Old Westbury Garden's roof repaired by Claude N Smith's Collyweston slate
A mansion in New York state has been re-slated by a Collyweston business after falling into disrepair.
Westbury House - which features in the Will Smith film Hitch and the television series Gossip Girl - was first roofed with Collyweston stone slate in 1905.
The company Claude N Smith, run by Viv and Nigel Smith, is the only working Collyweston stone slate mine in the world, located between the villages of Collyweston and Easton-on-the-Hill.
The company was approached in 2014 by the Old Westbury Garden's Trust and started work on the property last year.
Viv said: "It was exciting because it was as if it was almost fate.
"As we were thinking about re-opening the mine here they were, 100 years after the original roof, asking if we would be able to supply the slate to re-slate the roof again."
Nigel said: "We always knew this house existed in America because everyone always talked about it.
"It's the only house outside of UK that has Collyweston slate on it."
Viv, 50, explained: "John Phipps, who was a very rich American, married an English woman and when they got engaged promised that if she went over to New York to live with him that he would build her an English country mansion house.
"So that was why the house was built.
"Nobody really knows what the link with Collyweston is but they wanted a golden roof which is the colour of the slate when it ages on the roof."
At the beginning of the 20th Century, men from Collyweston spent three years in Long Island acting as consultants, however, were never allowed to fix the slate.
Nigel, 53, said: "It was in a very poor state, Americans had fitted it but hadn't used the correct mortar."
This caused the roof to rot and perish, causing leaks which have been ongoing for 50 years.
Viv and Nigel's 'biggest concern was that history was going to repeat itself', however, this time specialist Collyweston slaters were able to fit the roof.
Tom Measures, who is installing the replacement roof, is the great-great-grandson of a slater who was consulted on the original roof in 1905.
Viv and Nigel, who live in Toft, plan to re-visit the mansion when work is completed later this year.
Claude N Smith has also re-roofed King's College, Cambridge.
