Roofs in a Surrey village on the greensand ridge, east of Reigate.
Nutfield is a Surrey village of 750 people at the 2021 Census, with a Grade II* church and listed buildings along the High Street. We start on the roof itself and photograph what we find.
The church tower is coated with cement and carries a stone panel dated 1786 recording repairs. The same date appears on several rainwater heads, so gutters and parapets get as much attention from us as the covering.
Stone church tower with parapet
Numbers 40 to 44 High Street are listed Grade II, so a roof job there can need listed building consent on top of a survey. We ask the council first and keep each repair like for like.
Old brick and tile cottage roofs
The village sits on the greensand ridge and the parish runs down to the Wealden clay. A postcode never tells us what is on a roof. What the tiles, nails and loft show does, and you see photos of all three.
Tiled house roof with chimney
Map of Nutfield and the neighbourhoods around it, with Crawley for reference.
Nutfield is a village 3.5 miles east of Reigate on the greensand ridge, and Tandridge District Council is its planning authority.
Nutfield survey diary
Three short chapters on what a village survey covers, how the church and the listed buildings are handled, and which Tandridge and Surrey bodies get involved once a repair grows.
Stage 01 · Background
Nutfield's fame came from the ground beneath it, which says nothing about your roof, so every survey here begins with the roof itself.
Nutfield is best known for what came out of its ground. The Victoria County History says fuller's earth from the Sandgate Beds was worked most extensively here, that the quality and quantity of the earth from the Nutfield pits made them famous, and that pits were still being worked in 1911. It also linked the deposits to Surrey's old clothing trade. None of that history reaches the roof over your head, so we begin with the roof itself.
The Nutfield built-up area held 750 people at the 2021 Census. In a village of that size, a roof may have been mended, recovered or altered more than once, and one slope can carry old work next to new. We take each roof as it stands: the covering, how the ridge and verge are fixed, the underlay, the battens and the loft. You then get photos of your own roof and a plain account of what each one shows. Nobody should have to accept a roofer's word for what is up there.
Up the ladder in Nutfield
That turns on the covering, not the postcode. Marley quotes around 60 years for concrete tiles, a figure it does not offer as a warranty. The Building Research Establishment puts clay tile at 60 years as a minimum, while a conservation article warns that old handmade peg tile can behave quite differently. Slate, if kept in good order, can pass 100 years. These are typical ranges. Nails, lead and gutters often give up well ahead of the covering.
So a repair is often the right call. A slipped tile, tired ridge bedding, a lifted flashing or a loose verge can be put right while the rest of the slope stays untouched, and we tell you when the survey points that way. When a slope truly is spent, we show you why, and our roof replacement page explains how a full renewal runs. Our pitched roofing page describes our approach to slipped tiles, rotten battens and tired underlay.
Before any ladder goes up we walk the plot and look from road and garden. Gaps in the tile courses, a dip along the ridge, weeds in the gutters, stained soffits and daylight in the loft are all clues. We write them down, then climb up to confirm.
Stage 02 · Consents
Nutfield has a Grade II* church and listed buildings, so on some roofs the first question is who has to say yes.
Since 11 June 1958 the parish church, dedicated to the apostles Peter and Paul, has been listed Grade II*. Numbers 40 to 44 High Street and the Folly Tower in the grounds of Redwood are both Grade II. Listing narrows what can be done to a roof without asking, so with any of these we begin by working out whose signature the job needs. A roof that sits beside a listed building but is not listed itself is a simpler case, though the neighbour's setting can still matter to the planning team.
It serves an Anglican congregation, which places it under the Church of England's exemption. Works there go through its own faculty system and not through the council's listed building consent. Planning permission, though, remains in play for outside alterations to it. On any church roof our direction would come from the parish and the diocese.
The Victoria County History shows what old fabric goes through. It describes the tower as coated with cement, a stone panel dated 1786 recording repairs, rainwater heads with the same date, and a parapet and upper buttresses patched in brick. Centuries of mending are normal on old work, and they are why we record what is already there before changing a thing.
Words you may meet
Old roofs carry layers of repair, so we record what is there before changing anything.
Section 7 of the 1990 listed buildings Act forbids altering a listed building so as to change its special character without authorisation. Only the council can say whether a particular repair goes that far, so go to Tandridge District Council's planning team ahead of any work, and hand over the survey photos with your question. Our guide to re-roofing a listed building shows how that conversation tends to go.
Lead does quiet work on older roofs, in flashings, soakers and parapet gutters. Our lead work page covers sheet codes and fixing methods, handy background when a written price mentions flashings.
No. Tandridge District Council will check a Nutfield address against its conservation area boundaries, but ordinary like-for-like roof work is the simple case either way. Listing is separate. It belongs to the building, not to the neighbourhood around it, and it stays with the property whoever owns it, through every sale and every repair.
Stage 03 · Permissions
Planning sits with Tandridge District Council and the highway with Surrey County Council, and both can matter when a repair becomes a re-roof.
Plenty of Nutfield jobs finish without a single form. Putting back a few tiles, rebedding a ridge or renewing a flashing hardly alters the outline. Paperwork turns up in three cases: the job swells into a re-roof, someone proposes a different covering, or poles and boards must occupy public ground.
Tandridge decides planning applications here. Building control comes from the Southern Building Control Partnership, one team serving Mole Valley, Reigate and Banstead, and Tandridge. On size, the Planning Portal's guide is that work touching under 25 per cent of the building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof is usually free of any application. Load matters as well. Approval comes into play if a replacement covering makes the roof 15 per cent heavier or more, and the Planning Portal tells owners to put the question to a structural engineer or surveyor first of all. So we compare the covering you have against any replacement before pricing. Should a whole slope need renewing, you are told at the outset, and the written price allows for it.
Bigger job checklist
Poles or boards standing on the carriageway or footway need the highway authority's licence, and for Nutfield that means Surrey County Council. Its published fee is £208 for each 28 day period, and it wants an application at least 10 working days ahead of your chosen date. Between us and the scaffolder the licence gets sorted, and the start date follows from it, so it is not left to you. Scaffold kept wholly within your garden or driveway is outside the licence scheme.
GOV.UK treats bats as fully protected, roosts included, and warns that roof repair can harm a roost. Nesting birds have their own cover: the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 makes it an offence to intentionally destroy an occupied nest. Roof windows and chimney work get the same care as tile work. Droppings, staining or a nest found on the visit put the job on hold, and we explain what we saw before you decide how to go on.
To begin, photograph the slope, parapet or chimney that is bothering you and send it with your Nutfield postcode, so the visit begins where the trouble is.
It can, if the building itself is listed. Grade II covers Numbers 40 to 44 High Street and the Folly Tower at Redwood; the church is Grade II*. The church works through the Church of England faculty system instead. For any listed house, ask Tandridge District Council's planning team before anything is booked, enclosing our survey photos.
Often, yes. A parapet patched over the years may still be sound, and a rainwater head can sometimes be refixed or relined. The survey shows which applies. If the lead or the joints have failed, we show you photos and explain why. On a listed building we would keep to the same materials and check with the council first.
Swapping worn tiles for matching ones is the lightest job in planning terms, and Tandridge's officers can say if your street has conservation area status. Listing is a separate matter that attaches to the building itself. Should you have a different material or a new roof shape in mind, put the idea to Tandridge District Council's planning team while the plan is still on paper.
The Southern Building Control Partnership carries out building control for Tandridge District Council. Approval hinges on how big a share of the roof is replaced and whether a new covering adds weight. Put the question to them before you sign anything. We raise it during the survey as well, whenever a slope looks close to the limit.
Send a photo of whichever tiles, parapet or chimney concern you most, with your Nutfield postcode, and we will offer a survey date.
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