Roofs over the old timber farms of a Wealden Clay parish.
Newdigate sits on Wealden Clay in Surrey, with older farms and cottages framed in massive timber. We climb up, photograph your own roof for you and put one written price on the job.
The Victoria County History described Newdigate as agricultural apart from its brick and tile works. Your own slope is examined tile, batten and fixing, instead of guessed from local history, then repair in matching style.
Clay tiles on a country house
The same source noted massive timber-work in the older farms and cottages. A frame that old has settled over centuries, so we follow the shape of the roof as it stands and report anything odd in the timbers.
Old tiled roof over a timber frame
St Peter's, listed Grade II*, has a wooden west tower with an oak-covered lower stage. It is a reminder that listed and timber buildings stand in this village, so we ask early whether your home is listed.
Old church roof beside a village lane
Map of Newdigate and the neighbourhoods around it, with Crawley for reference.
Newdigate is a Surrey village in a flat part of the Weald on Wealden Clay, home to a Grade II* church with a wooden tower.
Newdigate roof diary
Three short chapters on what lies under your tiles, how settled timber frames change a re-roof, and which Mole Valley rules bite once a repair gets bigger.
Stage 01 · First look
Newdigate's soil and old brick and tile works are local history; the covering over your head is what we identify before we price.
Newdigate stands on Wealden Clay. The Victoria County History, published in 1911, called the parish thickly wooded and agricultural apart from its brick and tile works, and it records an important iron forge and furnace at Ewood in the 16th century. Interesting as that is, it cannot name the covering on your roof today, because a village with this much history holds houses from many periods. A Newdigate survey therefore starts with the plainest question there is: what are we looking at?
Tiles can look identical from the lane. Up on the slope we check the material, the profile, the colour and the way each piece is held down, since the covering sets the rest of the job: the pitch it needs, the repairs that suit it and the span of years it can be expected to give. Marley puts concrete tiles at around 60 years but is careful to call that no promise of longevity. Clay carries a Building Research Establishment minimum of 60 years, yet one source on old peg tiles calls the same figure unreliable. We read age as a clue to where to look first, never as a verdict. The photos from your survey let you check each finding against the roof itself.
Age tells you where to look on a roof, not what to do about it.
What the survey shows in Newdigate
A roof patched over the years can show a mix of tile colour and profile from one slope to the next. We log the tile type as we work. If a close match proves hard to source, you hear about it before you commit, with the choices laid out: reclaimed tiles taken from a slope nobody sees, a near match, or renewing the whole slope. The decision is yours, and the price on paper comes only after the survey.
Trees deserve a look as well. Where branches overhang, leaves and moss collect in the valleys and gutters, and water that cannot run away may be forced back beneath the lowest tiles. Gutter line and valleys get checked on every visit. If the survey finds worn battens or torn underlay, our pitched roofing hub explains those repairs in more detail.
It is, whatever the age of the house. Where the underlay is non-breathable, Marley's reading of BS 5250 asks for an eaves gap of 25 mm on pitches of 15 degrees or less and 10 mm on steeper ones. Insulation stuffed tight into the eaves can close that gap off, leaving warm damp air to condense on the timber. We look from the hatch before leaving.
Stage 02 · Older buildings
Where a farm or cottage carries massive timber, the frame beneath sets the rules for the covering, not just the tile on top.
The county history notes 'much massive timber-work' in Newdigate's older farms and cottages. A frame like that has had centuries to settle, so the roof above it is seldom a true flat plane. Our approach is to follow the shape that is there. Before any tile comes off we tell you what the rafters and the wall plate look like, and we point out any sag, rot or movement the photos reveal.
It might be. The Planning Portal lists a new covering that is 15 per cent or more heavier among the changes needing Building Regulations approval, and it suggests the old timbers are checked by an engineer or surveyor before any switch. A heavier covering puts more load on old timbers, so a like-for-like covering is the simpler route. If you want a change, it comes up at the survey and the programme allows for that check.
Ridges deserve the same care. Since the 2014 revision of BS 5534, Marley says, mortar's grip alone is no longer to be relied on for ridge or hip tiles, and every bedded tile should also be held by a mechanical fixing. Whatever the age of the house, we check how its ridge is held and repair it to suit.
Old-roof vocabulary
Water also travels. A leak can run along a rafter and show up on a ceiling a good distance from the point of entry, so we trace stains back across the loft instead of assuming the fault sits directly above them.
Where there is a stack, the join between chimney and roof is the place to watch. Flashing is the metal strip, usually lead, that seals that join; flaunching is the mortar bed the pots sit in. Cracks in either let water in. We inspect both from the roof itself, and our chimney repairs page walks through what a stack job involves from start to finish.
Old roof spaces can shelter bats and nesting birds. Bats, their roosts and breeding places all have legal protection, and roof repair and renewal appear in the official guidance as possible triggers. Should droppings or a nest show up under the tiles or along the eaves, we stop and settle the next step together. The answer on bats and birds in the roof covers what the law asks.
Stage 03 · Permissions
Mole Valley District Council decides planning here, and a listed home brings extra rules, so we ask first.
St Peter's is a Church of England church with a Grade II* listing and a timber tower, so roof work to the church itself goes through the Church's faculty system rather than the council. A listed house is another matter. It keeps its permitted development rights, but listed building consent is still required for work that changes its special architectural or historic character. When your Newdigate home is listed, put the idea to Mole Valley's planners before you agree to anything beyond a straight repair.
Only the council can tell you whether your road lies in a conservation area or under an Article 4 direction, which withdraws permitted development rights across a defined area. Mole Valley's planning team holds that answer, so put your postcode to them early. A like-for-like repair rarely stirs the question. A new covering, new openings or a raised ridge may.
Before a Newdigate re-roof
The Planning Portal sets two tests for skipping a building control application: under 25 per cent of the building envelope affected, and under 50 per cent of the roof. Miss either and approval is normally needed. So it is for a covering 15 per cent heavier or more, or one whose fire performance differs sharply from the old covering. Mole Valley's building control team is the Southern Building Control Partnership. Once the survey shows a full slope needs stripping, we contact them before a start is pencilled in, so the answer is already in your quote. For the full sequence of a big job, see roof replacement.
Wildlife, listing and conservation questions cost less to settle before the scaffold goes up than after. We note what we checked and hold the start until each answer is in hand, so nothing stalls half way through the job.
Any scaffold standing on the carriageway or footway needs a licence from Surrey County Council, the highway authority for the village. We handle our part of that licence with the scaffolder before the start date is settled. A scaffold that stays wholly inside your boundary needs none. To begin, send a snap of whichever slope, chimney or timber-framed gable troubles you, with your postcode, noting whether the building is on the heritage list.
A repair can keep the existing covering when the tiles are sound and the timbers beneath them are dry. Newdigate's older farms and cottages carry massive timber, so we study the rafters, wall plate and battens before promising anything. If the frame has moved, your survey photos show it and the written price covers what we find.
Consent is required for works that affect a listed building's character, and a change of covering may do that. Put your repair to Mole Valley District Council's planning team before the job is priced, since a refusal after the work is far harder to fix than a question beforehand. A parish church in use under the Church of England runs its own faculty system, so that route concerns St Peter's rather than houses.
Mole Valley District Council's building control is provided by the Southern Building Control Partnership. Under the Planning Portal's test, a Newdigate job under 25 per cent of the building envelope and 50 per cent of the roof rarely calls for an application, but a covering 15 per cent or more heavier does. We check first when a survey points to a bigger job.
Surrey County Council charges £208 per 28 day period for a scaffold licence and wants the application with it at least 10 working days ahead. We handle our part of the licence with the scaffolder, set the date around it and warn the neighbours. A frame that never leaves your own ground avoids the highway licence altogether.
Take a picture of the slope, chimney or timber-framed gable that concerns you, give us your postcode, and a Newdigate survey will be booked.
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