Roofers across East Yorkshire and Hull

The roofs of East Yorkshire and Hull

East Yorkshire is a low, flat, brick-and-pantile region. Clay pantiles were first imported to the East Riding from the Netherlands in the early 1600s and they are still the prevalent roof in Hull's Old Town, in Beverley and in Bridlington's Old Town, with Welsh slate arriving on the Victorian terraces and villas and concrete interlocking tiles on almost everything re-roofed since the 1950s. The Avenues in Hull add plain clay Rosemary tiles and tall corbelled chimneys to the mix.

Hull's pre-war housing was dense terraces off Hessle Road and Holderness Road built for the docks and the fishing fleet. Bombing destroyed more than five thousand homes and the council then built around 35,000 more, creating Bransholme and Orchard Park with their prefabricated and No Fines concrete terraces, tower blocks and a great many flat roofs. The East Riding towns added their own inter-war and post-war estates, West Hill at Bridlington and Grovehill and Swinemoor at Beverley among them.

Water is the theme. Around ninety per cent of Hull lies below the high-tide line, the 2007 downpour flooded thousands of homes across Hull and the East Riding, and the 2013 surge came over the Humber banks. On the coast the Holderness cliffs erode faster than anywhere in Europe and easterly gales drive salt spray well inland at Bridlington, Hornsea and Withernsea. Gutters, outlets and fixings matter here as much as the covering.