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History of Rain Gutters and Roof Gutters on Homes! (Updated: 2025)

ByTyler DeBroux

This post was updated on March 5th, 2025 (03/05/2025).

Home » History of Rain Gutters and Roof Gutters on Homes! (Updated: 2025)

The Romans were responsible for introducing rainwater collection techniques to Britain. After then, the technology was misplaced, but the Normans were the ones who found it again and brought it back into use.

The guttering was present on the outside of the White Tower at the Tower of London. King Henry I of England gave the order in March 1240 to the Keeper of the Works at the Tower of London “to have the Great Tower whitened both inside and out.”

This was the style that was popular during the historical period. Later on, in that same year, the king wrote a letter to the Keeper in which he issued a command that the lead guttering on the White Tower should be extended. The purpose of this command was to ensure that “the wall of the tower… newly whitened, maybe in no danger of perishing or falling outwards through the trickling of the rain.”

During the time of the Saxons, the thanes constructed buildings with huge overhanging roofs, similar to the way that thatched cottages do now so that the water would be directed away from the walls.

The builder of the cathedral made use of intricate gargoyles and lead parapet gutters to accomplish the same goal. As a result of the monasteries being dissolved, the structures that comprised them were recycled, and there was an abundance of lead that could be utilized for secular building.

The yeoman would install lead-coated wooden gutters or wooden gutters lined with lead.

In 1851, when Joseph Paxton was designing The Crystal Palace with its revolutionary ridge-and-furrow roof, the rafters that spanned the area between the roof girders of the glass roof also functioned as the gutters. This was done so that the ridge-and-furrow roof could be made out of glass.

The rainfall was diverted away from the house through a deep, semicircular channel in the wooden Paxton gutters, which also had grooves along the sides to manage the condensation. They were under trussed with an iron plate and had prefabricated notches for the glazing bars; they drained into a wooden box gutter that drained into and via structural cast iron columns. In addition, they had performed notches for the glazing bars.

The industrial revolution gave rise to new techniques for casting iron, and the development of railways led to the creation of a system for transporting massive cast-iron components to construction sites.

The movement of people into urban areas generated a need for homes that had to be as space-efficient as possible. Asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, and pneumonia were all under control thanks to the dryer housing.

Joseph Bazalgette made a proposal for a sewerage system in London in the year 1849. His system would prevent runoff from being channeled into the Thames.

By the 1870s, cast iron gutters and downpipes were standard features in every home that was built. There was no requirement for brackets because the Victorian gutter was shaped like an ogee and measured 115 millimeters across. It was attached directly to the fascia boards.

Additionally, accessible profiles were square and half-round shapes.

Due to the fact that it required no maintenance, asbestos-cement guttering became popular for a short time following the first world war. However, the product’s shortcomings meant that this popularity was short-lived because it was more cumbersome and fractured easily when it was hit.

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Hello, I'm Tyler DeBroux. I'm a full-time real estate investor, blogger, and property manager. Rain gutters are an essential part of any home or building and that is why I've set up this site; to document everything I learn about gutters, maintaining gutters, repairing gutters, installing gutters, and home gutter accessories. Feel free to contact me using the contact page and form here on this site.

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