Last Updated on August 1, 2024
Willow and Thatch is a website for fans of period dramas, so how did it get its name?
In my grandmother’s backyard, behind the vegetable garden stands a pussy willow tree, and it has been there as long as anyone can recall. Each spring it resolutely comes to bud after months of abundant snow, then blooms with its bright white fuzziness, soft as a kitten’s paw.
At Easter we cut its long branches and bring them into the home, and place them at the table where we celebrate renewal and birth and hope. It seems that every child who has sat at that gathering has taken a fallen catkin into hand, and pet it, as if it were a talisman for all things good.
Through the years there have been many willow baskets in my grandmother’s house, deftly made from the tree’s branches. When I was very small I’d hide in one that was a hamper, pretending that I was a snake. My sister would charm me out, lid on my head, as she played her imaginary flute. So “willow” is the joy and comfort of home, love, craft, play, growth, and imagination.
“Thatch,” that breathtaking tradition of covering a roof, especially in the countryside in Europe and the UK, with straw, rushes or heather, is an art that has been handed down through the generations and for me, symbolizes a sweet idyllic lifestyle.
Though I live in the states, I dream of having a little cottage with a thatched roof, filled with French linens and English ceramics and a garden with climbing roses. So “thatch” is beautiful shelter, farm and country, lineage, memory, and all things UK that allow me to dream (did someone say period dramas?) and family.
The feelings and the visuals that come with “willow” and “thatch” show up in British and other period dramas over and over, and comprise the parts of life I find to be so very lovely.
If you love period dramas (British, romantic, historical, costume, epic, international, BBC, PBS MASTERPIECE, you name it), you might be wondering where to start now that you’ve found the Willow and Thatch Period Dramas website, so here are a few quick links:
Our homepage is here. Our Period Films List is here, sorted by era. Check out our menu for links to different sections of our website, like those for period dramas (both TV series and movies) recently added to Netflix, Prime Video, BritBox, and Acorn TV, or for our articles like reviews, news, and deep-dives on costumes and history.
We have a YouTube Channel here with some free, legally uploaded period dramas and trailers and commentaries. Join us on Facebook here, and sign up for our free newsletter here. Thanks for being part of Willow and Thatch, a home for period drama fans, since 2015.
Carla Delfino
May 14, 2016 at 6:25 am (9 years ago)I love this site, I love costume period dramas, I love Austen’s. Being in Italy is not so easy to watch them all…but it’s fine. Thanks for your wonderful idea. Ciao and Grazie
Claudia Volansky
January 10, 2016 at 11:07 am (9 years ago)What an incredibly beautiful site! I am so thrilled to have found it!
Willow and Thatch
January 10, 2016 at 12:13 pm (9 years ago)How wonderful of you to say so; one of my goals is to make Willow and Thatch visually beautiful. Thrilled to have you here Claudia!
Jenni Brummett
October 26, 2015 at 5:35 pm (9 years ago)I’m thrilled to be here at the very beginning of your Willow and Thatch journey. Discovered your site on British Period Drama’s Facebook page. What a wonderful and time consuming task you’ve started!
I write historical fiction and plan to visit you often. The films and books you mention here are dear to the hearts of my readers. Keep up the great work!
Willow and Thatch
October 27, 2015 at 9:40 am (9 years ago)So wonderful to have you here. It is indeed a time consuming task but a pleasure and one that will hopefully bring joy to many. Thanks so much for your support and encouragement, it means a lot, especially at the start when it is so important to get the word out about the project.