My son's house built in the mid nineteen eighties here in the United Kingdom has internal partition walls to all the rooms filled with what looks like straw. Can anyone enlighten me as to what this is, or why it was used? We are far more used to plasterboard! When he had a new socket installed the amount of hard packed straw stuff that cam out was quite phenomenal for the small area that it was packed into. It seems to hold screws etc and even supports kitchen wall cupboards. I'm really puzzled. I don't know which builder built the houses where he lives. Any enlightening info very welcome. Many thanks.

It may actually be straw, that is the most likely answer anyway. Straw may be used in place of sound insulation. I've done houses where we used shredded newspaper as insulation, but never heard of using straw. I guess if there is a cheap supply of straw nearby that it would work alright.

Straw used to be used for roofs, so I guess in walls makes sense. I'm going to look around a bit and see if I can find anything more definitive for you.

More than likely it is Straw.

There is a relatively new idea out there, which is a very, very old one - Straw bale construction.

Straw is naturally insulative, it holds in air in small pockets, just like your fiber glass.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the builder used straw which was cheaper than anything else at the time and had to have been on hand.

Look up Straw Bale construction through any search engine, the hits are many.

David