My husband and I just returned from a nice excursion through Great Britain. What a beautiful country! I could not help but notice the cute cottages and homes that dated back several hundred years. I found out that a majority of the homes used slate roofing or slate tiles. Well of course being the history lover that I am, I had to investigate further.
The use of slate dates back to the late twelve and thirteen hundreds. Many of the slate quarry’s during the late 1700′s were located in Wales, and many still do today. In the late 1700′s slate Wales was exporting over 450,000 tons of slate.This explains why so many of the adorable homes we saw had slate roofing.
I read that slate is also durable and I believe it! Many of the cottages we saw in the country have been standing for a couple hundred years. Of course they have had modifications and upgrades, such as indoor plumbing. I am sure that the houses we saw may have had work done on the roof, but I am not sure, I could be wrong since I have read that slate can be very long lasting. Either way the old world charm of these homes are not lost.
It is so fun to see coming back to the United States, that some of the new homes being build are including the same roofing styles of what we saw on our trip. Roofing slate has been around for hundreds of years. With all of our modern upgrades and new knowledge, it is nice to see that we still use this method.