Where better to hunker down in the autumn than the ultimate snug home? The thatched cottage is romantic, sustainable, has a long, proud tradition – and is now enjoying a revival.

As the nights draw in and winter in the northern hemisphere approaches, the idea of a cosy, picturesque cottage in the countryside is a classic fantasy. On social media, the cottagecore aesthetic shows no sign of abating, and has spawned the similarly popular hashtag "cosycore". Images abound of quaint, quintessentially British cottages, their roofs often blanketed by thick thatch, with rambling roses prettily framing their front doors.

On TikTok, the idealised thatched cottage is now a compelling signifier of comfort, security, authenticity and simplicity, racking up millions of views. Cosy-culture-themed video clips sell a chocolate-box idyll of bucolic country living as cameras pan lovingly past cottage gardens with grazing roe deer, then venture indoors, revealing snug, welcoming havens of steaming mugs of tea, low ceilings, wooden beams and Willow-pattern china arranged artfully on vintage Welsh dressers.

Most thatched cottages in the UK are based in East Anglia, Dorset, Devon, Wiltshire, and the Cotswolds, as well as in rural regions of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. They are also found in the Republic of Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sicily, Belgium and France. Historical precedents of this vernacular architectural tradition include thatched cottages in the pastoral hamlet built for Marie Antoinette on theVersailles estate – her escape from formal court life – along with the thatched cottages painted by artists as disparate as Van Gogh in France to Kate Greenaway in Britain.

In 2006, the British cottage was celebrated in Nancy Meyers' romcom The Holiday. Rosehill Cottage, with its uneven roofline dusted with snow, was the heartwarming setting for the dalliance between the characters played by Jude Law and Cameron Diaz. Although fictitious (it was built for the film), the love nest was convincingly modelled on the real Honeysuckle Cottage in Holmbury St Mary, Surrey.

In England, thatch – usually made of such natural materials as straw, water reed or heather – remained the only roofing material available to most of the population in rural towns and villages until the late 1800s. Yet the number of thatched cottages has declined steadily since the Industrial Revolution.

This year, UK charity Heritage Crafts added Welsh and Irish vernacular thatching to its red list of endangered crafts. The specialist skills required for thatching aren't being passed down the generations as they traditionally were, so the number of skilled practitioners is falling. Thatched roofs need to be regularly rethatched, too, making thatched cottages expensive to maintain.

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