Slate, clay and flint on the edge of the Downs.
Angmering sits two miles inland with much of its parish inside the South Downs National Park. We work out which authority covers your house, then which covering is on your roof.
Arun's draft appraisal describes the conservation area as flint, brick and render, with slate roofs and clay tile both present. That covers the old core only, so each roof is checked, never assumed.
Natural slate roof on an older house
St Margaret's is Grade II*, with a tower dating from 1507, restored by Teulon in 1852-3, when much of it was rebuilt, in stone and flint under a pitched clay tile roof. It shows both materials side by side.
Flint wall under a clay tile roof
Around two-thirds of the civil parish lies inside the South Downs National Park, so two planning bodies share it. Our first question on any job is which side of the line your house stands.
Downland village with tiled roofs
Map of Angmering and the neighbourhoods around it, with Crawley for reference.
Angmering is a village south-west of Crawley, about two miles inland on the southern edge of the South Downs National Park.
Angmering roof notes
What slate and clay ask of a roofer, who handles planning when a park boundary crosses the parish, and how older cottages and the church are treated.
Stage 01 · First look
In the conservation area, the council's appraisal points to slate and clay tile over flint and brick, so that is where our survey begins.
Angmering's railway arrived in 1846 and fed a market gardening trade that flourished through the middle of the 19th century and declined sharply in the 1950s and 60s. The village that grew around those changes is not uniform. Arun District Council's draft conservation area appraisal, dated January 2026, describes the old core as flint, several kinds of brick and render, with slate roofs, natural slate and clay tiles both present. That description belongs to the conservation area alone. Beyond its edge, the roofs you meet will depend on the street and the decade it went up. A roof laid in the last century may have been stripped and re-covered once already, and the survey photos show which layer you are looking at.
Looked-after slate can outlive a century, with the Confederation of Roofing Contractors putting it at 100+ years, but it is the fixings that usually fail first. Iron nails rust through the holes, and a slate drops out while still perfectly sound. That is a repair job, not a reason to strip a slope. The BS 5534 code gives a minimum pitch of 20 degrees for natural slate, and a supplier's guidance adds that hook fixings should not be used below 25 degrees, so we look at the pitch before deciding how replacement slates will be held.
On an Angmering slate survey
Checkatrade's June 2026 repair table gives £150 to £220 per m² for Spanish natural slate, excluding VAT and for up to 3 m². Plain clay tile is £110 to £160 on the same terms. Those are national figures for small areas. On an Angmering roof the pitch, the reach for access and the state of the battens under the slate will move the total, and we write one price once we have been up.
Flint walling is irregular, which makes the joint with a roof harder to seal than against brick. The lead has to be chased into the mortar and dressed over uneven faces, and old mortar is softer than modern cement, so a hard repoint can damage the wall around it. We match the mortar to the wall and photograph the junction on arrival and again at the end, which lets you check what changed. Lead is the usual answer at that joint, and our lead work hub explains the flashings and soakers. For tiled and slated roofs in general, start with our pitched roofing hub.
Stage 02 · Boundaries
Where your front door stands decides who handles planning, while building control stays with Arun either way.
The Arun District Council appraisal puts about two-thirds of the civil parish inside the South Downs National Park. The Park Authority has had statutory responsibility for planning policy since 1 April 2011, and in Arun the Authority deals with planning applications itself. In the part of the village outside the Park, Arun is the planning authority. A single street can therefore sit in one or the other, and neighbours may be dealing with different offices. For a homeowner this is mostly a question of knowing which door to knock on, because the repair itself is the same slate, the same nails and the same lead on either side of the line. Building the right contact into the survey saves a wasted week.
Not for ordinary repairs. The Authority's listed buildings page says routine upkeep and small in-situ repairs that match what is there do not need listed building consent, and the same attitude to matching materials guides us on any older roof. The difference shows up when the roof changes shape or covering. The National Park and conservation areas are both article 2(3) land, where permitted development rights are narrower, so a dormer or an altered roof needs a proper check. Our post on planning permission for roof work goes through what to ask, without us repeating the detail here.
Who decides what
Where your front door stands decides who handles planning, but building control stays with Arun either way.
Building control inside the Park stays with the district council, which is Arun. The South Downs authority does not carry it out. So on a re-roof, the contact is Arun District Council or a registered private approver, whichever side of the boundary you live. The Planning Portal sets the national test at under 25 per cent of the building envelope together with under 50 per cent of the roof, and a new covering adding 15 per cent or more to the weight changes the answer. We run those checks at survey, then write down the result next to your price. If the job is a full strip and re-slate, our roof replacement hub explains how that is surveyed.
Your address, and a photo of the front of the house, is enough for us to check which authority applies before we write a price. If you are unsure, the National Park Authority and Arun can both confirm from a postcode, and it takes a moment to ask.
Stage 03 · Older buildings
Longback Cottages, St Margaret's and the village's old lanes call for slower, more careful work than a modern estate.
The appraisal dates Longback Cottages on Arundel Road to the early 18th century, when they were built as poorhouses for the aged and infirm. St Margaret's Church is listed at Grade II*. Both are reminders that an old Angmering roof may have been patched, rebuilt or re-covered before, and that the oldest frames underneath may not be square or level. Slate or clay, we lay it to suit the structure under it.
On a listed cottage, work that would change the building's character needs listed building consent, and it is worth confirming with the conservation team before a tile is moved. A church follows its own route, depending on its denomination and whether it is in use, so for St Margaret's the people who run the church lead on it. Where we are asked to repair an older roof, we record the existing tiles, lead and ridge detail before work starts. Slates or tiles that come off sound are kept and reused in the repair where they match, which keeps the roof looking as it did, and the offcuts and waste go with us when the job ends. Old clay, natural slate and stone slates each want different handling, and we say which you have.
Angmering consents at a glance
West Sussex County Council requires a licence for scaffolding on a public highway. It asks for at least 10 working days between application and erection, and lists £266 for one month and £178 for an extension. A fast-track route, which the council aims to process within 1 working day, costs an extra £52, if you email the highways licensing team first. Unlicensed scaffolding is charged at £50 per day, with a £425 retrospective licence. If scaffold can stand on your own drive, none of this applies. Ask each roofer who is applying and what the quote covers.
Bats and their resting places are fully protected, and roof repair appears on the government list of work that may disturb them. Droppings in the loft or a bat under a slate stop the job until we have spoken to you. The same care applies to an active nest under the eaves, or one the birds are still building. Send a photo of the part of the roof that worries you and the survey can be planned around it.
Look from the ground for slipped slates, gaps along the courses and stains below the eaves. Well-maintained slate can last over 100 years according to the Confederation of Roofing Contractors, so the slate itself is rarely the problem. Rusted nails usually are. A survey checks the fixings, the battens and the valleys, and Checkatrade's June 2026 table gives £150 to £220 per m² for slate repair.
It depends where the house stands. About two-thirds of the civil parish is inside the South Downs National Park, where the Park Authority handles planning applications itself in Arun's area, and the rest falls to Arun District Council. Building control stays with Arun in both cases. A postcode check with either office will settle it.
The National Park Authority says routine upkeep and small in-situ repairs that match what is there do not need listed building consent, but anything that changes the roof's character does. Ask Arun's conservation team about listed houses outside the Park. We record the existing covering and the ridge and lead detail first, so the repair can be described exactly.
West Sussex County Council lists £266 for a one-month scaffolding licence and £178 to extend, with at least 10 working days between application and erection. Fast track is an extra £52. If the scaffold fits on your drive or in the garden, no highway licence is involved, so ask any roofer whether the price includes one.
Send a photo of the slates or tiles, add your Angmering postcode, and the survey will begin with the fixings and the pitch.
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