Roofs in a Wealden village of stone, brick and handmade clay tile.
Kirdford sits on a flattish plateau above the River Kird, and its Grade I church is roofed in Horsham stone slate. We survey every roof, share photos of it, then price the job in writing.
The village appraisal lists handmade clay tiles among Kirdford's building materials, beside red brick and timber framing. No two handmade tiles match exactly, so we judge each repair by eye on the roof and reuse sound ones.
Handmade clay tiles on a pitched roof
St John the Baptist's Church is Grade I listed and notable for its Horsham stone slate roof. Stone slate is a specialist covering, so on a house that has it we look closely before saying what can be repaired.
Stone slate roof on an old building
Local greensand stone, called winklestone, and timber framing carry the walls of older Kirdford houses. We check where the roof meets those walls, because the joint is where flashing and pointing earn their keep.
Cottage walls under a tiled roof
Map of Kirdford and the neighbourhoods around it, with Crawley for reference.
The village overlooks the valley of the River Kird, which eventually joins the Arun, on a flattish plateau at the western edge of the Weald.
Kirdford Weald roof diary
Three short chapters on the materials the village grew from, the questions a conservation area sends to the council, and how access and wildlife are handled on site.
Stage 01 · Materials
Kirdford's appraisal names the materials the village is built from, and each one asks for a different approach on the roof above it.
Kirdford's conservation area appraisal, prepared for Chichester District Council in 2010, names the village's building materials: winklestone (the local Wealden greensand), timber framing, red brick, handmade clay tiles and Horsham stone slates. Read as a roofer, that list is a forecast of what may be waiting at the eaves, the chimney and the gable of an old house here. Horsham stone slates are cut slabs of stone laid in the way tiles are, and handmade clay tiles are shaped one by one, so each differs a little from the next. The appraisal adds that timber from the area was felled for glass making between about 1300 and 1600, with iron makers drawing ironstone from the greensand ridges.
Before the strip starts
Often it is, and the only way to know is to handle it. On a repair we sort the tiles into three piles: those that have spalled and lost their faces, those cracked right through, and those that are perfectly serviceable but have slipped where the nail or peg let go. The third pile goes back on the roof. Keeping them matters for looks as well as cost, because a handmade clay roof weathers to an uneven colour that a box of new tiles will not copy. When a run of new tiles has to go in, we pair colour and size on site and place them on the slope where they show least. Our pitched roofing page sets out how this kind of work is done.
At every junction. Where a slope runs into a winklestone or brick wall, the weathering is a flashing: a band of lead or other metal let into a wall joint and folded down over the tile edge. Soft mortar in the wall joint lets that band lift, and rain then runs in behind it. So we examine metal, mortar and the first courses of tile as one detail, and a repair may start with a trowel before any lead is cut. Our lead work page covers the sheet codes and which one suits a flashing, a soaker or a valley.
Frames need their own check. In a timber-framed house the rafter feet and wall plate sit just inside the eaves, where a failed gutter or a lifted first course can keep them damp. Staining or softness there goes into the survey photos you receive, and the written price follows what those photos show.
Stage 02 · Permissions
Kirdford's conservation area was designated on 14 November 1984, and it shapes which questions go to the council before a roof job changes anything.
Twenty listed buildings stand inside Kirdford's conservation area, and some of the houses date to the 17th century or earlier. For planning and for building control you deal with the same body, Chichester District Council, and Kirdford is outside the South Downs National Park, so no park authority joins in. A roof job in the village therefore raises three separate questions: does it alter how the roof looks, is the house listed, and is the work large enough to involve building control?
If the replacement matches the old in material, size and colour, the outside of the house looks the same afterwards, and planning law treats work of that kind as lying outside the definition of development. The trouble starts with a change: concrete where there was clay, a new roof window on the front slope, a higher ridge. A conservation area also carries its own limits on permitted development, which our post on planning permission for roof work sets out. Before you sign anything that alters the look of the roof, put it to Chichester District Council's planning team, and ask in the same call whether an Article 4 direction applies to your street.
Words on a protected street
Matching tile for tile keeps the village looking right, which is where most questions stop.
Listing adds a second layer. For a listed house, anything that would alter what makes it special calls for listed building consent, with or without planning permission. The village church follows a different track, because churches of the Church of England that are still in use come under the diocese's faculty procedure. Either way, anything beyond like-for-like repair is agreed with the right body before a roofer is booked.
The Planning Portal's test asks whether less than 25 per cent of the building envelope and less than 50 per cent of the roof is affected; stay under both and approval is not normally needed. Approval does apply if the new covering loads the roof 15 per cent heavier or more, or if its fire performance would differ markedly from the old covering's. A swap away from stone slate alters the load in just that way, so the Planning Portal's advice to ask a structural engineer or a surveyor first carries real weight in Kirdford. Where the survey shows a whole slope needs stripping, our roof replacement page walks through the job, and the written price names the approvals involved.
Stage 03 · On site
Access is settled at the survey, anything living in the roof is dealt with before a tile comes off, and the weather is planned for.
Some of Kirdford's older houses stand near the lane. Poles that would obstruct the public highway need a licence granted first by West Sussex County Council, the highway authority for Kirdford. It asks for a minimum of 10 working days from application to the day the scaffold goes up, and charges £266 for one month. We handle that application alongside the scaffolder, and you hear the start date as soon as it is fixed.
If the plot has space beside the house, scaffold there needs no highway licence at all, so the drive, the side passage and the garden are the first places we measure. We also trace the route that tiles take on the way up and rubbish takes on the way down, so a delivery never meets a ladder. Each day's plan is passed on to you, and the neighbours get a word before the poles go up.
Before the scaffold goes up
A roof that has stood a long time in a village like this, with timber framing and deep eaves, can shelter bats. Bat roosts are protected by law wherever they are, and official guidance warns that roof repairs can disturb one. Open eaves and gaps behind tile-hanging are the places to look, so we check them at the survey from the ladder and from the loft. If we find droppings, staining or a roosting bat, that part of the job is parked while we talk the options through with you. Birds are covered too: intentionally taking or damaging a nest while it is being built or lived in breaks the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
By stripping in sections small enough to be closed up before we leave. Underlay and battens go on behind the tiles as they come off, with a sheet over anything that is not yet finished, so a shower in the night meets a roof that is weathertight for now. Valleys and chimney flashings, the awkward spots for water, are closed in before the plain slopes are touched, and at the end of each day you get a message on what has been done and what comes next. A roof leaking right now is made safe before anything else, and longer repairs are planned once the water is out.
We handle every tile before deciding. Those that have flaked or cracked come off, those that have only slipped are fixed back, and sound ones lifted from one slope can go back on another. New tiles are matched for size and colour on site. The survey photos show which pile each tile is in, and one written price follows.
Yes, and the council's planning team can give you the current boundary. The village area was designated on 14 November 1984, and boundaries can be reviewed. If your house is inside, a plain tile-for-tile repair needs no fuss, while any change to the roof's appearance should go to Chichester District Council before you agree a price with anyone.
Not a roofer working alone. Churches of the Church of England that are still in use go through the faculty system run by the diocese, so repairs to the Horsham stone slate roof are arranged by the parish with the right approvals. For a listed house in the village, listed building consent from the council is the route instead.
The licence is a cost of the job, set by West Sussex County Council at £266 for one month, with at least 10 working days' notice. We arrange it with the scaffolder. When you compare any quote, check that it includes the scaffold, the licence if one is needed and VAT, so that the totals really match.
Photograph the slope, ridge or wall junction that worries you, note whether the covering is clay or stone, and send it with your postcode.
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