DPR will forever be associated with the history of Wetherby Church after pictures of recent roof repair works were buried in a time vault to be opened in 100 years’ time.

DPR was contacted by John McCarthy from the church after they noticed roof issues and during the work asked if our team would mind if pictures were buried in a time vault for people to open in 100 years. Every number of years they bury a new vault and DPR are delighted to have been asked to be associated with this fantastic historic moment.

The pictures in the vault feature every component of the roofing work which our locally based Yorkshire roofers carried out. In total the full list of roof repair work included:

• The erection of fixed scaffold around upper elevations of the building
• Removal of damaged slates which could cause leakage and replace with good quality s/h slates using code 4 lead straps and galvanised fixings
• Refixing of all dislodged/dangerous slates using code 4 lead straps and galvanised fixings
• The raking out loose and defective pointing to step and apron lead flashings. Replug accordingly and point off using a lead mate compound in preference to mortar which cracks due to differential thermal movement of mortar and lead.
• Remove all loose ridge /dangerous ridge tiles and re bed on a new mortar bedding along with removal of all heavy moss build up. New hip irons fitted.
• Extensive clean out of all gutters on the building
• The removal of all resultant rubble from above works and dispose of accordingly to skip

DPR was on site for 4 days and had to work around the day to day running of the Church. Whilst we were there, we had to be considerate of one funeral, in which our roofers all stooped to observe their respects, daily prayer meetings and other events such as the local ladies coffee mornings too. We have always tried to provide a high quality to our clients and in this scenario we felt this was totally appropriate.

After the works had been completed, John was extremely complimentary of the work our roofers had carried out. In an email to the company he said: “Many thanks for the photos, superb. I don’t know what people seeing these in over 100 years’ time will think about the dress code! Would you be so kind as to thank the fellas who worked on the roof in very cold conditions and who have done a superb job!”

DPR were delighted to be involved in such a momentous and historic project and we wonder what life will be like in 100 years’ time when the pictures of this work re-surface!