WELSH SLATE
PENRHYN QUARRY
BETHESDA
BANGOR
GWYNEDD LL57 4YG
Tel: 01248 600656
Fax: enquiries@welshslate.com
Suppliers of: Roofing slates, slate cladding, slate paving, slate floor tiles, walling, sills and copings, decorative & construction aggregates, monoliths & feature stones, fire surrounds/hearths and worktops/counters.
Welsh Slate is the world’s leading supplier of high-quality slate and supplies the UK construction market with highly durable roofing slates, facade cladding, slate paving, walling, sills, copings, decorative and construction aggregates and hard landscaping products. For internal projects, Welsh Slate manufacture and supply slate tiles for flooring, fire surrounds, bespoke kitchen worktops and counters.
Environmentally Responsible
Welsh Slate’s Penrhyn quarry has been supplying roofing slate worldwide since the 13th Century and has a long tradition of being specified by architects, and our client base also includes leading developers and interior designers. As a result of our work we are committed to conducting our business in an environmentally responsible manner by minimising the environmental impact and promoting sustainable development within its operations and services. Welsh Slate operates an Environmental Management System EMS 539237 certified to ISO 14001
CPD Seminar
This seminar is designed to help architect and specifiers to understand the manufacturing process and the potential applications of Welsh Slate as a building material. It will explain the advantages and problems with slate and clarify the difference between differnent slates from around the world. The presentation will inform delegates of the variety of applications for Welsh Slate and provide information on the standards, accreditations, classifications and fixing methods.
CPD Factory Tour
The two hour tour will demonstrate the current slate quarrying and production processes while in addition giving you some hands on experience of working with a natural product. For enquiries or to arrange a CPD please telephone our sales office on the telephone number above or alternatively click here and fill out an enquiry form.
Our wide range of products include:
Roofing Slate
Welsh slate is proven to out last any other roofing material and is guaranteed to have a productive life in excess of 100 years. Available in three colour variants and three thickness grades and can be supplied up to 1.2 meters wide.
Welsh Slate roofing is produced in accordance with BS EN 12326
Hard Landscaping
Welsh Slate can be used for a wide variety of domestic or commercial garden and landscaping applications. Welsh Slate can provide colour, texture and unique practical qualities for any hard landscaping project.
Welsh Slate is easily maintained and hard wearing, making it perfect for paths, patios, walling, coping stone, monoliths, feature stones and other hard landscaping focal points. The unique chemical qualities of Welsh Slate means it will not alter the PH values of soils and it’s safe to use with pond life. Welsh Slate’s natural durability and resistance to weather, temperature, mossing, and colour erosion make it superbly adaptable and probably the most flexible material.
Exteriors
Welsh Slate is the perfect natural exterior construction product. It’s non-porous, exceptionally uniform, inert, non-combustible and probably the most adaptable material for the widest range of exterior applications including cladding, sills and steps & thresholds. Slate is totally unreactive to both acid and alkali, this chemical stability makes it compatible with all other building materials
Available in various colours and finishes, with naturally occurring veining and textures
Interiors
Welsh Slate is practical, easily maintained, and beautiful and is used in interiors for its natural beauty, hard-wearing properties and uniqueness and can add a smooth warm to touch finish or texture to flooring, cladding and worktops. Slate flooring works well with underfloor heating.
Construction Aggregates and Minerals
Construction slate aggregate is supplied for use in precast and ready-mixed concrete, road building and civil engineering. Slate granules are used to produce bituminous roofing felts and artificial slate roofing tiles. Testing information is available on request.
Further technical information, image galleries and product specifications are available through the Welsh Slate website or via the BPi Download Library.
Welsh Slate tops the heights, and the menu, at The Peninsula London
London’s latest luxury hotel, and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels’ first in the UK, has opened to much acclaim, and with Welsh Slate at its very heart.
With architecture conceived by Hopkins Architects to gracefully harmonise with the heritage buildings of Belgravia, The Peninsula London also embodies a sleek, spacious aesthetic that floods its exquisite Peter Marino-designed interiors with natural light.
The world-class 190-room hotel, along with 25 opulent luxury residences, centres around an expansive entrance courtyard off Grosvenor Place, landscaped in the style of a classic English garden with hand-crafted granite paving, cascading ivy, wisteria vines and two 120-year-old Japanese maple trees.
It is here that Welsh Slate’s own heritage probably makes its most obvious mark, as the courtyard columns are faced with Cwt-y-Bugail cladding. This cladding also features as individual slabs measuring up to 2.2m long x 900mm high x 40mm thick on the facades of the two storeys of penthouse apartments which top the multiple storeys of Portland stone below. Welsh Slate also tops the menu in the upper-level restaurant terraces where Cwt-y-Bugail features on the waiters’ stations.
Cwt-y-Bugail Honed slate is a premium Welsh slate known for its natural beauty and durability. Its rich, dark grey colour, and smooth, Honed finish complements the timeless elegance of The Peninsula London perfectly.
The 40mm-thick slate used for the external cladding provides a stylish but robust and weather-resistant layer of protection, while the slate used for the internal cladding on the courtyard columns adds a touch of sophistication and refinement.
Hopkins Architects said: “Materials for this prestigious project were carefully selected, with the project team visiting quarries across the UK to select the very best. Welsh slate, used to form the piers on the top two storeys, was selected from a quarry near Anglesey, with individual slabs measuring up to 1.4m x 900mm high x 40mm thick.”
The 20mm-thick slate used for the waiter stations in the restaurant terraces is both durable and easy to clean, making it ideal for a high-traffic area.
Matthew Allen, production director at Tekne, who installed the waiters’ stations, said: “The Welsh Slate counter tops are a quality product, were very easy to install, and look absolutely fabulous. Being produced from a natural, hardwearing material will make them particularly low maintenance and resilient to the London atmosphere/environment.”
In addition to its aesthetic appeal, Cwt-y-Bugail Honed slate offers many practical benefits, being a low-maintenance material that is easy to clean and maintain. It is also resistant to fire, water and staining.
Hopkins Architects’ brief for The Peninsula London, was to create a hotel and residences of exceptional quality. Looking across three Royal Parks as well as the grounds of nearby Buckingham Palace, The Peninsula London faces Wellington Arch and surrounding public space.
The unique context and history of this site, formerly a 1960s office block, have been carefully explored and are reflected in the architectural design, detailing and a materials palette which is limited to the highest quality materials typical to the area.
Welsh Slate helps All Souls from the end of an era to a new one
Welsh Slate helps All Souls from the end of an era to a new one
John Nash's last surviving church gets a new Welsh Slate roof.
The only surviving church by the Georgian/Regency architect John Nash is enjoying a new lease of life in its bicentenary, thanks to Welsh Slate.
All Souls Church, in the Harley Street Conservation Area of Marylebone, London, has been reroofed with 20" x 12" County-grade Penrhyn Heather Blue slates from Welsh Slate as part of a wholescale refurbishment of the iconic Grade I listed building.
The first phase, to the external fabric, required a temporary roof and full scaffolding reaching to the top of the spire which now has ability to light up in any colour to suit the seasons and festivities. The scaffolding had to be engineered in great detail as the church occupies 100% of its ownership footprint.
The Welsh slates were installed over 240m2 of the main nave roof, which has a pitch of 28°, using 38mm thick copper nails, and the flat roofs of the aisles, half of which had been covered in copper after the Second World War, were laid with 16 tonnes of lead, by roofing contractors Lead Roof Solutions for main contractor Quinn London.
The roof, which is hipped at the south-west end and incorporates a timber louvred structure for ventilation, is also fitted with several conservation rooflights which sit flush with the slates. To improve ventilation, the Welsh slates were counter-battened to raise the roof level, and to incorporate this, secret gutters were used at the abutments and around the rooflights. A slate and a half were employed on all abutments, and ridges and hips were finished with a lead roll and wing detail.
Although the church was built in 1824, it was damaged by bombing in 1940 and the roof was renewed during the post-war rebuild, so the Welsh slates that were most recently replaced were likely to be about 75 years old, if they were installed new.
Specifiers Matthew Lloyd Architects, who specialise in historic and heritage buildings and are a conservation-accredited practice, have specified Welsh Slate on numerous occasions for a variety of church and secular buildings.
Director Alex Sherratt explained that during All Souls' quinquennial inspection in 2019 it was identified that the slate roof and remaining areas of copper roof had numerous defects and were near the end of their serviceable lives. In addition, there were a number of stonework and other issues which required attention. The client, the parochial church council, therefore decided to carry out a single conservation project on the entire external building fabric, to leave it in the best condition possible for its bicentenary in 2024.
The conservation work required the use of traditional materials, consistent with those that would have been used on the original building in 1824. So, as the project largely consisted of like-for-like conservation work, Westminster deemed that planning permission was not necessary for anything other than the re-lighting of the spire, which was a component part of the project. The project was also subject to permission from the Diocese of London, who were supportive of the proposals. Consultees also included the Georgian Group and Historic England.
Alex said: "Welsh Slate was the natural choice, as the church would always have been roofed in Welsh Slate from its original construction in 1824. Re-roofing the nave in Welsh Slate was possibly the most significant element of the project, as it prevents problems with ongoing water ingress, and contributes greatly to the longevity of the roof, and the church as a whole.
"The church is an iconic building, occupying a key position on Regent Street, and is highly visible from the surrounding streets, therefore the aesthetic qualities of Welsh Slate were a major consideration. The roof at All Souls is overlooked from BBC Broadcasting House and is often used as the backdrop for filming current affairs programmes from the studios and rooftop terraces."
The aesthetics of Welsh Slate were not the only reasons for specification, however.
Alex said: "Across the project, British materials were sourced and specified wherever possible, to ensure that historically authentic materials were being used, to support local industries and to minimise the need for transport.
"One of the driving factors behind the project was the need to extend the lifespan of the building as far as possible by using appropriately durable materials. The 100+ years of useful life offered by Welsh Slate was an important factor in the selection of Welsh Slate for a roofing material at All Souls. The fact that the material is 100% natural and has a low carbon footprint were also important considerations in the specification of Welsh Slate."
He added: "Welsh Slate was specified for its strength and durability, and for the aesthetic qualities given by its purple hue. Physical performance of the slates was one of the key drivers for the project, and the Penrhyn slates were selected for their particular suitability to the roof at All Souls. The combination of Welsh Slate and lead provides authentic and robust weathering details throughout.
"The client body recognises the significance of the church, and their responsibility as custodians of a significant heritage asset to use the best possible materials in the repair of the building. They are totally committed to the use of appropriate materials and are delighted by the result."
Andy Mead of Lead Roof Solutions said: "Although All Souls Church is a very significant building, the actual reroofing project was straightforward. We have used Welsh Slate on many a project and they are always a joy to work with."
Phase Two of the refurbishment of the church, which attracts 1,500 visitors per week, will focus on its interior.
