Stone Roofing: Conserving the Materials and Practice of Traditional Stone Slate Roofing in England

This volume of English Heritage Research Transactions is devoted to the traditional stone slates found on some of England's most attractive and historically important buildings. The first paper presents an overview of the problems of supplying traditional roofing material, following the closure of the many quarries and delves which provided stone slates to local communities over the centuries. This collaborate paper describes a model for reinstating original stone slate sources, and managing them on a small scale to satisfy local needs. The second paper is an extensive overview of the stone slate industry in England, organised geographically and geologically. It describes the types of stone roofing material used traditionally in previous times and today, identifying their sources and current availability. The paper ends with a number of recommendations aimed at increasing and widening production. The third paper is a case study of the reroofing of the church of St Michael and All Angels, Pitchford, Shropshire. It concentrates on the winning of a new supply of stone, from the search for a source, to its quarrying and final production into roofing slates. The paper also includes an investigation into the failure of the previous roof and a description of the construction of the new one.