Roofing firm gets cathedral contract after buying UK's oldest brand (From The Advertiser Series)

Roofing firm gets cathedral contract after buying UK's oldest brand

8:00am Friday 31st August 2012 in Business By Lauren Pyrah, Deputy Business Editor

A NEW roofing business has acquired the UK's oldest roofing brand, along with a maintenance contract on North-East landmark Durham Cathedral.

Chester-le-Street-based Wensley Roofing acquired the Matthew Charlton Slaters brand after it went into voluntary liquidation earlier this year and recruited the company's former managing director, Alan Chapman.

As heritage manager, Mr Chapman, who has 41 years' experience in the industry, will head up Wensley's new heritage division.

The company has already won the maintenance contract for Durham Cathedral, which was previously carried out by Matthew Charlton Slaters.

Established in 1842 by Matthew Charlton, the firm was believed to be the UK's oldest-established roofing contractor when it ceased trading just a few months before its 170th anniversary.

In recent years, it won contracts on high profile projects at Hexham Abbey, Durham Cathedral, Alnwick Castle, St George's Church at Cullercoats as well as creating the shingle roofs and cladding on Alnwick Gardens' treehouse.

The new Wensley heritage division has won contracts with St Nicholas Cathedral, in Newcastle, and Northumberland Estates.

Mr Chapman said: "We will use a combination of apprenticeships, training and targeted recruitment to ensure its existing team of heritage roofers can meet the confidently-anticipated growth in demand for specialist traditional skills - such as working with Random Westmoreland and Stone Slate, Lead, Copper, Zinc and Cedarwood Shingles and Shakes.

"For me personally it is wonderful to have this opportunity to continue to use the knowledge and experience I have acquired over the past 40 years and help pass it on to a new generation of roofers in a dynamic and exciting company like Wensley Roofing."