Until the mid-1800s, St Mary’s, Long Crichel in the Cranborne Chase chalklands was a grand medieval church. That is, until fire ripped through and destroyed its Perpendicular elegance. Just the tower survived, the rest of the church was rebuilt over twenty-five years.

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Today, we start repairs at St Mary’s. The nave will be entirely re-roofed for the first time in 170 years, and the plain-glazed diamond quarry windows will be carefully restored after being vandalised.

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The roof is covered with hand-made clay peg tiles. Or *mostly* covered with clay tiles. The eagle-eyed might spot something curious at the eaves: the last course is actually formed of large limestone slabs. This is vernacular roofing detail specific to Dorset.

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Perhaps one of the grandest and well-known examples of this is the 17th-century Woolbridge Manor House in Dorset, where the clay tile roof has seven courses of stone tiles to the eaves.

Mike Searle, CC BY-SA 2.0
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Woolbridge House was the home of the Turberville family, which was the inspiration for Wellbridge House in Thomas Hardy’s, Tess of the d’Urbervilles.

(It recently sold for £795,000 … https://search.savills.com/property-detail/gbwirswbs180138) 
 
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It’s not entirely clear how, why or when this roofing tradition began; some think the heavier final course prevented wind uplift, others suggest that the larger slab and more robust material was better at shedding water from the eaves… or perhaps it was just for aesthetics. 
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Regardless of the reason, our roofers will replicate this detail to preserve the distinctive regional character of the church. As with all our work, we will retain as much historic fabric as possible, salvaging and re-using as many tiles as possible.

More updates soon!

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