Only Camel by name
The Somerset village of Queen Camel is quintessentially English, and owes nothing to the presence of even-toed ungulates. Settled from Roman times and thought to be near where King Arthur died in battle, the ‘Camel’ derives from a Celtic word, and the ‘Queen’ from its thirteenth century ownership by Henry III’s Queen, Eleanor.
A Pottery workshop
Ridge Pottery is based in a small barn next to the owners’ house and makes use of a wood-fired kiln - so keeping warm in the workshop 
is not a problem! The adjacent house dates from the sixteenth century – probably built, like others in the village, after a fire in 1634 destroyed many of the houses. Some retain their thatched roofs, but others have replaced the roof covering with double Roman clay tiles.
Considering it's in a conservation area
In the case of Ridge Pottery house, re roofing was carried out in 1974, with 75mm of glass wool insulation being fitted under the bitumen felt. Over forty years on, the roof was leaking and re roofing was needed - so the insulation could be upgraded at the same time. However, rather than strip out the existing insulation – a messy job – and re insulate, an easy option was to use TLX Gold insulating breather membrane draped into the top 50mm of rafter space. Being in a conservation area, this complied with the requirement that the roof height remained the same.
The existing ceilings remained in place
The existing ceilings remained in place, as TLX Gold is sufficiently breathable to obviate any condensation risk without the need for a vapour barrier. Its installation improved the U value from 0.54 W/m2K to 0.34 W/m2K, and a further benefit was the air tightness it conferred, preventing the ex filtration of warm air whilst still permitting the passage of water vapour.
After 2000 years of habitation 21st century insulation has reached Queen Camel!
The Problem: How to improve the thermal performance of a roof without having to remove the existing 1970s glass wool insulation.
The Solution: TLX Gold was used over the existing 75mm of glass wool, achieving a Uvalue of 0.34W/m2K without condensation risk and without having to raise the roof.
