Roofs below the Downs, from Keymer's old core to station-era streets.
Hassocks lies where the Downs scarp drops to the Brighton line, beside the historic core of Keymer. Every roof is surveyed before we put a price in writing.
The Keymer Conservation Area holds seven listed buildings, the only ones in the built-up area, and its oldest building dates from the 15th century. We ask the council before any change to a roof in that part of the village.
Old tiled roof on a village building
The county history noted in 1940 that much building was going on around Hassocks station. Homes from different decades sit near each other there, so every roof is read as it stands, never assumed to match its neighbour.
Terraced homes with tiled roofs
Keymer church keeps a 12th-century chancel with flint walls, and the rest was rebuilt in 1866. Flint walls under a roof edge mean verges and flashings need careful work, with sound mortar where they meet.
Flint wall beneath a roof edge
Map of Hassocks and the neighbourhoods around it, with Crawley for reference.
Hassocks lies below the Downs scarp, beside the London-Brighton railway and the older settlement of Keymer.
The Hassocks job diary
Three short chapters on the older roofs of Keymer, the station-era streets around Hassocks, and the council and highway rules behind a bigger job.
Stage 01 · Old core
The Keymer Conservation Area was designated in January 1989 and holds the only listed buildings in the built-up area of Keymer and Hassocks.
Mid Sussex District Council's summary of its conservation areas says the Keymer Conservation Area was designated in January 1989 to conserve the historic core of the built-up area and the approaches from Ditchling and along Lodge Lane. It holds seven listed buildings, the only ones in the built-up area of Keymer and Hassocks, while the oldest building in the area is the Old Manor House, 102 and 104 Keymer Road, from the 15th century. The summary cites traditional building materials without naming them, so nobody should guess at what any roof there is made of, and we do not.
It means being careful about what counts as a repair. Anything that would alter what makes a listed building special calls for listed building consent, and a roofer cannot grant that. If your roof is listed, or you are not sure, ask Mid Sussex District Council's planning team before work is planned, and take our survey photographs along. Our re-roofing in a conservation area answer goes through the questions worth asking.
On a Keymer-side roof
Keymer church keeps a 12th-century apsidal chancel with flint walls, and the rest was rebuilt in 1866 to designs by Edmund Scott. Flint is a wall material, not a roof one, but it shows how the village was put together: stone and mortar below, a tiled or slate roof above, and a junction between them that has to stay sealed. Where a roof abuts a wall like that, a lead flashing is cut into the mortar joint and dressed over the tiles. Old mortar joints crumble, and the flashing lifts with them.
At those junctions we check three things: whether the lead is split or lifting, whether the joint it sits in is sound, and whether the tiles beside it are whole. Each answer comes back to you as a close-up picture, set beside the written price, and the lead that is sound gets recorded alongside the lead that is not.
Our lead work page covers flashings, soakers and valleys, and the pitched roofing page describes how we mend the slopes either side. Chimney stacks beside old walls get the same scrutiny, since a stack that has moved a little opens its flashing and the flaunching, the mortar cap under the pot, at the same time.
Stage 02 · Station era
By 1940 much building was going on around Hassocks station, so the village has roofs of several ages near the railway.
The 1940 county history records that much building was taking place around Hassocks railway station on the London-Brighton line. That gives the village a layered character: older cottages by Keymer, houses from the station-era growth, and later streets added since. Roofs of different ages can meet within a few doors, and the same fault can look different on each. A leak in the back bedroom of one house may be a ridge problem, and next door the same stain may come from a gutter. Daylight at the laps, a sagging batten line or a stain on the rafter ends each points somewhere different, which is why the loft visit counts as much as the ladder.
On a roof from any of those periods, the tile is rarely the first to go. Marley puts concrete tile at around 60 years while stressing that no guarantee comes with that, and for clay the minimum the Building Research Establishment quotes is also 60 years. What wears sooner is the detail around them: ridge and verge mortar, the underlay, the nails, plus the fascia and the soffit, which are the boards along the foot of the roof and beneath its overhang. A cracked fascia lets damp into the rafter ends, and a soffit with a gap lets birds in, so we look up at the eaves from the ground before the ladder goes up.
Since the 2014 revision of BS 5534, Marley says, a bed of mortar on its own stopped being sufficient for the ridge and hips, and bedded tiles and fittings should have mechanical fixings. BS 8612 is the standard against which dry ridge, dry hip and dry verge kits are tested. Checkatrade's June 2026 guide gives dry ridge repair at £50 to £70 per metre and dry hip at £70 to £100 per metre. We look at what is on your roof, say which approach suits it, and give one written total.
Terms from a Hassocks survey
Checkatrade's October 2026 guide gives gutter replacement at £650 to £1,700 for 15 to 20 metres of run with three downpipes. Brett Martin asks installers to drop each run 1 mm for every 600 mm, which is why a sagging run holds water instead of shedding it. Our gutters, soffits and fascias page explains how boards and runs are replaced together, so the roof edge is only disturbed once, and the tiles at the eaves are put back as carefully as they came off.
Stage 03 · Permissions
In Hassocks, Mid Sussex District Council handles planning and building control alike, and West Sussex County Council issues any scaffold licence for the road.
Mending a roof and leaving it looking as before seldom needs any form. Bigger jobs bring in the council, and it is easier to know the order of things before the first quote arrives. Three questions come up: does the work need approval, is the house inside a conservation area, and will the poles end up on the pavement.
The Planning Portal sets two limits for a re-roof: under 25 per cent of the building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof. Cross either, or fit a new covering with 15 per cent more weight than the old, and building control approval comes into the picture. Mid Sussex District Council runs its own building control service, so any job near those limits goes to them before we pencil in a date, and their answer is reflected in the written price.
Hassocks survey steps
No, only the homes inside its boundary, which the council drew around Keymer's historic core. Mid Sussex District Council's planners will check an individual address on request. If so, ask them before changing the covering, colour or look of a roof. Putting back what is already there makes for a simpler conversation than changing the material, and the council will want to know which one you mean. Pictures of the roof today help that discussion, and you will have ours.
A licence from West Sussex County Council is needed for any poles on the highway. Expect 10 working days' notice and a charge of £266 for one month. A frame built on your own hardstanding or lawn needs no such licence. We prepare the application together with the scaffolding firm, and the first day is fixed once the length of the notice is known. The licence covers only where the poles stand, so the survey also checks how materials and rubbish will travel between the roof and the skip.
Every bat species is fully protected by law, roosts included, and an old roof under the Downs is the kind of place one could be. Signs found at the survey halt work on that slope, and we lay out the choices with you before anything else happens. A photograph of the ridge, verge or gutter that worries you, sent with your Hassocks postcode, starts the process.
Because the boundary takes in that approach. Mid Sussex District Council's planning team confirms individual addresses. The area was designated in January 1989 to conserve the historic core and the approaches from Ditchling and along Lodge Lane. If you are inside it, ask the council before changing a roof's covering or appearance, and keep our survey photographs to hand.
That turns on whether the building is listed and on what the repair would change. Listed building consent is needed for works affecting a listed building's special interest, and the Old Manor House is the oldest building in the conservation area. If you are unsure, ask Mid Sussex District Council's planning team first. We describe the proposed repair in writing, and our survey photographs show the roof as it stands.
Usually the mortar joint it is cut into has crumbled, so the lead loses its grip and water gets behind it, especially after a frosty winter. A lasting repair rakes out the joint, refixes the lead and the pointing, and checks the tiles beside it. The junction is photographed before and after, so what was done is plain to see.
West Sussex County Council wants 10 working days between application and the day the poles go up, and charges £266 for one month on the highway, with a late extension costing more. A drive or garden needs none. The application is made together with the scaffolding firm, and we set the start date after the notice period so nothing is held up halfway.
Photograph the part of the roof that bothers you, add your Hassocks postcode, and we will offer a date to come and look.
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