin has been placed across the roof of the traditional cottage

MNH said the structure was "one of only a handful of traditionally thatched dwellings surviving on the Isle of Man today".

The heritage organisation said it was "particularly significant" for retaining the roof structure of straw laid over a base of thinly cut turf, known locally as scraa.

If the thatch were to "lose its weatherproofing", the rainwater would "quickly erode the scraa, turning it to mud", a MNH spokeswoman said.

"In Harry Kelly's day, emergency protection was provided by roping an old sail across the roof", the cover to preserve the roof, interior collections, and mud floor would serve the same function until it has been rethatched, he explained.

People can Harry Kelly's cottage as part of the living folk museum village of Cregneash

MNH executive director Connie Lovel said the weather damage to had highlighted "how vulnerable these rare thatched structures" were.

The repairs would mean "this much-loved ancient monument can continue to be enjoyed" in future, she said.

During the rethatching of the building visitors will be able to watch craftsmen use traditional methods amid its restoration, the organisation said.