Roofs in a High Weald village of Grade I listed buildings.
St Dunstan's church, the Middle House Hotel and The Old Palace carry the top listing grade, and part of the village sits in a conservation area. We survey first and write one total price.
The church of St Dunstan, the Middle House Hotel and The Old Palace each hold Grade I listing. Roofs of that rank travel a consent route of their own, so the council hears from us before a price is written.
Old tiled roof beside a church
Some of the village lies within the Mayfield and Coggins Mill conservation area, so we check your address against it before shaping any change to the covering or the roofline.
Tiled cottage roof and chimney
High Weald literature mentions timber-framed and weather-boarded buildings alongside widely used sandstone, brick and tile. Our job is to read your own roof and copy what is already up there.
Brick and tile house roof
Map of Mayfield and the neighbourhoods around it, with Crawley for reference.
Mayfield, in East Sussex, belongs to the High Weald National Landscape and answers to Wealden District Council for planning.
Mayfield in three stages
Three short chapters on listed roofs, the conservation area and High Weald setting, and the scaffold, partnership and approvals behind a bigger job.
Stage 01 · Listed buildings
Grade I listing applies to St Dunstan's church, the Middle House Hotel and The Old Palace, and a listed roof plays by its own rules.
Historic England's list entries for St Dunstan's church and the Middle House Hotel both show Grade I status, first listed on 26 November 1953, and The Old Palace, which now houses St Leonard's Mayfield School, holds the same grade. Whether you live in a listed house or simply opposite one, it is worth knowing how listing treats a roof before a ladder goes up.
On a Mayfield roof survey
Section 7 of the Listed Buildings Act forbids unauthorised works that would change a listed building's special character, and listed building consent is the authorisation. Swapping a couple of cracked tiles for matches could fit within that, whereas an altered roofline or a stripped slope probably would not. We therefore take the plan to Wealden District Council's planning team before pricing, and staple their reply to our written quote. Beneath the covering, rafters and battens carry everything, so on an old house our pitched roofing repair starts with that timber and with how each fixing is holding.
Parish churches in use sit outside the listed building consent system under the ecclesiastical exemption. For an Anglican church in use, a faculty from the diocese is the permission that matters. St Dunstan's is run as an Anglican church, so any works there are for the parish to arrange, and a roofer waits for that permission to arrive before touching a tile.
A listed roof means asking first and pricing second.
A chimney stack on an old house often wears its own flaunching, the mortar cap that throws rain clear of the flue, and our chimney repairs page explains repointing and rebuilding. The Confederation of Roofing Contractors says well-kept slate can last 100+ years, and a building conservation article warns that the 60-year clay figure misleads for old peg tiles, so on a heritage roof every tile is judged on condition, not date. Where we can, we keep sound original material in place and replace only what has failed, which also keeps the roof looking like itself.
In practice a listed job runs in a set order: survey and photographs, a description of the proposed repair, the council's reply, then a written price that reflects it. That order protects you from paying for a design the council later refuses, and it leaves a paper trail if the house is ever sold.
Stage 02 · Planning
A conservation area covers part of Mayfield, and the village also carries a High Weald National Landscape designation.
Mayfield's conservation area took its present name in 2017. Mayfield alone was first designated in 1969, and on 22 March 2017 it was merged with Coggins Mill and designated again, so council maps now show Mayfield and Coggins Mill. Only part of the village lies inside it. Separately, a High Weald National Landscape designation covers the village. Either one is reason enough to speak to the council before the look of a roof changes. Planning here is Wealden District Council's job, and its team is the first call for any roof question that goes beyond a straight repair.
Skylights and dormers are alterations, not repairs. For the national rules, see our post on planning permission for roof work, after which Wealden's planners will say what applies at your house. A roof window is a manufactured unit set into the slope, while a dormer is a built box projecting from it, and each raises its own questions for the council and for the structure beneath. One neighbour's answer is never automatically yours.
Words for a Mayfield roof query
A direction of that kind strips specified permitted development rights from a defined area, and it appears on a list the council publishes. Ask the planning team about your address in writing, ideally before any design exists. Work that puts back exactly what was there leaves the roof's appearance alone, so the answer only matters once the look of the roof is going to change. When you ring, have the address, a photograph from the road and a one-line description of the work to hand; a specific question earns a specific answer, and a written reply gives you something to show anyone who asks later.
The High Weald's own pages describe weatherboarded and timber-framed buildings, and sandstone, brick and tile used widely. That portrait covers a whole region, so it settles nothing about your house. We copy what your own roof carries, and the planning team rules on any change. Colour and texture matter as much as material: a tile of the right type but too bright looks wrong beside its neighbours for years, so we hold samples against the old roof in daylight before ordering anything.
Stage 03 · Access
East Sussex Highways handles scaffold licences on the road, and bigger re-roofs go to the East Sussex Building Control Partnership.
A village street raises its own practical questions: where the scaffold can stand, where deliveries can pull in, and which neighbours need a word of warning. We settle those at the survey, before the quote is written.
Putting poles on the carriageway or footway brings in East Sussex County Council as highway authority, working through East Sussex Highways. Its licence covers 28 days at a time, and its fee list carries a 2.77 per cent increase dated 1 April 2026, so ask what the figure is today. No lead time is published for a first application, which argues for applying early, and the terms do not name the applicant, so the scaffolder is the person to ask; we handle the licence jointly with them and fix dates with you. Extensions are requested before the licence runs out. If the poles stand only on your own land, no road licence comes into it.
On a village street, scaffold lorries and skips need somewhere to stop. We agree the delivery day, the skip position and the route for waste at the survey, give neighbours the dates for erection and removal, and keep the pavement passable for pushchairs and wheelchairs wherever the licence allows. Tidiness counts for a lot where the whole street walks past your front gate.
Before work starts in Mayfield
The East Sussex Building Control Partnership does the work of four authorities, Eastbourne and Hastings boroughs plus Rother and Wealden districts, and it is the body that checks a bigger Mayfield re-roof. The Planning Portal's yardstick is a pair of thresholds: under 25 per cent of the building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof. Go past either figure, or fit a covering adding 15 per cent or more to the weight, or reacting significantly differently in a fire, and an application is normally required. Listed building consent runs separately from building control, so a listed house can need both. See our roof replacement page for the sequence of a re-roof.
Gaps beneath old tiles can suit roosting bats, which are legally protected along with the places they roost, and GOV.UK's guidance lists reroofing in its examples of activities with bat impacts. We check for droppings and staining at the survey; signs stop the job while options are discussed with you. For a first look, email pictures: the roof from the road, the same roof from the garden, your postcode, and whether the property is listed or in the conservation area.
Possibly, though only the council can confirm it for your house. Listed building consent applies to work that would affect character, and a different covering or a stripped slope may do that. We take the plan to Wealden's planners before pricing and staple their answer to the written quote, so you hold it in writing.
The designation does not ban re-roofing, and an ordinary repair carries on as before. Copying the covering you have is the simple route, and survey photos of the existing roof help the planners judge any change. Wanting something different, or a larger roof window, is a question for Wealden's planners, asked before materials are ordered and answered in writing.
Wealden's planning team can tell you, or you can look at the conservation area map on planning.data.gov.uk, which shows part of Mayfield inside it. Check before any change to covering or roofline, and keep the reply. A straight repair puts back what was there, and we still look at the map during the survey so nothing is missed.
As early as you can. East Sussex Highways gives applicants no stated notice period at first application, and it expects extensions to be requested before expiry. Poles confined to your own land bring no road licence into the picture, which saves time. Send pictures plus your postcode, and the scaffold plan follows, built around whatever the road requires.
Email pictures from the road and the garden, with your postcode and any listing details, and we will arrange the survey.
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