Roofs along a village road below the Downs, beside the railway.
Plumpton Green straggles along a road north of the steeplechase course, with chapels from 1880 and 1893 and brickmaking in its parish. We read your roof as we find it, then quote one total.
The village record says Plumpton Green straggles along the road north of the steeplechase course. Houses spread out like that arrive in different decades, so the only reliable guide to what a roof needs is the roof itself.
Tiled houses along a village road
A Congregational chapel was built here in 1880, and All Saints followed in 1893 as a chapel of ease. A chapel roof can carry long valleys and abutments, which is where lead and flashing work earns its keep.
Small chapel with a pitched roof
When the village record was written in 1940, large quantities of bricks were being made in the north of the parish. We still read each wall and roof as we find it, and match what is already there.
Brick wall and clay tile eaves
Map of Plumpton Green and the neighbourhoods around it, with Crawley for reference.
Plumpton Green lies on low ground beneath the South Downs scarp, along the road north of the steeplechase course and the station.
A job in Plumpton Green
Three short chapters on getting the address and the access right, on chapel roofs and their junctions, and on the Lewes and East Sussex arrangements around a bigger job.
Stage 01 · The village
Before any survey we confirm which Plumpton you are in, whether a conservation area applies, and how a scaffold would reach the roof.
The Victoria County History describes Plumpton Green as a village that straggles along the road north of the steeplechase course and the railway station on the Haywards Heath to Lewes line. That shape has a practical meaning for a roofer. Houses are strung out rather than gathered round a centre, so each plot has its own approach, its own parking and its own distance from the road. Before we price, we ask how a delivery lorry and a scaffold would reach your house, and whether anything on the plot, such as a gate, a hedge or a soft verge, would get in the way.
The question sounds odd but it matters. The old village of Plumpton and Plumpton Place lie to the south, at the foot of the Downs, and they are a separate place from Plumpton Green. Postcodes and delivery addresses blur the two. Tell us which you mean, and we will look at the right planning picture, because the answer to a planning question can differ between them.
A long village road means the access plan matters as much as the tiles.
At the first call
First, ask Lewes District Council whether your house falls in a conservation area. A straight like-for-like repair stays uncomplicated. If you are thinking of changing how the roof looks, by choosing another material, cutting a new opening or raising a stack, put the question to Lewes District Council's planning team first. Whether an Article 4 direction covers your street is also for the council to confirm, and it is sensible to ask in the same email. Our guide to planning permission for roof work explains the usual routes.
One of us walks the plot, studies the roof from ground level and from a ladder, and then goes into the loft to check the timbers, the underlay and the ventilation. Afterwards the survey photographs are yours to keep. Where the house sits well back from the road, we note how far the materials must be carried. Where it fronts the road, we note where the scaffold can stand without blocking a neighbour's drive. Both points go into the single written price, so the total you are given already reflects the way the job will actually run, and nothing about the access is left to be discovered on the first morning.
Stage 02 · Chapels
A Congregational chapel from 1880 and All Saints from 1893 show how small-church roofs differ from a house roof.
The Victoria County History records that All Saints was built at Plumpton Green in 1893 as a chapel of ease, which is a church built to serve part of a larger parish, and that a Congregational chapel had been built earlier, in 1880. Chapels and church halls often share a few roofing traits that houses lack: tall gables, long straight slopes, and junctions where one roof meets another or a wall. Those junctions are where leaks start.
Valleys form where two pitches run down into one another, and an abutment is the line where a slope butts up against masonry. Both need a watertight lining, usually lead, with soakers under the tiles and a flashing over them. With time the lead can crack, the mortar holding it can fall out, and a valley can fill with moss and debris. Our lead work page shows how flashings and soakers are formed, and why the thickness, set by the lead code, matters for each position. Leaks at these points show on a ceiling or an inside wall, not directly below the fault, so we trace the water back with care.
Chapel roof terms
That turns on the denomination and on listing. Anglican churches still holding services need a faculty. Roman Catholic, Methodist, United Reformed and some Baptist buildings follow their own denomination's approvals. Any other listed place of worship needs listed building consent, and exterior changes may need planning permission besides. If you look after a chapel or hall, ask your denomination or the council which route applies before anyone touches the roof. A private house is simpler: Lewes District Council's planning team answers any question about changing the look.
Brickmaking in the north of the parish says something about the neighbourhood's past, but it tells us nothing about what your walls or roof are made of, so we assume nothing. We check the tile, its colour and its profile, then find a match or tell you if a perfect match is unlikely. On a patched roof we point out where earlier repairs have changed the look. A sound repair in a close match is better than a replacement in a poor one, and our roof replacement page covers the case where a whole slope has to be re-covered.
Stage 03 · Permissions
Lewes District Council decides planning, and East Sussex County Council through East Sussex Highways licenses any scaffold placed on the public road.
When a job only puts back what the roof already has, none of this reaches you. When it grows, we sort out who decides what before any work is booked in. Planning sits with Lewes District Council, and the highway licence with East Sussex County Council, which publishes its scaffold licence details through East Sussex Highways. We pass on what each says, and you choose how to proceed.
On the East Sussex Highways fee list, a 28-day scaffold licence for the highway is £127, and the page says its fees rose by 2.77 per cent from 1 April 2026, so confirm the figure when you book. Any extension has to be requested before the licence expires, and the terms bar scaffolding from the highway during the annual bonfire celebrations. On your own land the question does not arise. When the pavement is the only place for it, we settle with the scaffolding company who applies before a date is promised to you.
Before a bigger job
For anything larger, put the question to your building control body. The Planning Portal's usual test is that no application is needed while under 25 per cent of the building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof is affected by the work. Approval is required where the new covering weighs 15 per cent or more beyond the old. We judge at the survey which side of that line a job sits, and the written price records the assumption we made so there is no argument later.
Most homes will not get a grant for a new roof, and the national schemes fund insulation and heating, not roof repair or re-roofing. Some households can obtain loft, wall or underfloor insulation through council-run schemes, so check with your council and on gov.uk. Treat with suspicion anyone who promises a free roof. If a leak is the problem, a repair may solve it without the cost of a new covering, and the survey will tell you whether that is the case for your house. Either way you receive the findings in writing with photographs, which you can pass to a lender, a buyer or another roofer for comparison.
At the survey we measure up the approach: the width of the drive, the ground beside the house and the gap to the road. If the scaffold fits on your plot, no highway licence is involved. If it needs the road edge, the licence is raised with the scaffolding company first and the date follows from that.
Putting back the existing covering is the plain case, but a change of look may depend on whether your street is in a conservation area. If you are considering a different covering, a new colour or an extra opening, ask Lewes District Council's planning team first, and ask in the same message whether an Article 4 direction applies to your street.
Most homes will not. National schemes fund insulation and heating, not re-roofing or roof repair. Insulation grants exist for some households through council-run schemes, so ask Lewes District Council and check gov.uk. Be wary of cold callers offering a free roof, whatever the leaflet says. A survey tells you whether a repair would do the job for less.
East Sussex Highways lists £127 for a licence covering 28 days, and a 2.77 per cent fee rise took effect on 1 April 2026, so check today's figure. Private ground needs no licence. When you compare quotes, ask who applies for any highway licence, and make sure each quote says whether VAT and scaffolding are included.
Give us your address, tell us how a scaffold would reach the house, and add a photo of the slope or valley that worries you.
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