Roofing specialists at Leicester-based Norman & Underwood have recently completed a major roofing contract at ancient Dorchester Abbey.

The 20-week tiling and leadworks contract involved restoring 80 per cent of the church’s parapet, lead gutters and associated flashings.A team of two tilers, two leadworkers, two labourers and two apprentices were employed on the project, which included work to the nave, the People’s Chapel and the Shrine Chapel.

Darrell Warren, contract manager of Norman & Underwood’s Roofing and Stained Glass Division, said: “The lead work had come to the end of its life, there was poor detailing and the majority of the tiles had deteriorated.”

The Abbey Church of St Peter and St Paul at Dorchester-on-Thames in Oxfordshire has been a place of worship for more than 1300 years and stands on the site of a Saxon cathedral built by St Birinus in the seventh century.It has particular significance in English history as the cathedral of the vast ancient diocese of Dorchester which stretched from the Thames to the Humber.

The existing building dates from the 12th century and has many fine features from later periods such as a unique lead font cast in 1170, a carved stone crusader, 14th century frescoes and the Great East Window.Today the abbey is a thriving church in the Diocese of Oxford as well as a popular tourist attraction, place of pilgrimage and venue for concerts.Norman & Underwood secured the contract as a result of restoration work it undertook last year at an historic village church in Whitchuch, Buckinghamshire.

The company, which has many years’ experience of church heritage projects, was recommended as roofing sub-contractor by the project’s architects, who were also involved in the Whitchurch contract.

Mr Warren added: “The contract went well and was completed on schedule, with wet weather holding off.“During our time there, though, the river burst its banks and cottages next to the abbey sustained the worst flood damage they’d ever seen.

“The abbey roof had been covered with tarpaulin for protection against the weather, and as we were 50 feet above the ground, we remained dry.”

Norman & Underwood is currently working on another church restoration project involving copper roofing, tiling and timber works at the Priory of St John in Clerkenwell, London.