Roofs around a Surrey village green beside the River Mole.
Brockham clusters round its green by the River Mole, east of Dorking, with listed houses on the Borough. We photograph your roof first and price in writing afterwards.
Several houses on the Borough are listed Grade II, among them numbers 2 to 10, 18 and 20, and 24. Changing the character of one takes listed building consent, so Mole Valley District Council hears from us before a change is priced.
Row of older houses with tiled roofs
Christ Church is listed Grade II and still used by the Church of England, so works to its roof follow the church's own faculty system. Houses near it follow the ordinary council route instead.
Church roof in tile and stone
Brockham Court stands on the site of the old manor-house, and the school dates from 1879, enlarged in 1901 as the village grew. Buildings of different decades sit side by side, so we read each roof on its own terms.
Village school roof with tiles and ridge
Map of Brockham and the neighbourhoods around it, with Crawley for reference.
A village clustered round its green by the River Mole, east of Dorking, carved out of the old parish of Betchworth.
Brockham from the scaffold
Three short chapters on how Brockham came together, what its listed buildings ask of a roofer and how Mole Valley and Surrey fit a bigger job.
Stage 01 · Background
Brockham grew out of Betchworth in layers, so the roof over your head may belong to a different decade from your neighbour's.
Brockham is a village on the River Mole, east of Dorking, and was once part of the old parish of Betchworth. The 1911 county history found it clustered round the green, west of Betchworth village. The Victoria County History of 1911 says Brockham Green was formed out of Betchworth and made an ecclesiastical parish in 1848. It adds that Brockham Court was built by a former Duke of Norfolk on the site of the old manor-house, that the school was built in 1879 and enlarged in 1901, and that the county helped to maintain Brockham Bridge over the Mole. Put together, that describes a village built up in layers, with roofs from each layer standing close to one another.
On a Brockham first look
It means we cannot guess, so we do not. Two houses on the same stretch of green can differ in age by a century, and a repair that suits one could damage the other. On yours we record the covering, the fixings, the underlay, the ridge and every flashing, and photograph each. The pictures reach you with a written description in everyday words and the problem marked, so you can follow what we found even if you never climb a ladder. A roof patched once before may carry two or three tile makes. We note each patch, because the odd-coloured ones show where water has got in before.
Published figures are ranges, not promises. Marley puts concrete tiles at around 60 years and adds that the figure carries no promise about your own roof. For clay, the Building Research Establishment's floor is 60 years, though a conservation journal doubts that figure for old peg tile. What tends to give out first is the detail round the tile: the mortar bedding, the fixing nails and the felt where it laps into the gutter. Those are repairs, and a sound tile on a rotten batten needs the batten, not a new roof. Our pitched roofing hub describes the repairs to slopes, laths and felt.
Whatever the survey finds, the price you get is a single written total. If a repair will do, that is what it covers. If the roof has reached the end, the photographs say so before the figure does.
Stage 02 · Protection
Listed houses, a listed church and a conservation area all sit close together, and each follows its own set of rules.
Historic England lists 18 and 20, the Borough, at Grade II, first listed on 11 June 1973. Numbers 2 to 10 and number 24 carry the same grade. Christ Church, first listed on the same date, is Grade II as well. Beyond the listings, part of Brockham falls inside a conservation area on the national planning dataset, using boundaries supplied by Mole Valley District Council. We do not describe what any of these roofs are made of from the road; the covering is read from the roof itself, and the listing text is only the starting point for the questions we ask.
A listed house needs listed building consent for works that would touch its character. Even a matching repair, with identical tiles, fixings and ridge, may look like nothing to the owner and still be a matter the council wants to hear about. The safe order is to ask Mole Valley District Council first, get the reply in writing, and only then fix a price and a start date. We will happily join that conversation by sending the council the survey photographs, which usually answer half its questions before it asks them. Our guide to re-roofing a listed building lists what to put to the council.
Words you will meet in Brockham
A listed roof asks one question first: will it still look the same afterwards?
No. Christ Church is still a working Anglican church, and the Church of England handles consent for its own churches through a faculty, not through listed building consent from the council. So if you sit on the parochial church council and wonder where to start, begin with the diocese, because the faculty process has its own forms and its own timetable. For homes around the green, the council route applies. If the stated aim is a whole new roof, the roof replacement hub explains how a strip and re-cover runs from scaffold to sign-off.
Where the conservation area boundary cuts through a street, two neighbours can face different questions. A short email to the planning team with your address settles it, and costs nothing but a few days. On a listed home the survey photographs also serve as a record of the roof as found, which helps if the council asks what is there now, or if a buyer's surveyor or solicitor asks the same during a sale.
Stage 03 · Approvals
Planning sits with Mole Valley, approvals with a building control team shared by three councils, and road scaffold with Surrey County Council.
Mole Valley calls the Southern Building Control Partnership its local authority building control team, and describes it as a single shared service with Reigate and Banstead and Tandridge, set up in 2017. Anything that needs approval on a Brockham roof goes through that team, and the district council stays the planning authority. Surrey County Council, as highway authority, sits behind both when scaffolding is on the road.
Before a bigger Brockham job
As the Planning Portal sees it, approval is usually unnecessary where under 25 per cent of the building envelope is involved and under 50 per cent of the roof. Approval is needed where the replacement weighs at least 15 per cent more, or where its fire performance would differ markedly. Replacing a lighter covering with a heavier one therefore deserves a check on the rafters, and the Portal says to ask a structural engineer or surveyor. It is cheaper to find that out before the old tiles come off than after the new ones are stacked on the scaffold. In practice the question tends to arise when a house changes from one tile type to another, so we note the existing covering in the survey and say whether the plan alters the weight. Chimney stacks, lead flashings and the gutter line are noted at the same visit, which means the written total reflects the whole roof, not one corner of it.
Surrey's highway team licenses scaffolding that stands on the road or pavement, and asks for the application 10 working days before the date you hope to start. The cost is £208 for each 28 day period. Scaffolding on private ground is a different matter, and it needs no highway licence. Where the road is the only option, the licence is handled jointly by us and the scaffolder, and the first day waits for it.
One more rule belongs on the list. Bats have special legal protection, and official guidance warns that work on a roof, mending or renewing it, can disturb a roost. Droppings or a roosting gap found at the survey mean work waits while you and we take advice. To start, photograph the ridge, valley or chimney that bothers you and email it along with your Brockham postcode.
Works affecting a listed house's character require listed building consent, and several houses on the Borough are listed Grade II. Ask Mole Valley District Council before altering the tiles, the ridge or a chimney, even with matching materials, and describe the roof as it stands today. Once you have its reply in writing, we price the work as one written total and plan the date.
Ask first. Part of Brockham is in a conservation area on the national planning dataset, using boundaries Mole Valley District Council supplied, and a new tile changes how a roof looks. The village is not covered wholly, so check your own address with the council's planning team. Listing is a separate protection, and the answers can differ between neighbouring houses, so ask both questions and keep both replies.
The Southern Building Control Partnership, which Mole Valley describes as its local authority building control team. Whether approval applies depends on the scale of the work and the weight of the new covering, using the Planning Portal's tests. At the survey we ask the question for you; the written price then shows whether an application is included.
As soon as the survey is done. Surrey County Council asks for licence applications at least 10 working days before you want the scaffolding up, so a road-side tower cannot be booked for the next morning. Poles on private ground need no highway licence. Send us your postcode and a photo, and we work out where the scaffold can stand.
Email a picture of the ridge, valley or stack that worries you, add your Brockham postcode, and a survey date follows.
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