The Collyweston Slater pub in Collyweston with a Collyweston slate roof
Collyweston stone slate is a traditional
roofing material found in central
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.
![Round Church, Cambridge - 02](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Round_Church%2C_Cambridge_-_02.jpg)
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 rock. ...
but a
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
found in narrow
beds
A bed is an item of furniture that is used as a place to sleep, rest, and relax.
Most modern beds consist of a soft, cushioned mattress on a bed frame. The mattress rests either on a solid base, often wood slats, or a sprung base. Many be ...
. It is considerably heavier than true slate.
The slates are quarried near the village of
Collyweston
Collyweston is a village and civil parish in North Northamptonshire, about three miles southwest of Stamford, Lincolnshire, on the road (the A43) to Kettering. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 514.
Geography
The villa ...
in
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by
two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...
, near
Stamford and close to the borders of
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...
and
Rutland
Rutland () is a ceremonial county and unitary authority in the East Midlands, England. The county is bounded to the west and north by Leicestershire, to the northeast by Lincolnshire and the southeast by Northamptonshire.
Its greatest len ...
. 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, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses.
The charity states that i ...
(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 railway station, while the Collegiate Cr ...
to develop an artificial system to reproduce the
freeze-thaw
Frost weathering is a collective term for several mechanical weathering processes induced by stresses created by the freezing of water into ice. The term serves as an umbrella term for a variety of processes such as frost shattering, frost wedg ...
cycle needed for production of slates. In 2012, when new slates were needed to reroof parts of
Apethorpe Palace
Apethorpe Palace (pronounced ''Ap-thorp'', formerly known as "Apethorpe Hall", "Apethorpe House", "Apthorp Park" or "Apthorp Palace" ) in the parish of Apethorpe, Northamptonshire, England, is a Grade I listed country house dating back to the 1 ...
, 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
The High Wycombe Guildhall is a public building located on the High Street of High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England. It is a Grade I listed building. It was designed by Henry Keene and completed in 1757.
History
A medieval guildhall once st ...
.
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 is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...
, Clare College, Cambridge and
Old Westbury Gardens
__NOTOC__
Old Westbury Gardens is the former estate of businessman John Shaffer Phipps (1874–1958), an heir to the Phipps family fortune, in Nassau County, New York. Located at 71 Old Westbury Road in Old Westbury, the property was converted in ...
in
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
.
See also
*
Lincolnshire limestone
The Lincolnshire Limestone Formation is a geological formation in England, part of the Inferior Oolite Group of the (Bajocian) Middle Jurassic strata of eastern England. It was formed around 165 million years ago, in a shallow, warm sea on the mar ...
References
External links
Collyweston Stone Slaters Trust
Roof tiles
Roofing materials
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