HISTORIC ROOFS IN BRITAIN AND IRELAND
3/5/18
The British Isles have a great variety of roof types. They are especially rich in slating materials ranging from metamorphic schists and slates to sandstones and limestones. There is also a wide range of slating styles demonstrating how slaters coped with often intractable materials and severe weather to produce weather-tight and durable roofs.
These materials and techniques make a huge contribution to the historic landscape. They are as prominent in the cities, towns, villages and countryside as any other built element but are frequently misunderstood and poorly conserved so that vernacular details and techniques are discarded and replaced with alien materials and inappropriate modern details. This need not happen. With care and forethought they can be saved.
Traditional regional flavouring is well worth preserving for the sake of a world gone sadly flat. It should be a matter of pride as well as good sense, good economics and good manners for works to express themselves in accents that are recognisably regional and not harshly alien to an ancient tradition.
Clough Williams Ellis
Patent slating Cotswold stone slate
Welsh valley
Kilgaragh Donegal
Random slating Cumbria Caithness flagstone
Horsham stone and plain tiles Pan tiles
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