The Collyweston Slater pub in Collyweston with a Collyweston slate roof Collyweston stone slate is a traditional roofing material found in east-central

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, primarily in

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

, and

Rutland Rutland is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Leicestershire to the north and west, Lincolnshire to the north-east, and Northamptonshire to the south-west. Oakham is the largest town and county town. Rutland has a ...

. It is not a proper

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

but a

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

found in narrow beds. It is considerably heavier than true slate. The slates are quarried near the village of

Collyweston Collyweston is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in North Northamptonshire, about three miles southwest of Stamford, Lincolnshire, on the road (the A43 road, A43) to Kettering. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 ...

in Northamptonshire, near Stamford and close to the borders of Lincolnshire and Rutland. Traditionally the mined stone was left outside for three winters until the frost revealed layers that could be broken ("clived") into flat slates. In the late 1990s,

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

(now Historic England) worked with the Burghley Estate and

Sheffield Hallam University Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) is a public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The university is based on two sites; the City Campus is located in the city centre near Sheffield station, Sheffield railway station, whil ...

to develop an artificial system to reproduce the freeze-thaw cycle needed for production of slates. In 2012, when new slates were needed to reroof parts of Apethorpe Palace, further testing was commissioned by English Heritage to develop the artificial frosting and new Collyweston slates have been produced. New slates have been used to repair the roofs of Ufford Church in Cambridgeshire and High Wycombe Guildhall. In 2015 a planning application to reopen a slate mine in Collyweston was approved; the slate mines had not been used since the 1960s. Slate from the mine has been used to repair Bodley's Court in

King's College, Cambridge King's College, formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, is a List of colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college lies beside the River Cam and faces ...

Clare College, Cambridge Clare College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the Unive ...

and Old Westbury Gardens in

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

in New York.

References

External links

Collyweston Stone Slaters Trust

Roof tiles Roofing materials {{England-stub

See also

References

External links