Roofs on a Surrey border village that kept adding houses.
Felbridge sits on the Sussex border with a church of 1865, a Grade II listed school and houses added over many decades. We date each roof from what is on it and price in writing.
St John the Divine was built in 1865, and a parish was shaped round it from parts of Godstone, Tandridge and East Grinstead. Whoever looks after St John's roof should check its consent route with the denomination; we supply survey photographs when a parish asks.
Church roof with pitched slopes
In 1912 the Victoria County History noted newer houses at Felbridge on the Sussex border, gradually extending. Houses added over decades carry different tiles and details, so each roof gets read for its own age.
Tiled houses of mixed ages
Historic England lists Felbridge County Primary School at Grade II, first listed in 1991. Listing is a reminder to check the heritage list before assuming any building is free to alter.
Pitched roof with chimney stack
Map of Felbridge and the neighbourhoods around it, with Crawley for reference.
A village on the Sussex border just north-west of East Grinstead, on Hastings Sand at the southern tip of the old Godstone parish.
Diary of a Felbridge roof
Three short chapters on how Felbridge grew, what listing and an Article 4 area mean for a repair, and the Surrey rules once a job gets bigger.
Stage 01 · Village history
A church of 1865 and newer houses by 1912 mean Felbridge roofs span several periods, so each one is dated from its own tiles and fixings.
Felbridge lies on the Sussex border just north-west of East Grinstead, on the Hastings Sand at the southern tip of the old parish of Godstone. The church of St John the Divine went up in 1865, and the new parish was drawn from the southern ends of Godstone and Tandridge together with part of East Grinstead, which lies over the line in Sussex. By 1912 the Victoria County History saw newer houses at Felbridge, gradually extending along the border.
Roof words used below
The history of the village cannot date a roof. A house added early in the twentieth century may have had its covering renewed since, and a younger house may carry reclaimed tiles. So we read the roof itself. The profile of the tile, the wear on its surface, the fixings, the type of underlay and the way the ridge is held each give a clue to when the roof last had attention. We note all of it and show you the photographs.
Often it is not the tile. Marley's estimate for a concrete tile is roughly 60 years, given with a note that it is no warranty; the Building Research Establishment holds clay to a 60-year minimum. The parts around the tile are what give up early: the mortar under the ridge, the cement along the verge, the nails, and underlay that droops into the gutter. Since the 2014 revision of BS 5534, bedded ridge and hip tiles are meant to be fixed mechanically as well as set in mortar, so on an older roof we check for fixings as well as for cracks.
A roof can be younger than its house, or older than its last repair.
Those are repairs, and a good survey separates a repair from a roof that has reached the end of its life. Our pitched roofing page sets out how we deal with slipped tiles, tired battens and failed underlay. Where the eaves are the trouble, with a sagging gutter or rotten boards, the gutters, soffits and fascias page covers that side of the job.
The loft is where a slow leak shows itself before the ceiling does. We look for daylight at the joints, tide marks on the rafters, battens gone dark or soft, and insulation that is wet or pressed down against the eaves. If the problem is a single slipped tile, you will see it. If it is a failing underlay across a whole slope, you will see that instead, and the choice between repair and renewal becomes a matter of evidence on the page.
Stage 02 · Listing and land
Felbridge once had ironworks, has a Grade II school and a mapped Article 4 area, so ask before a job changes anything.
Felbridge makes a good case for asking before assuming. Iron ore was plentiful near Felbridge and Hedgecourt, and there were once ironworks there, but nothing about that past changes how a roof is mended today. What does matter is what the heritage list and the planning data say about your address.
Historic England lists Felbridge County Primary School at Grade II, first listed on 20 February 1991. The same national list can be searched by anyone, so a house can be checked in a few minutes. Works that would change a listed building's special character need listed building consent beforehand. As a rule of thumb, patching with the same material is one conversation and changing the material is another. If the answer is yes, mention it when you first ring, and the price will leave room for the council's questions.
Questions before you commit
The national planning data records an Article 4 direction on land east of the A22 and south of the Redhill to Tonbridge railway line. A direction is how a council takes certain permitted development rights away inside a mapped boundary, so its effect depends on the wording of the notice, and that wording is Tandridge District Council's to explain. Its planning team can tell you in a short reply whether the direction touches your address. Tandridge also answers questions on conservation area boundaries, address by address. For the wider question of when roof work needs permission, our post on planning permission for roof work is the place to start.
Take the plain case: tiles that have slipped, a cracked hip tile, a leaking valley. Replacing them with the same material in the same place leaves the outside of a Felbridge house unchanged to the eye, and it seldom raises any of the questions above. The questions are about change: a different covering, a new opening, a raised ridge. At the survey we photograph the existing covering close up and from the ground, so the pitch, the colour and the profile are on record. Whatever the job turns out to be, the price arrives as one total in writing, with those photographs beside it.
Stage 03 · Permissions
Planning at Felbridge is Tandridge's, building control belongs to a three-council team, and Surrey County Council issues licences for road scaffold.
Three bodies decide what a larger Felbridge job needs. Tandridge District Council is the planning authority. Building control sits with the Southern Building Control Partnership, the shared team that Tandridge, Reigate and Banstead and Mole Valley use. Any poles on the public highway need Surrey County Council's licence.
The Planning Portal's yardstick lets a re-roof go ahead without a building control application if it touches under 25 per cent of the building envelope is affected and less than 50 per cent of the roof. Cross either line and you should ask first. That page also requires approval where the replacement covering adds 15 per cent or more to the weight, or where it would perform significantly differently in a fire. A job near those lines is one we put to the partnership before the price is written, so the figure you get already reflects what it says. If the whole roof is due for renewal, our roof replacement page lays out a full renewal in the order the work happens.
Scaffold placed on a Felbridge road or footway has to be licensed. Surrey County Council asks for the application at least 10 working days ahead of the date they are due to go up, and it charges £208 for each 28-day period. The application fee is not refunded, so settle a start date before anyone applies. A garden or drive with room for the tower avoids all of this, because private ground is outside the highway licence. We measure up at the survey, ask the scaffolder who applies and arrange the licence with them.
Sometimes a roof is not empty. GOV.UK's guidance gives every bat species full protection, roosts included, and names roof repairs and replacements as work that can affect them. As for birds, the Wildlife and Countryside Act makes intentional damage to an active or half-built nest an offence. If either turns up while we work, we stop on that area and speak to you at once. The survey is where we look for signs first, so a roost or a nest seldom catches anyone out once the job starts.
Terms on a bigger job
The quickest way to begin is a picture of the slope or ridge that bothers you, sent with your postcode and a note saying whether the house is an original or a later addition.
Not by itself. The church dates from 1865 and newer houses were being added by 1912, but a house of any age may have been re-roofed since. We date a roof from the evidence on it: the tile profile, the wear, the fixings and the underlay. The survey photographs show you the same details, and the written price follows from what they reveal.
Tandridge District Council can confirm the conservation area position for your street, and the national planning data records an Article 4 direction on land east of the A22 and south of the Redhill to Tonbridge railway. A direction can remove some permitted development rights. Ask Tandridge District Council's planning team whether it applies to your address before agreeing any new covering, colour or opening.
Tandridge District Council's local authority building control team is the Southern Building Control Partnership, which also serves Reigate and Banstead and Mole Valley. Smaller repairs seldom need to go near it. For a larger re-roof, or a covering heavier than the old one, we put the job to the team before the price is written.
If any part of the scaffold stands on the public road or pavement, yes. Surrey County Council asks for applications at least 10 working days ahead and charges £208 per 28-day period. Poles that stand in your own front garden or on your drive need no highway licence. We check the access at the survey, then settle the licence with the scaffolder.
Send a picture of the slope or ridge that bothers you with your postcode and the house's age, and we will book a survey.
Message us on WhatsApp
