Roofs in a West Sussex village close to Alfold.
Loxwood is a village of about a thousand people near the Surrey border, with a red brick church from 1900. We survey each roof here before we price anything in writing.
A chapel was built around 1410 and rebuilt in brick in 1822. A building with that many chapters of repair often carries mixed work overhead, so we photograph and record what we find before suggesting a fix.
Old tiled roof with patched sections
St John the Baptist, designed by R Plumbe and finished in 1900, is red brick with stone dressings. Where lead meets brick and stone, we check the flashings, gutters and the pointing round them.
Red brick wall below a tiled roof
Loxwood lies close to Alfold, over the county line in Surrey, and the two parishes were joined in 1978. Wherever your roof stands, we read the covering, fixings, gutters and loft as they are and say what a repair can and cannot fix.
Village house roof and chimney
Map of Loxwood and the neighbourhoods around it, with Crawley for reference.
Loxwood sits close to Alfold on the Surrey border, outside the South Downs National Park, so Chichester District Council handles planning.
Notes on Loxwood roofs
Three short chapters on how we work out what an older roof is made of, how consent works for a church roof, and the West Sussex rules for a bigger job.
Stage 01 · History
Loxwood rebuilt its chapel in brick in 1822 and opened a new church in 1900, and its roofs have been mended many times.
According to Sussex Parish Churches, a chapel went up in Loxwood around 1410 as a chapelry of Wisborough Green. It was rebuilt in brick in 1822, Loxwood became a parish in 1873, and the present church of St John the Baptist was started in 1898 and finished in 1900. That is a village that has built and rebuilt over several centuries, and the same pattern shows in its houses: very few roofs are all one age, because someone has patched, re-covered or extended many of them along the way.
Clues on an older Loxwood roof
We start at the loft hatch and finish at the ridge. Inside, we search the underside of the covering for daylight where it should not be, for water marks on the rafters and for the state of the felt. Outside, we compare the tiles along each slope. A slope with two shades or two profiles has been repaired before, and the join between old and new is where trouble tends to start. Nails rust, battens go soft where water has lain, and the mortar under a ridge cap crumbles long before the cap itself fails. You get photos of each finding, so you know why we recommend a particular fix and can show the pictures to anyone you like. Where part of an older slope has been re-covered in a different tile, we mark which parts look original.
Often. The Confederation of Roofing Contractors, a trade body, says slate that is well maintained can last 100+ years, while for clay tiles the Building Research Establishment's floor figure is 60 years. Old peg tile is another matter, since a building conservation article says the 60 years tells you little there, and each tile is judged on its own condition. So the tiles themselves get a close look, one slope at a time. Treat any quoted age as a rough guide and not a promise. If the timbers are sound and most of the covering is whole, the fair price for the job is the repair, and we show you the photos that prove it. For the detail of that work, read our pitched roofing page.
When the survey shows that a whole slope has gone, we tell you that as well, and the written price covers the new work as one total, and a note of how each day on site will run.
Stage 02 · Church roofs
Loxwood's church belongs to the Diocese of Guildford, so roof work on it meets the church's own rules before the council's.
St John the Baptist is a Church of England parish church in the Diocese of Guildford, and was paired with Alfold in Surrey in 1978. The building is red brick with stone dressings, the cut stones trimming its corners and openings. Anyone caring for a church or village hall nearby will want to understand the consent route for a building like this before a roofer is asked for a price.
Where an Anglican church is still in use for worship, the ecclesiastical exemption trades listed building consent for the faculty system, which runs through the diocese. Government guidance is careful to say that the exemption does not remove the duty to seek planning permission where a listed worship building's outside is affected, nor does it replace scheduled monument consent where that applies. Trustees should keep that in mind from the first meeting. In practice the order is: ask the diocese, then put whatever is left to Chichester District Council's planning team. A building that has stopped being used for worship may fall under different rules, and the council can tell you which.
Terms on a church roof job
A church roof has two sets of approvals to think about: the church's and the council's.
Brick walls trimmed with stone hold water in their joints, and lead takes up the movement between brick, stone and tile. So we study the lead flashings along the walls and the gutters first, then the pointing beneath them, then the ridge and valleys. Rain that gets into a wall head can show up inside many feet from where it started, which is why we look at both sides of a wall. A church roof can be high and steep, so we work out how to reach it before giving a price and say plainly when specialist equipment is needed. Our chimney repairs page covers stacks and their flashings on houses, which follow the same principles on a smaller scale.
Yes. A village hall, a barn conversion and a terraced cottage all get the same survey, the same photos and the same single written price. You receive a list of what we saw, a plain view of what can wait and a note of what must be done first, so a committee or a household can choose calmly from the evidence.
Stage 03 · Permissions
Planning in Loxwood is Chichester District Council's job, while West Sussex County Council licenses any scaffold that stands on a road.
Loxwood is a village in West Sussex, and its planning, building control and highway licensing sit with councils you can name. A small repair touches none of them, but a large re-roof, a change of covering or a scaffold on the verge can. We tell you which applies at the survey, so nothing catches you out halfway through the job.
No. A boundary check places Loxwood outside the National Park, so Chichester District Council handles both planning and building control for the village. Whether a particular address lies in a conservation area, or has a direction that removes permitted development, is something only the council can confirm. Phone its planners before you settle on any new look for the roof. Our post on planning permission for roof work covers dormers and roof windows.
Loxwood permissions at a glance
Any scaffold on a West Sussex road needs the county council's licence. Its published fee is £266 for a single month, with £178 for an extension, and the lead time is a minimum of 10 working days between applying and putting the poles up. Plan the roof job around that gap, because a start date promised before the licence exists is only a hope. Ask the scaffolder who applies for it; we fit our start date to whatever the council allows. Room on your own drive or lawn avoids the question altogether, because the highway licence does not cover private land.
The Planning Portal sets two tests: when under 25 per cent of the building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof is affected, no application is normally needed. Separately, swapping to a covering at least 15 per cent heavier is a trigger for approval in its own right. If you are replacing a whole roof, read roof replacement for the full sequence from survey to clear-up. Older roofs can also shelter bats and nesting birds, both protected, so should the loft or eaves show droppings or a nest, the work halts until you and we have agreed a plan.
Take one clear picture of the roof from your garden gate or the lane, add your Loxwood postcode and any clue to its age, and email both across so we can plan the survey properly.
We compare tiles along each slope, look at the nails and battens, and inspect the underside from the loft for daylight and water marks. A slope with two shades or profiles has been repaired before. We photograph each finding, so you see the evidence and can judge for yourself whether the answer is a repair or a new roof.
No. Loxwood sits outside the Park boundary, so Chichester District Council handles planning and building control for the village. Ask its planning team whether your address carries any extra controls ahead of any change to the roof's appearance. For a plain repair that keeps the same covering, there is rarely a form to fill in at all.
A parish church in use is dealt with by the faculty system of its diocese, which stands in for listed building consent. Planning rules can still apply where the outside of a listed worship building changes. Start with the diocese, then ask Chichester District Council about anything left over, and only afterwards book a roofer.
Scaffold sited on the road or pavement does. The county charges £266 for a month, wants 10 working days' notice before erection and sets the fee for any extension separately. Scaffolding on your own land falls outside the highway rules entirely. Ask the scaffolder who makes the application, and know that our programme follows the council's timetable.
Send a picture of the worrying tiles or lead, your Loxwood postcode and the rough age of the building.
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