St Alphege Church gets a refresh with Glendyne

Historic Kent landmark St Alphege Church - situated in the picturesque coastal town of Whitstable - dates from the Victorian era, but now has a newly refreshed roof in keeping with its age and character thanks to Glendyne.

Prior to the renovation, the church’s original roof had been in situ since 1845, and Whitstable residents had become increasingly concerned about its age and condition, especially given the historic ceiling that the building houses. Feeling that the church needed a fresh covering to protect it for future generations, they launched the ‘Raise the Roof’ appeal in 2014 and ran various events to raise money for a restoration. The appeal was a great success, reaching its target of £200,000 by May 2017, and so work was soon able to start to give the roof a new lease of life.As the choice of slate was an important decision to make sure the roof remained in keeping with the rest of the building, the planners carefully reviewed roofing samples in consultation with the architect. The original roof consisted of expensive Welsh slates, and the architect was keen to replace these with slate from Spain. However, the conservation officer eventually asked for Canadian natural slates to be used instead.

To fulfill this brief, Glendyne slates were specified. David Gullick, one of the architects involved in the decision, commented that Glendyne was chosen “due to its consistency, aesthetic appearance and durability”, and that the standard of the product “is second to none”, adding “The outcome of the roof is just what we desired.” Available now from Burton Roofing, Glendyne is the perfect choice for specifiers and roofers who require the beauty of natural slate alongside high quality and performance. Glendyne’s attractive blue-grey tiles originate from a state-of-the-art quarry operating a quality management system based on EN ISO 9001. This is externally audited, and the standard is strictly enforced. The quarry also fulfills all of the quality requirements of the regional markets that it supplies.

As it is tested to BS EN European standard, BS EN 12326-1:2014, Glendyne has to be subjected to many of the laboratory tests (type testing) at least annually, with factory production control (FPC) performed and recorded routinely by the producer.

For further information on Glendyne Natural Slate see our range here.