Roofs around a Surrey village green, from old cottages to Victorian church.
Shamley Green gathers round a large green, with a conservation area at its centre and a collection of old houses. Expect a careful look from the ridge down, then a single total in writing.
In 1911 the Victoria County History called Shamley Green's old houses and cottages a most interesting collection. Older roofs like these hide their faults around chimneys, valley gutters and the eaves line, so those are the places we open up first.
Tiled cottage roof beside a chimney
The church went up in 1864 as a chapel of ease to Wonersh, and the village became its own parish in 1881. Roofs of Victorian age can sit beside much older ones, so we read each house by its own details, not by its neighbour.
Victorian pitched roof with ridge tiles
Arthur's Cottage is Grade II listed, and other listed buildings stand nearby. Where a house is listed, any change to the roof's character needs consent, so we raise it before the written price is set.
Period cottage with clay tile roof
Map of Shamley Green and the neighbourhoods around it, with Crawley for reference.
Shamley Green is a village around a large green on the road from Wonersh to Cranleigh, south-east of Guildford, once an outlying hamlet of Wonersh.
Our Shamley Green roof diary
Three chapters: how we read roofs of mixed age, working inside a conservation area, and the paperwork that Waverley and Surrey ask for once a job grows.
Stage 01 · First look
Old cottages, a Victorian church and later houses stand round the green, so each roof needs reading on its own terms.
The Victoria County History in 1911 described Shamley Green as an outlying hamlet of Wonersh, once spelt Shamble Lea, with a most interesting collection of old houses and cottages. Christ Church followed in 1864, and the village was given a parish of its own in 1881. That layering is what you see from the green: a Victorian church, older cottages, and later houses whose roofs have each been mended in different ways at different times.
A roof that has been patched by several hands rarely follows one pattern. You can find three kinds of tile on a single slope, a chimney flashing from one repair and a ridge from another. Our survey walks the roof from the eaves upward. We note the covering and the battens, which are the timber laths that carry it, and we check the underlay, the sheet under the covering that sheds any water getting past a tile. A photograph of each fault goes alongside the price, so the reasons for a recommendation are in front of you and not just in our heads.
What the survey covers
It depends on what is holding the covering on. A slipped tile with sound battens is a short job. A run of crumbling nibs, rusted nails or soft timber points to something bigger. Marley puts concrete tile at around 60 years and stresses that is no guarantee, while clay carries a 60-year floor from the Building Research Establishment, so on many old roofs it is the nails, mortar and flashings that give up before the tiles do. Our pitched roofing page sets out how we repair and relay tiled slopes, and our chimney repairs page covers stacks, pots and flaunching, the cement bed that grips each pot.
Along the eaves, the fascia is the board that takes the gutter, and the soffit is the panel closing the underside of the overhang. On an old cottage these are often the first timbers to rot, because a leaking joint has dripped on them for years. If a board feels soft under a screwdriver we mark it on the photo set, and the quote shows whether the answer is a short section or a full run.
Stage 02 · Permissions
Part of Shamley Green sits inside a conservation area, so a change of covering needs a conversation with Waverley before it needs a quote.
Part of Shamley Green falls inside a conservation area of the same name in the national planning dataset, and Waverley's own conservation area pages cover it. So before altering the outward look of a roof here, check which side of that line the house sits. Waverley Borough Council also decides planning applications here. None of that stops roof work. It changes the order in which things happen, because the list of what you may do without applying is shorter inside the boundary than outside it.
Putting back what came off, in the same material and laying pattern, is a repair, and that sits on the simple side of the rules. Moving from clay to concrete, from slate to a man-made slate, or from plain tiles to larger ones changes the look, and inside a conservation area that is exactly where the council expects to be asked. Concrete also weighs differently from clay, and for a heavier replacement the Planning Portal suggests having the roof structure checked first. Our answer on re-roofing in a conservation area explains the questions involved, and each one goes to Waverley before work is booked.
Words on a planning letter
Most delay on an old village roof comes from asking too late, not from the work.
Arthur's Cottage and a handful of other village buildings carry Grade II listings. For a listed house the test is whether the work would touch its character, and listed building consent is a different permission from planning permission. Searching the national heritage list by house name or number shows whether yours is protected. A match to what is already there tends to be a short discussion with the conservation officer, but only the council can confirm that for a specific house, so we ask early and never assume.
Close-up photographs of the tiles already on the roof, taken before any are lifted, let a replacement be matched by size, colour and thickness. They also leave you with a dated record of how the slope looked on the day we began. Planning another change, perhaps a roof window on the side that faces the green? Mention it at the start, because the answer for that slope may differ from the rest of the house. Any valleys or abutments that are already in lead are renewed in lead, so the repair matches the original in metal as well as in tile.
Stage 03 · On site
Two councils sit behind a Shamley Green roof job, and each holds a different piece of paper you may need to know about.
A job in Shamley Green involves two layers of local government. Waverley Borough Council handles planning and building control for the village, while Surrey County Council looks after the roads. Between them they settle whether a re-roof needs sign-off and whether a scaffold can stand where you would like it.
The Planning Portal's guidance runs on two numbers: under 25 per cent of the building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof usually means no application. Approval comes in once the new covering is 15 per cent or more heavier, or reacts differently to fire. Waverley's building control pages add that an inspection requested by 4pm can usually take place the following day. When a job nears those numbers we contact Waverley first and the quote notes the result.
Who to ask
Where scaffold narrows the pavement or the carriageway, a licence comes from Surrey County Council, the highway authority here. Applications should reach the council at least 10 working days before erection, with a fee of £208 for each 28 days. A house set back behind a drive can often keep its scaffold within the boundary, and then the highway licence never arises. Whoever quotes, ask them who files the application. We sort out the licence with our scaffolder so that your start date is not left waiting on it.
Possibly. On the GOV.UK bat pages, repairing or replacing a roof is named as work that touches bats, and the protection covers their roosts as well as the animals. If the survey or the strip turns up droppings or a crevice in regular use, work halts for advice. That brief halt protects both the animals and your project.
Day to day, we keep the site orderly. Waste goes down in a chute or in tubs and is not thrown, tiles are stacked on boards and covered at night, and a neighbour who needs to get a car off a drive is told which days it will be blocked. A village green draws walkers and children, so the working area is fenced and the gate is shut when we leave.
To begin, photograph the corner of the roof that is giving you trouble, and send the pictures with your Shamley Green postcode, saying if the house is listed or shared.
Not by itself. Patched roofs often carry a mix, and the question is whether each section is sound. We check the nibs, nails and battens under every type, photograph the weak areas, and tell you whether a matching repair will do or whether the slope would be tidier relaid. The written price follows from what the survey shows.
Possibly. The national planning dataset records a Shamley Green conservation area around part of the village, and Waverley Borough Council is the authority to ask about it. A like-for-like patch seldom needs more than a phone call. Changing the material, fitting a roof window or choosing a different ridge style should go to the council first, ideally before any materials are ordered or delivered.
Waverley Borough Council runs building control itself, and an inspection asked for before 4pm can normally happen the next day, according to its website, which is handy if a job needs a check partway through. We contact them when a re-roof approaches the Planning Portal limits, and the quote tells you whether any sign-off could shift your start date, so you can plan around it.
Pictures of the problem area from the garden or the road, your postcode, and mention of any listing or shared ownership. Photographs from a garden or the green are fine; nobody needs to climb a ladder for you. A survey visit follows, with our own photographs taken on the roof itself, and then one total price arrives in writing, with every finding explained in plain terms.
Send pictures of the roof area causing worry along with your Shamley Green postcode, and the survey gets booked.
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