Posted by James Mott on 24th January 2011.

 

This week I was invited to visit the South Coast Roof Training facility, by the founder Mike Fildes. The centre is piloting the new NVQ level 3 course in heritage roofing, the first of its type in the UK. The centre has been impressively kitted out with a wide variety of different rigs to work on, and even features a complete building with roof and eyebrow feature.

Course tutor Richard Jordan (below) of Jordan Heritage Roofing is a very experienced and time-served slater and tiler, having been trained in traditional techniques whilst working alongside his father early on in his career. Richard is knowledgeable and clearly passionate about heritage buildings, and is widely recognised as an expert in his field. In 1999 he gained the prestigious William Morris Craft Fellowship from the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB).

 

When I arrived at 9:00am – they were already in full swing with Richard showing the group how to mark out a setting out rod. These students are already qualified roofers; however there are plenty of puzzled looks and much head scratching going on - heritage roofing means learning a whole new way of doing things.

“NVQ level 2 is easy” Chris from John Williams Roofing informed me, “what we are learning is far more challenging and enjoyable – give me the choice of doing a modern roof to this and I know which one I’d rather do”. The sentiment was echoed by Dan O’Sullivan, who runs his own business and travels from Exeter (over 200 miles away) every week – “I spent over two years searching for training like this” he told me “this course is worth way more than the qualification”.

Throughout the day the group went through all the processes: making a setting out rod, sorting the tiles, cutting and trimming, punching holes and inserting tapered oak pegs, laying up, edge bedding and ‘torching’ (the process of applying a horse hair/lime mortar to the back of the batten/tile to help secure the tiles and hold the oak pegs in position.

I soon became aware of a conflict – this method of traditional tiling means that the modern thinking of nailing battens onto felt/ breathable membranes is simply not possible. When I raised the subject with Richard, he drew a large breath; perhaps I’d better leave this discussion for another blog.....

All this left me thinking that I had only just scratched the surface. The different techniques, regional variation in terms and practise is a lot to take in.

So, the pupils are keen to learn, have excellent facilities and an experienced and passionate teacher; for the students there will be many learning challenges over the next thirteen weeks – I’ll return in a few weeks to see how everyone is progressing.

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