Cembrit, a specialist in natural and fibre cement slates, has supplied 3000 Moorland fibre cement slates to a new Neurological Care Centre in Peterborough. Eagle Wood, built at a cost of £10 million, is owned and managed by PJ Care. Built by Castleoak, a specialist in care home construction and designed by PRC Group, a Surrey-based architect, the project made the shortlist in the annual Pinders Healthcare Design Awards.

Castleoak has built over 150 care homes and 3000 apartments in care villages across the country. Eagle Wood is a 105-bed, three-storey neurological care campus with four separate units designed to meet individual resident needs plus assisted living apartments. It includes a therapy centre, with a physiotherapy gym and hydrotherapy pool. The building features five separate self-contained units that each provides a distinct type of care tailored to different aspect of neurological nursing.

The steeply-pitched slate roofs have attractive dormer windows, and the Moorland slates complement the soft-toned brickwork and timber features, to give the centre a gentle, welcoming look. Moorland slate is manufactured with a smooth surface and dressed edge to give the appearance of a natural slate from ground level, whilst retaining all the fixing benefits of man-made slate. Each slate is pre-holed and is a consistent size, weight and thickness, ensuring regularity and simplicity when fixing as they do not need to be graded and sorted as natural slates do. Bracknell Roofing installed the roof and created a high quality and neat looking finish to the new facility.

Paul Mannings, Partnerships Director at Castleoak, said "Cembrit’s Moorland slates were specified to us for this project for aesthetic reasons. The roof is excellent; the product quality is of a high standard, which was helped by the good workmanship. The care home has a dramatic roof line that comes from a high level, in some cases to about 2m above ground. It looks great, but from a practical point of view it was difficult to build and it was difficult to lay the long pitched roof, due to the inability to stand or crawl on slated areas. However due to the product and skill of the installer, the roofing fits nicely with the rest of the building and looks super.”

The Eagle Wood Neurological Care Centre was shortlisted in the Best Large Care Home category in the prestigious Pinders Healthcare Design Awards 2013.