Roofs

Welsh slates are now very much the dominant roof covering of the National Park except in the North end round Cheviot where pantiles are common. A few roofs of older farm buildings have the stone slabs more common in the North Pennines and some estates have maintained the use of more expensive Westmorland Slate. In each case for alterations and extensions the best course is to use similar material to achieve a matching result. Most good roofers will carry stock of tiles, stone slabs and slates with which to effect this. Even with ordinary slates though there is a natural diversity of colour and texture and as the market expands in imported Spanish or Chinese slate (which incidentally have a high indirect energy cost attached to them in the distance transported from source to consumer) this must be taken into account. Second-hand "Scottish" slates are becoming more difficult to find since the production of new slate has ceased in Scotland.

Farm buildings and smaller community halls and chapels have often been roofed with asbestos cement or metal sheet. This can be visually very pleasing and is part of the character of this inexpensive type of building. However, it must be noted that modern fibre-cement profiled sheeting has superseded asbestos in both new and repair work due to the danger of being exposed to asbestos fibres. Plastic coated metal of an appropriate colour also provides an acceptable alternative.