Roofs in a Kent Downs town with a medieval market grant.
Westerham's market grant dates from Edward III's reign, and its houses are listed up to Grade I. We survey with the listing in mind, then write down one total.
Historic England lists 49 and 51 High Street at Grade II* and both Quebec House and Squerryes Court at Grade I. A roof under a listing goes to the council's planners before we quote beyond a matching repair.
Tiled roofs on a historic street
St Mary the Virgin, Westerham's parish church, carries a Grade II* listing and still holds Church of England services, so its repairs follow the church's own consent system, not the council's.
Church roof with tiled slopes
Part of Westerham lies inside the Westerham conservation area, so we establish which side of the boundary a house sits on before any covering is chosen or any tile ordered.
Terraced tiled roofs in a town
Map of Westerham and the neighbourhoods around it, with Crawley for reference.
Westerham is a small town near the Surrey border, on the road between the chalk downs and the sand hills, in the Sevenoaks district.
Roofing in Westerham: the diary
Three short chapters: a High Street full of listings, a parish church with its own consent route, and what Kent and Sevenoaks require of a big roof job.
Stage 01 · Background
Westerham has had a market since Edward III's reign and keeps several listed houses, so some roofs answer to the council first.
Westerham's past is written down better than most. Hasted's history of Kent records that the abbot of Westminster obtained a grant of a market and fair here in the 25th year of Edward III's reign. It also notes that the river Darent rises in the parish, a short distance south of Squerries, and that in 1797 it ran near the south side of the town and turned a mill. General James Wolfe was born here on 2 January 1727, and Hasted records a marble monument to him over the church's south door. Either way, the survey starts with the roof itself.
Historic England's list shows Quebec House and Squerryes Court at Grade I, and 49 and 51 High Street at Grade II*. A listing protects the whole building, and seen from the pavement the roof is a big part of that building. That does not freeze every slope. It means the first call on any job beyond a plain repair is to Sevenoaks District Council's planners, with photographs, before a price is fixed. We take those at the survey, standing in the garden and then up on the slope, so an officer can judge the covering, the ridge, the hips and the stacks without a site visit.
On a listed house survey
Often, yes, and on a listed house it is the route the council prefers to hear about. Natural slate that is well maintained can last 100 years or more, according to the Confederation of Roofing Contractors, and Marley gives clay tile a Building Research Establishment minimum of 60 years, though a conservation article warns that figure cannot be relied on for old peg tile. So a patchy roof is not a dead roof. We lift the failed slates or tiles, replace the nails, and set matching material in their place. Where lead round a stack has split, our lead work page shows how flashings are made, and our chimney repairs page covers the stack itself. For a bigger question, our answer on re-roofing a listed building sets out the steps.
We lift a few from a hidden slope and note the size, thickness, colour, camber and nibs. A supplier then tells us whether a match can be bought new or whether reclaimed tiles suit the repair better. Reclaimed stock is a limited pool, so we ask early, and the written price states which route we assumed. If the council wants a sample for its file, it goes into the survey pack with the photographs.
Stage 02 · Church
The parish church is listed and in use, so a repair to its roof is decided by the church, not by Sevenoaks District Council.
St Mary the Virgin has stood on the national list since 10 September 1954, at Grade II*. Church of England services are still held there. That one detail decides who gives permission, and it is easy to get wrong when a roofer is asked to price a repair on a church hall or a vicarage nearby.
Churches in use for worship, belonging to an exempt denomination, sit outside ordinary listed building consent. For a Church of England church such as this, consent comes through a faculty, a process the church runs itself. The exemption has edges, though. Government guidance says the exemption leaves planning permission in play for development changing a worship building's exterior, and leaves scheduled monument consent in play wherever it is relevant. So a church roof job can have more than one gate, and the parish office is the right first call, not the council. Whoever handles the application, we can supply a roof survey with photographs, written plainly enough for a committee to follow.
Terms on church and house roofs
A church and the house next door can follow two different consent routes.
A private house beside the church has no such exemption. If it is listed, Sevenoaks District Council decides what counts as an alteration. If the house only sits in the conservation area, putting back matching tiles is a simple matter, while a new type of covering is a point to raise with the planners first. Neighbouring houses often share a party wall and a ridge, meaning work on one side may reach over to the next roof, and we explain that before work starts. We never assume which case you are in. At the survey we ask about any listing, check the council's map, and write the answer into the notes that go with your price.
The listing questions are the same for any building, whatever it is used for, though a flat roof behind a shop front or a valley gutter between two gables raises its own worries about falls and drainage. If you manage such a building, send the council's listing details with your photographs, and we will say what the survey needs to cover before anybody climbs a ladder. Our lead work page is a good starting point if the problem is a parapet or a box gutter.
Stage 03 · Permissions
Planning and building control both sit with Sevenoaks District Council, and Kent County Council grants the highway scaffold licences.
A repair of a few slates is a short visit. A full strip, a different covering or a frame standing on the pavement brings in three bodies, and each has its own timetable. The survey visit is where we find out which of them you will meet.
Sevenoaks District Council runs its building control in house. For roofs, the Planning Portal keeps work below 25 per cent of the building envelope and 50 per cent of the roof outside the need for an application. A covering at least 15 per cent heavier than the old one falls outside that comfort zone, and before a heavier tile goes on, such as concrete in place of slate, the Portal advises a check on the timbers by a structural engineer or surveyor first. If a whole slope turns out to need stripping, building control gets the first question from us, and the start date follows their answer. See our roof replacement page for the whole sequence.
Checks before a full re-roof
In law the Kent Downs keeps its status as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, though it now goes by National Landscape, and it reaches west from Dover's chalk cliffs as far as the Surrey and London border. The national planning dataset places Westerham inside it. For a roof, the practical lesson is to ask the planners before you change how the house looks from outside. Replacing tiles with matching ones does not alter that, so it seldom becomes a planning matter at all.
Kent County Council's highways pages are unusually direct: for a householder, the scaffolding company should be the registered applicant. The council wants 5 working days between sending the form and the start date. A week on the highway costs £52 in 2026 to 2027, and an inspection, if one is judged necessary, £78. Kent's licence is for the highway, so poles kept within your boundary need no permit from the county, which is why we measure the front garden and the drive at the survey.
Bat roosts and breeding sites have legal protection, and GOV.UK flags roof repair as one of the activities that put them at risk. Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, intentionally destroying an active nest is an offence as well. If a loft or a ridge shows either, we pause that section and phone you first. To start, send us a view of the front slope and the chimneys from the pavement opposite.
Whether a repair amounts to an alteration needing listed building consent is for Sevenoaks District Council's planners to say. Matching repairs are often simple, but a new covering or colour is not. Ask them first and keep their answer in writing. We then price against that answer as one total, with the survey photographs attached for the officer to look at.
A repair using matching tiles looks the same afterwards, so it seldom changes anything. The designation matters when you plan a different covering, a rooflight or other visible work, and the planners at Sevenoaks District Council can say what applies. It goes in our survey notes, and decisions about appearance stay with you and them.
Kent County Council's wording makes the scaffolding firm, registered with the county, the applicant when you are the end customer. It wants applications 5 working days ahead and charges £52 a week in 2026 to 2027. A frame kept on your own plot needs none. We confirm the arrangement with the scaffolder before work is booked.
Sevenoaks District Council runs its own building control. It is the place to ask when the survey shows that a big share of the roof must come off, or a heavier covering is planned. The Planning Portal sets its threshold at under 25 per cent of the envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof, and we raise it with them before agreeing a start date.
Photograph the roof from the street, with your postcode, plus anything you know about listing or conservation area status.
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