Weald roofs beside a listed church and a listed inn.
Speldhurst is a Weald village within the High Weald National Landscape, home to a starred church and inn. Tiles, stacks and verges are surveyed first, and a written price comes after.
Timber frames and weatherboarding feature in what the High Weald says of its buildings, alongside local sandstone, brick and tile. Before quoting, we check how each covering meets its walls, its stack and its verge.
Tiled roof beside a brick stack
The church and the inn each carry a Grade II* listing. On a listed roof the first step is a question to the council, so we learn what consent a repair needs before we set a date.
Old tiled roof on a village building
The 2021 Census counted 944 people in the built-up area. In a village of that size each job is a single house, so the price comes from a survey of that roof alone.
Roof survey from a ladder
Map of Speldhurst and the neighbourhoods around it, with Crawley for reference.
Speldhurst is a Weald village north-west of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, and we reach it from Crawley by driving east across the county border.
How a Speldhurst job runs
Three short chapters on how the National Landscape touches a repair, how the village's listed roofs are handled, and what Kent and the borough require for a bigger job.
Stage 01 · Setting
High Weald protection and a village conservation area both restrict some roof additions here, yet neither stops a matching repair.
Speldhurst is a Weald village north-west of Tunbridge Wells, and the High Weald National Landscape covers the village. Tunbridge Wells Borough Council also lists a Speldhurst conservation area. For a roofer those labels are more than scenery. It affects which extras can go on a roof without an application, and it makes us careful about matching a new covering to an old house. Writing about the area's buildings, the High Weald body mentions timber frames and weatherboarding, and sandstone, brick and tile used all over, a pattern it ties to the rock and clay underfoot. When a house combines several of those materials, the roof is only one part of a mixed structure. So we look at how the covering meets the walls and the stack before we decide on a repair.
Checks on a Weald house roof
No. Putting back slipped tiles, rebuilding a ridge bed or relining a valley with matching materials leaves the street view as it was, and planning law does not count work that leaves the external appearance unaffected as development. What the label changes is the list of things you may add. The regulations still file this land under its former title of outstanding natural beauty, and they treat it with extra caution. Roof dormers are the best-known case. Our planning post on roof work sets out where permitted development ends and an application begins. For one particular house, and especially inside the conservation area, put the question to the planning team at Tunbridge Wells Borough Council before anyone pays for a drawing.
We begin at the junctions, because that is where water finds a way in. Where a brick or stone stack rises through the slope, a strip of lead flashing bridges the gap between wall and tile, and a mortar collar called flaunching sheds water from around each chimney pot. If either one cracks, the damp can travel along a rafter and appear as a brown patch on a bedroom ceiling several feet from the stack. Along a gable, the verge is the line of tiles at the roof edge, and on an older house its mortar may have split and let go. We photograph every junction from the ladder, show you what we found and give one written total for the repair. Our pitched roofing page explains how battens, tiles and underlay get repaired, underlay being the sheet below the tiles that catches whatever gets past them.
Stage 02 · Listed buildings
Speldhurst's church and inn are both listed Grade II*, and a listed roof follows different rules from the house next door.
Speldhurst's parish church, St Mary the Virgin, has been on the national list since October 1954, and the George and Dragon carries the same grade. A coffin slab south of the church porch is listed too, at Grade II, which says something about how much listed detail the village holds. Listing protects the entire structure, slopes and stacks with it. Under the 1990 Act, any change touching the qualities that earned a building its listing needs authorisation first. That is the rule behind listed building consent. It runs separately from planning permission, so a given job can need one, both or neither.
The route depends on the church's denomination and on whether it is in use for worship. Some denominations run their own approval systems for churches in use, and for the Church of England that system is a faculty granted through the diocese. Others come back to the council. Whichever applies, the parish or building committee asks first, and we price the work once the route is settled. Our own method stays the same: a survey, photographs of each defect, and one written total. Anyone on the parochial church council can ask the diocese which consent applies to the building.
Terms on a listed roof job
Before a tile moves on a listed roof, the first job is finding out who gives consent.
An inn or a private house with a listing needs listed building consent for work that touches its character, so ask the planning team at Tunbridge Wells Borough Council whether your repair counts before you book. Replacing like for like is what owners usually hope for, and the council decides whether a given repair qualifies. Where a listed roof has lead valleys, flashings or a leaded stack, the metal is part of the old fabric, and the replacement needs to be done properly. Our lead work page shows how flashings are formed and fitted, and we match new lead to the thickness already on the roof wherever we can. We agree the scope with you and with whoever consents before we climb up, so nothing has to be undone afterwards because a step was missed. If the lead has been stolen or lifted by wind, say so when you send the first photo, because that changes how quickly the roof needs covering.
Stage 03 · Permissions
Speldhurst is in Kent, so scaffold on a public road follows Kent County Council's licence, and building control is the borough's.
Swapping a few matching tiles seldom brings forms with it. Paperwork enters once a repair becomes a whole new slope, the covering is a different product, or poles and boards must stand beside a road.
Scaffold over a road, pavement or verge needs the highway authority's licence, which for Speldhurst means Kent County Council. Kent's licensing page says the company that owns the scaffold should apply for the customer, and it wants 5 working days' notice before the start. Kent also publishes a charge for an inspection visit, so the final cost depends on the site. For 2026 to 27 it lists £52 for each week on the highway, with £78 added where an inspection is needed. Poles standing wholly on your land never need a highway licence, so we first look for room in your own front or back garden. Where Kent's permit is needed, the scaffold firm files it and we keep you posted on the dates.
Before work gets going
Building control for the village sits with Tunbridge Wells Borough Council. The borough runs its own service, so one call to its team settles whether approval is needed. The Planning Portal's yardstick for a Speldhurst re-roof: below 25 per cent of the building envelope and below 50 per cent of the roof, an application is not normally required. A new covering adding 15 per cent or more in weight, or reacting to fire differently from the old, brings approval in whatever the area. Where the new tile is heavier, the Portal wants a structural opinion from an engineer or surveyor before work starts. On an old Speldhurst frame we raise weight at the survey, and the answer is settled before the price is written. If a slope has been stripped and re-covered before, we record what is on it now, so any new tile is chosen against fact rather than memory.
A roof can shelter bats. Bats and the spots where they rest are legally protected, and roof repairs figure in the government's guidance on work that may affect them. If droppings appear beneath the ridge, or we see a gap being used, the work stops while we discuss what comes next with you. Photograph the stack, ridge or verge that concerns you, note your postcode, and message both to us; a survey slot follows.
A different covering changes how the house looks and can change what the roof weighs. With a conservation area in the village and High Weald designation over it, ask the planning team at Tunbridge Wells Borough Council before choosing. Building control comes in once the new covering adds 15 per cent or more to the weight. Matching the existing tile is the simplest route, and we record profile and colour at the survey.
Begin with the council's planning team, who can say whether a repair needs listed building consent. A church in use may follow its own denomination's approval system instead, which for the Church of England means a faculty. Tell us which applies once you know, and after the survey we will write the work into one price.
Kent County Council expects the scaffolding company to apply for the customer, at least 5 working days before the start, and lists £52 a week for 2026 to 27. So the forms are not your job; we pass the dates to the scaffold firm. Poles that never leave your plot need no Kent permit. On the survey day we also look at the access.
Any roof can hold them, and the law shields both the animals and the roosts they use. The government names roof repair and replacement among work that can affect bats. Should we notice droppings or an opening in regular use, we halt and explain your choices before a tile is lifted, so nothing is decided in a hurry on the ladder.
One photo of the stack, ridge or verge bothering you, plus your Speldhurst postcode, gets a survey date arranged.
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