Tile Talk

The builders recovered most of the tiles from the old roof. About half were undamaged, half slightly damaged, and some lost completely. They've been piled in the garden for the past few months, but this week we decided to sort them.

It turns out that various parts of the roof had used slightly different tiles. They came from about five different suppliers, all within this general area. I have no idea how old they are, though they seem to be moulded using some kind of manual process. Dimensionally, all those of one type are identical. In design, they are quite sophisticated with various indentations (for fitting) and grooves (for water runoff). But some have odd squashed sections where they have obviously been less than perfectly handled prior to firing.

They are beautiful things, really. Simple and functional, earthy even. But the colouring is lovely, and the makers' marks pressed on the underside seem almost like hallmarks -- giving away their origin and probably (for those in the know) when they were made.

Sorting them has been hard work, but now we have separate (and stable!) piles of each type -- probably around 3-400 good tiles altogether. We'll probably use them to roof outbuildings and other structures at a later date. As for the damaged ones, at the moment we are planning to edge the beds of our vegetable patches with them to form slightly raised beds. (We are hoping to be able to work with the no-dig raised-bed system for many of our vegetables.)

With the tiles sorted and stored safely, we have to turn our attention to all the recovered timber. There are two huge stacks of it, with pieces ranging in size from kindling to huge logs that were once roof beams. We have to remove all the old nails, as far as possible, then sort into re-usable timber and firewood. The firewood somehow has to be cut to a size suitable for an iron stove (which we plan to install in the dining room/kitchen).