The team at West Country Tiling have worked on the restoration and reroofing of many church roofs in the South West of England. We specialise in ecclesiastical work and take great pride in the detailed and often complex historical work we undertake.
In January 2021, we were approached by the Warden of the Church of St James, a 12th century church in village of Milton Clevedon in Somerset, to carry out a survey of their roof and provide quotations for any works required.
During that initial visit, we noted the hole in the roof of the South Chancel. It was then an emergency to try and get the roof watertight before any more timber damage was sustained. We erected scaffold and made the roof temporarily watertight just as lockdown was imposed.
We returned to work at the end of April 2021 and started the re-roof of the south slope of the Chancel and we have subsequently re-roofed the North Transept and Porch.
Work carried out
We spoke with Helen, the project manager of this roof restoration and repair, to discuss her opinion of the work we carried out.
Ecclesiastical client testimonial
“The hole appeared in the South Chancel roof at St James after a heavy storm. It took two months to obtain the authorisation to carry out the emergency repair, but we were then hit by the first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. West Country Tiling sent Michael, a heritage roofing expert to work alone on repairing the hole, therefore adhering to the government guidance around social distancing.
Michael carried out the repair and provided the information needed to compile the insurance claim for the storm damage done, as there were significant costs involved that we had not planned for.”
“All churches have a Quinquennial report done by a conservation accredited architect, who look at the whole building in detail, and anything that needs urgent attention will go into this report.
We had been made aware from this report that the roof needed to be stripped and the weathered slates replaced. We underwent the long process of fund raising, our Church Warden, assisted by Toby Pitt from West Country Tiling, and in conjunction with a dioses funding advisor, applied for financial support from the COVID-19 Response Fund.
During this application process, Toby was incredibly generous with his time and very useful. We wouldn’t have got the grant approval we needed without him, and he was the right person to do this job. I was confident that he knew what he was doing and where there was going to be any extra costs, he always explained why and how much.
The extensive roof restoration was carried out on the North Transept, the Porch and parts of the South Chancel. The roof looks great so far, but there is still more work to be completed on the South Transept and I’m looking forward to working with Toby on this next major roof replacement.”
Why choose West Country Tiling
With over 30 years’ experience working on ecclesiastical restorations, our master roofers have gained extensive knowledge and historical roof expertise.
If you need an experienced team for a roof restoration project, please get in touch on 01373 462 224 or by emailing us on info@westcountrytiling.com