Bodley’s Court reroofing wins Roof of the Year award

We are proud to announce that our work, with Claude N Smith, reroofing the historic Bodley’s Court at King’s College Cambridge, has won The National Federation of Roofing Contractors ‘Roof of the Year’ award, as well as the Federation’s ‘Heritage Roof of the Year’ accolade. This follows a successful scheme to reroof the entire range of the Grade II listed building.

We were appointed in 2014 by King’s College Cambridge to undertake a condition survey and schedule to the roof at Bodley’s Court. This was followed by wide-ranging and robust repairs to the roof covering, rainwater goods and high level areas; future proofing future repairs and conservation the roof via the introduction of additional maintenance access and improvement in the horizontal circulation within the roof.

The project marks the return of the original Collyweston Slate, which was used on the 1893 and 1927 phases of the Grade II listed Bodley’s Court (the 1955 phase was roofed in Westmorland slates). Insall teamed up with heritage roof contractor Claude N Smith to reopen the Collyweston Mine, near Stamford, which had closed in the in the 1960s. These special slates were then used to magnificently re-cover the roof.

Bob Richardson, head of Technical and Training at the Federation said: “This project was unanimously chosen as Roof of the Year. The sheer scale of the planning, leading to the completion of what can only be classed as a labour of love by skilled craftsmen, resulted in a remarkable re-roofing project.”