Collyweston stone slate is a traditional roofing material found in central England. [1]
It is not a proper slate but a limestone found in narrow beds. It is considerably heavier than true slate.
The slates are quarried near the village of Collyweston 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 (now Historic England) worked with the Burghley Estate and Sheffield Hallam University 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. [2]
In 2015 a planning application to reopen a slate mine in Collyweston was approved; the slate mines had not been used since the 1960s. [3] Slate from the mine has been used to repair Bodley's Court in King's College, Cambridge, [4] Clare College, Cambridge and Old Westbury Gardens in Long Island in New York. [5]
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. Foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering, but instead is in planes perpendicular to the direction of metamorphic compression.
Stamford is a town and civil parish in the South Kesteven District of Lincolnshire, England. The population at the 2011 census was 19,701 and estimated at 20,645 in 2019. The town has 17th- and 18th-century stone buildings, older timber-framed buildings and five medieval parish churches. It is a frequent film location. In 2013 it was rated a top place to live in a survey by The Sunday Times. Its name has been passed on to Stamford, Connecticut, founded in 1641.
Collyweston is a village and civil parish in North Northamptonshire, about three miles southwest of Stamford, Lincolnshire, on the road to Kettering. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 514.
Bath Stone is an oolitic limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate. Originally obtained from the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England. Its honey colouring gives the World Heritage City of Bath, England its distinctive appearance. An important feature of Bath Stone is that it is a 'freestone', so-called because it can be sawn or 'squared up' in any direction, unlike other rocks such as slate, which form distinct layers.
Clipsham is a small village in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. It is in the northeast of Rutland, close to the county boundary with Lincolnshire. The population of the civil parish was 120 at the 2001 census increasing to 166 at the 2011 census.
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 margin of the London Platform and has estuarine beds above and below it. The maximum known thickness is 40.2 metres, at around TF9730, while four kilometres further west it is 18.3 metres thick at its outcrop in the upper Witham valley. It fades out in the south, around Kettering in Northamptonshire.
Duddington is a small village in Northamptonshire, England. It is by the junction of the A47 and A43 roads, and is 9 kilometres (6 mi) southwest of the town of Stamford. The village is on the east bank of the River Welland which is the county boundary of 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.
St Anne's is a church in the village of Woodplumpton in Lancashire, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the Diocese of Blackburn, and the archdeaconry of Lancaster, and the deanery of Garstang. The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. The churchyard at St Anne's is the supposed burial place of a 17th-century alleged witch named Meg Shelton.
St Martin's Church is a redundant Anglican church in the village of Waithe, Lincolnshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. It stands in open countryside near the A16 road between Grimsby and Louth.
The Bass Maltings in Sleaford, England are a large group of eight disused malt houses originally owned by the Bass Brewery of Burton upon Trent. Constructed between 1901 and 1907 to Herbert A. Couchman's design, the maltings are the largest group of malt houses in England; they have been designated Grade II* on the National Heritage List for England, recognising them as "particularly important ... of more than special interest."
The Boathouse on Boathouse Pond, Belton House, Belton, Lincolnshire was designed by Anthony Salvin in 1838–1839. It is a Grade II listed building.
Edward Browning was an English architect working in Stamford.
Traylen and Lenton was an architectural practice in Stamford, Lincolnshire. The practice had offices at 16 Broad Street, Stamford and were the successors to a line of architects working in Stamford, starting in the 1830s with Bryan Browning and continued by his son Edward Browning. The Brownings' practice was purchased by John Charles Traylen in 1888. Henry Francis Traylen became a partner in the practice and sole proprietor after his father's death in 1907. Frederick James Lenton worked as his assistant from 1908 until he became a partner in the practice with Traylen in 1921/2. The partnership had offices in Newark, Grantham and Peterborough, as well as Stamford.
St Botolph's Church, Wardley is a redundant Anglican church in the small village of Wardley, Rutland, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a Grade II* listed building, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.
All Saints Church is an Anglican church in the town of Winterton, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building. The church stands close to the center of the town within a Conservation Area, 6 miles (10 km) north of Scunthorpe, to the west of the A15 road. The church is a constituent of the Historic England Heritage at Risk Register and has a priority category of C, signifying slow decay.
St John's Church is a Church of England church in West Bay, Dorset, England. It was built in 1935–39 to the designs of William Henry Randoll Blacking and has been a Grade II listed building since 1975.
Glebe House is an historic building in Easton on the Hill, North Northamptonshire, England. Dating to 1690, it is now a Grade II* listed structure, as are its steps and railings.