At a glance, roofing is not the first thing one looks at when admiring architecture. Yet upon further inspection, roofing encapsulates a lot of the aesthetic brilliance that makes a building so eye-catching. It also varies so considerably from country to country. This may not be surprising to some, though the way roofing has developed and been implemented today has roots of a far-reaching past.
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When looking a bit closer, for instance, roofing in the world is typically made of concrete slats. The majority of mainland Britain uses clay. Why is that? With a globalized industry in modern times, it would seem as though similar materials would be used on a universal level.
However, the determining factor is not preferences, the answer lies in a complicated past where certain materials were limited and not readily available in every region.
Tiling has its roots in the Roman times. Initially, the Romans used clay tiles in England in order to make rooftops waterproof. Eventually the fall of the Romans had an impact on artisanal tile making, which jump-started the move to making tiles from other materials.
The next international power house that influenced the world of tiles were the Dutch. The Dutch were known to use an S-shape tile and overlapped each one. This type of tile was introduced to the English as an advantageous option. Water could not as readily fall through the tiles. The trade routes between England and the Netherlands at the time initiated a larger trade of tiles from the Dutch into the 16th century.
Developments of tiling were certainly made, especially during the first half of the 20th century. Tiles began to be designed with raised weather bars, which formed an interlocking design. This allowed them to handle water in large amounts.
By the 1950s, clay tiling industry in Britain had been stunted due to a lack of investment and the aggressive competition for abroad. The booming housing industry during this time could not keep up with demand of the developments of clay tiles, which is really what spurred production for concrete tiles. Meanwhile, other mainland European countries continued using the clay variety.
By the 1960s, concrete tiles were regulated in size and shape, which made it easier for contractors to fix or replace broken units. The artisanal craft work of tiles has disappeared over the years, which makes the benefit of regulation and ease of skill to replace tiles attractive.
In the 1970s began a resurgence of clay tiles in the UK with new technological industries focusing on making clay tiles more available in the mainstream. Today, there has been a resurgence of clay tiles. In recent times, there have been major investments in clay tile factories in the UK that has both led to further innovation as well as accessibility. The price of clay tiles have fallen. Now, clay tiles are a great competitor to concrete tiles, which is proof in itself that these two tiles can coexist in a modern world.
Louisa Jenkins is a freelance writer and a keen DIYer. Any DIY projects in her own home, Louisa carries out. She often documents her progress with these projects in her blogs – from installing new roofing slates to repairing broken pipes. Find out more about Selco roof tiles.
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Cowperthwaite tiles were one of the first concrete roof tiles made in New Zealand in the early 1910`s by William Thomas Cowperthwaite. The original Cowperthwaite Roofing Company was formed in 1906. Their first roof tile was named a Yankee tile made in the companies’ premises in Mt Eden Rd. They then came up with another tile profile called the Super Tile then the perfect roof tile came along. They continued to make roof tiles at their mt Eden rd factory up until the mid 60`s.
Petrous roof tileswere first made in 1919 by Petrous Tile Company Ltd Caversham Dunedin. In the old Gasworks site. They then spread out to the North Island, they made many profiles of roofing tiles. They made a great roof tile called the Beseranza and the Atlas roof tile which are still around on roofs today.
In 1965 H.C. Clarke Ltd bought in to the Petrous Tile Company.
In 1970 H.C. Clarke Ltd bought out the final capital and changed the name to CLARKE PETROUS MONIER LIMITED. then in 1970 it became known as Monier Tile Limited.
Penman & Jefferies roof tile (P & J Tile) were made around the 1930`s the old fashion way by mixing the sand on the floor by hand in a workshop.
Winstone Concurve Roof Tile was a concrete tile made by Winstones Limited Between 1936-1939.
A large number of concrete roof tile plants were dotted around the country in the 1930`s. Manufacturing started out very regional and in close proximity to where to work was. As the government had put restrictions in place due to fuel supply issues of world war 2. This in turn limited how far you could freight goods by road.
In the 1930`s when state houses were been built by the government it was stipulated that building materials in this case roof tiles must be purchased from the closets source. To help enforce this you could not get a road licence to cart the materials any great distance than 30 Miles or 50 Kms it was extended to 40 Miles or 67 Kms in 1961
Craig roof tiles were made by J J Craig’s in the 1930`s they were made at their St Georges bay rd Parnell premises they were bought out fully by Winstones in 1984.
Leader roof tiles they were made by DL Gibbon ltd in 1953.
Ross Roofing limited started roof tile production in 1950 and produced the first Rosscrete tile. They were making 400 roof tiles by hand per day and had three machines on the go. They are still in the roofing business to this day, but on a much larger scale they now have an international presence.
Acknowledgements:
We would like to thank Ian Ross and Des Cowperthwaite personally for passing on some of the their memories of those early.days of their companies and their competitors, if you have information that could add to this story please contact jarrod at Macmillans
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