This roof was re-roofed many years ago.The building is 1850's and would not have had felt on when they originally put the roof on. But you can tell this was done a long time ago as all the slates are "head nailed" as nowadays we tend to nail the sides.There was also some "cut"nails in the battens which I took off. They used to years ago put a hole in the top of the slate and put a wooden peg in and hang them over the battens. (hence head nailing) The whole roof was in need of a few slates replacing here and there and there were alot of cracked ones up the side of the stack where the aerial boys had been!!! But generally it will last a few more years before it needs stripping and replacing.Luckily enough the guy whose house it is had a lot of slates left over when he had the back re-done and Inever had to buy any for the roof. This saved him over £300 .The only slates I had to buy were 25 "Spanish" ones which I put on top of the parapet wall.
