SY9287 : Historic buildings
taken 9 years ago, near to Wareham, Dorset, England
Wareham is a small market town in Dorset. It is strategically located between the River Frome and River Piddle. The town has a long history with evidence of Pre-Roman settlement. The old town is surrounded by 9th century town walls.
Wikipedia: Link
Several buildings in Wareham have a roof like this. The bottom two rows of tiles are Purbeck stone, whereas the rest are clay tiles.
Section 95 of the planning guidance at Link describes the structure and purpose of this, and uses the name 'Stone Easing Course'.
It says "Use of stone ‘easing courses’ (rows of stone tiles fixed along the eaves of a plain clay tiled roof), is a feature of eighteenth century construction most commonly seen in Wareham. An easing course made up from large tiles helped to throw rain water clear of the wall face. This was important where rafters were positioned directly on the wall head of a building which lacked gutters. Use of stone easing courses as motifs in new build misses the functional point, and usually fails to provide the level of overhang seen in original use. For this reason it is best to avoid their use."
Similar planning guidance from Derbyshire County Council exists, which describes such mixed roofs and calls the stone layer the 'Eaves course'. The Derbyshire document dates from 1977, and is less clear about the purpose and less proscriptive about copying the style. It does say that the technique appears throughout the UK. See Link
In 2005 English Heritage published advice on stone roofing (Link ) and paragraph 3.3 briefly mentions the technique with similar vague remarks to the Derbyshire document.