Marley’s brand new range of authentic Canterbury handmade clay tiles were matched with Cedral Click weatherboard on a full-sized timber framed show home to perfectly balance heritage and contemporary styles at the National Homebuilding & Renovating Show at the NEC.
The home was built by Oakworth Homes and Benchmark Self Build.
The roof featured 2,000 clay roof tiles which were all handmade by traditional craftsmen at Marley’s specialist facility in Keele, while Cedral Click weatherboard was used for speedy construction with a modern look.
The Canterbury tiles are available in three colours and a mix of Loxleigh, Burford and Chailey tiles were blended to create a unique patchwork of colours, giving a traditional aesthetic for the roof, porch and vertical tiling.
In addition to the Canterbury tiles, Cedral Click weatherboard featured on the show home. It is the UK’s first fibre cement tongue and groove weatherboard system and offers a contemporary flat finish. Its aesthetic appeal, ease-of-installation and low maintenance make Cedral Click the perfect choice for the creation of a stunning new home or a refurbishment project.
Mark Twynam, managing director at Benchmark Self Build, explains: “As usual, this year our show house was based on a real home which was Benchmark designed and featured an Oakworth Homes offsite manufactured timber frame for Mr and Mrs Vivian who we met at the show in 2013. They asked us to create an oak fronted building, with a rustic feel to complement the vernacular of the West Sussex village they live in. We brought these plans to life on our stand at this year’s National Homebuilding and Renovating show and specified the Canterbury clay tiles to achieve a rustic aesthetic for the roof.
“The tiles provide an authentic finish for the roof, which is required at the home’s actual site in West Sussex due to it being a conservation area where houses are required to be built from materials that are complementary to the lovely old village.”
Part of the roof of the show home was tiled, leaving the rest stripped back to show would-be self builders how the property is constructed. Bracknell Roofing installed the roof at the exhibition and played an instrumental part in creating a unique patchwork of handmade blends on the show stopping installation.
Sarah Jackson, marketing product manager from Marley, comments: “We were pleased to be supporting this fascinating project. The fact it is based on someone’s real dream home gave visitors even more insight into how a project like this is designed and constructed.
"Our Canterbury range of handmade clay tiles was only launched at the beginning of 2015, so it gave visitors to the show home a chance to see something new and see the tiles in situ for the first time. For anyone considering using clay tiles on a self build or renovation project, it provided an opportunity to see the effect that can be achieved with the right blend of colours, particularly alongside a more contemporary look provided by the Cedral Click weatherboard. The handmade clay tiles complemented the rustic charm of the timber framed building and gave the roof an authentic handmade appearance, with the natural beauty of clay.”
The Canterbury range gives a distinctive handmade finish to any roof, with each tile as unique as the hands that made them. Premium projects and heritage sites can benefit from the high quality aesthetic of the richly coloured tiles, particularly in areas subject to specific planning requirements and where handmade roof tiles form part of the architectural vernacular.