Roofs in the Tillingbourne valley, where gunpowder was made.
Chilworth is a hamlet in the Tillingbourne valley below St Martha's Hill, with cottages tied to its old powder mills. Older roofs here get a survey that reads what is already up there.
The Victoria County History says some old houses in the hamlet are probably due to workmen settled there under Elizabeth I to make gunpowder. A roof that old has been mended many times, so we read the history before pricing.
Old cottage roof with clay tiles
The manor-house on the south side of St Martha's Hill has an ornamental brick gable and porch. Gables and porches add edges and joins, and any join may be where rain finds a way past the tiles.
Brick gable end with a tiled verge
Meadow Cottage is Grade II, listed in 2010, and Rose Cottage the Old Cottage and The Old Manor House are Grade II too. Listing is house by house, so we ask before we assume.
Pitched roof on a listed cottage
Map of Chilworth and the neighbourhoods around it, with Crawley for reference.
Chilworth is a Surrey hamlet in the Tillingbourne valley below St Martha's Hill. The 2021 Census counted 1,916 people in the built-up area.
Chilworth work notes
Three short chapters on a valley built round water-power, on the old houses and listings it left behind, and on the Guildford and Surrey rules for a bigger job.
Stage 01 · The place
The Tillingbourne has worked here since Domesday, and the houses that grew around its mills carry roofs of many different ages.
Chilworth is a short walk from one stream and a long way in history. The Victoria County History records a mill here in Domesday, gunpowder mills working from before 1589, and powder still being made in 1911. The hamlet lies in the Tillingbourne valley below St Martha's Hill, south-east of Guildford. The station, Chilworth and Albury, opened in 1849. A place with that past has houses of several ages standing side by side, and a roof next door tells you very little about yours. Nor can we guess your roof from the date of your street, which is why every Chilworth job starts with a proper look rather than a rule of thumb.
Read first on an old cottage roof
Very often, yes. Age on its own is not a reason to rip a roof off. We look for the faults that actually cost money: a dip along a slope, which can mean tired timbers or battens (the laths the tiles hang on); tile edges flaking away; lead around a chimney that has lifted; and gutters that have pulled off the fascia (the board they are fixed to). Each of these is a repair with a known remedy, and dealing with it early keeps the rest of the roof working for longer. Marley gives around 60 years for concrete tiles and warns that this is no guarantee, and the same caution holds for any covering that has been on a long while, whatever its material. Our pitched roofing page sets out how the repair is done.
On a cottage the loft often tells the truth faster than the slope does. We look for chinks of daylight where tiles have shifted, battens darkened by damp, and wet patches under a valley or beside a chimney. Because many roofs here have been altered over time, you may find several kinds of repair in one slope: a patch of newer tiles, a run of older ones, a valley that has been relined at some point and a ridge that has been rebedded in a different mortar, each of which we note on its own. We photograph what we find, mark where it sits on the roof, and explain which items matter now and which can wait.
The written price then covers the repairs the roof needs, nothing padded on. If a re-cover turns out to be the sounder choice, we explain why, with the photos beside the reasoning, and you can weigh it against the repair-only route in plain terms.
Stage 02 · Old houses
Some of the oldest homes were built for powder-mill workers, and a few of the village's houses now carry a listing.
The Victoria County History says some of the old houses in the hamlet are probably due to workmen settled there in Elizabeth I's reign to make gunpowder, under Sir Polycarp Wharton. It also notes that the manor-house on the south side of St Martha's Hill has an ornamental brick gable and porch. Historic England lists Meadow Cottage at Grade II (entry 1393796, listed 13 January 2010). Rose Cottage the Old Cottage and The Old Manor House are Grade II as well.
Do not rely on guesswork or on a neighbour. A listing attaches to a named building, and Meadow Cottage being listed in 2010 shows that new entries can still arrive. The National Heritage List for England can be searched by address, and Guildford Borough Council's planning team can confirm in a short call. We would rather you know before the survey than discover it after the scaffold is up.
Plenty of care. A gable has a verge, the tiled edge that runs down its slope, and a porch has a small roof of its own that meets the wall of the house. Each meeting point needs a flashing or a sealed course of tiles, and each is a place where an old repair may have failed. On a brick gable we look at the verge, the brickwork beneath and the join with the main roof. For chimneys that rise through such a roof, our chimney repairs service covers flashing, flaunching and repointing.
If your house is listed, putting back matching tiles laid to the existing pattern is one task. Choosing a new covering, a different ridge finish or reworked lead around a chimney can change how the building reads, and that calls for listed building consent first. We note the tile size, the spacing of the courses and the ridge detail, so that the photos can go with an application if one is needed.
Words for an old building's roof
If it is not listed, none of this slows the job down. A repair to a cottage built for powder workers can go ahead on an ordinary timetable. The survey sets out what the roof needs and in what order, so you can decide how much to do now and how much to leave for another season, and the photos stay with you either way.
Stage 03 · Permissions
Guildford Borough Council handles planning and building control for Chilworth, and Surrey County Council looks after the road where scaffold may stand.
Mending a roof like for like asks very little of the council. Questions begin only when the work is bigger than a repair, when the covering will change, or when the scaffold must stand in the lane. For planning, Chilworth answers to Guildford Borough Council, since it lies outside the South Downs National Park, and Guildford runs its own building control service as well. The planning.data.gov.uk conservation area dataset shows no area mapped at the hamlet.
The Planning Portal's national test has two limbs. Work normally stays outside building control when under 25 per cent of the total building envelope is touched and under 50 per cent of the roof is touched. Choose a covering that makes the roof 15 per cent heavier or more, or that would perform very differently if fire broke out, and an application becomes necessary. If the survey points to a larger re-cover, we raise it with Guildford first, and the reply shapes the written price. The roof replacement page shows how a whole new roof proceeds.
Chilworth permissions at a glance
Scaffolding set up in the lane, on a verge or on the pavement requires a licence, and in Chilworth the body that issues it is Surrey County Council. Its published fee is £208 per 28 day period, a renewal costs the same, and the application fee is not refunded. Surrey asks for the application at least 10 working days before you want the poles up, and says it deals with applications within 10 days. A dangerous structure can go through an emergency telephone route instead. The licence is arranged between the scaffolder and Crown; if another firm is quoting you, put the question of who applies to them. Scaffold wholly on your own ground sits outside highway licensing, and our answer on scaffolding for roof repairs explains when a job can do without it.
Bats are protected by law, and the government's bat guidance lists roof repair and roof replacement as work that can affect a roost. If anything in the roof hints at a roost, such as droppings on the loft boards or staining at the eaves, the job stops while we talk to you. A photo of the worrying spot and your postcode are the best way to begin.
It needs a slower one. Houses of that age have usually been altered more than once, so one slope can hold several kinds of repair. We look inside the loft as well as outside, photograph each fault and mark where it sits, and explain which items matter now and which can wait before a written price is given.
It could. Listing is by building, and new entries are still made, as the 2010 listing of Meadow Cottage shows. The National Heritage List for England can be searched by address, and Guildford Borough Council's planning team can confirm in a call. If yours is listed, consent may be needed before any change to the covering.
Guildford Borough Council runs its own building control service, so questions about a larger re-roof go there. Not every re-roof needs approval; the Planning Portal's test looks at how much of the building envelope and the roof is affected, and at the weight and fire performance of any new covering. We ask Guildford first when a job may cross that line.
Surrey County Council asks for at least 10 working days between application and the first pole going up, and charges £208 per 28 day period. The application fee is non-refundable. Scaffold on your own land falls outside highway licensing. When the lane is the only option, Crown and the scaffolder agree between them who files the application, and the job is booked once that notice has run.
Send a picture of the gable, join or tiles giving you doubts, add your Chilworth postcode, and we will set the survey in motion.
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