Collyweston slate miners Claude N Smith Ltd have won the overall Roof of the Year Award from the National Federation of Roofing Contractors for the restoration of the 130-year-old roof at Bodley’s Court, King’s College in Cambridge.

Like the Natural Stone Awards (click here to read about the Natural Stone Awards), the winners were announced online this month (March). The Collyweston restoration was first announced as the winner of the Heritage Roof Award and then as the overall winner of the competition as the Roof of the Year.

Claude N Smith Ltd Director Nigel Smith said he was “very proud”.

The company re-opened the Collyweston mine in 2018 to supply the replacement Collyweston for this project. The college received the first 150tonnes of the slate to leave the mine in 50 years.

Although it is traditional to call stones used for roofing ‘slates’, Collyweston is limestone. The mine is in Stamford, Lincolnshire, where many of the town’s buildings are roofed in the stone.

The work comprised of high-quality craftsmanship and careful handling of the building’s historic features during their sympathetic restoration. Each of three phases took 16 weeks to complete.