Thanks for your replies. Here are some more photos and a video - the board is sparkly in places and I recorded the video to try and show the sparkly material, but it doesn't show up very well. I have no idea how long it has been there but no work has been carried out in the roof space since my friend bought the house in the late 90's. However the roof space is shared with a neighbour, i.e. there is no dividing wall, and the neighbour carried out extensive refurbishment a year or so ago. The house is Victorian. I found the board under some loft insulation on a platform used to hold the cold water tank. I moved the loft insulation because it was wet due to a roof leak.