Timber frames, listed farmhouses and chapels where the lanes meet.
Wivelsfield Green is a village where lanes branch in many directions, with timber-framed houses and Grade II listed homes nearby. Every roof is surveyed as found, then priced in writing.
Pepper Hall is an early-17th-century house with exposed timber framing, partly brick-filled. A roof carried on a frame like that rests on timber that has moved, so we check the rafter line before the tiles.
Timber-framed house with tiled roof
Botches, Jenners and Mann's Farmhouse are all Grade II listed. Works on a listed home that touch its character need listed building consent, so we raise it before pricing any change.
Listed farmhouse with a tiled roof
Great Ote Hall has three massive brick chimney-stacks. Big stacks carry a lot of exposed brickwork and lead, which is where we look first when a ceiling below one is stained.
Tall brick chimney stacks on a roof
Map of Wivelsfield Green and the neighbourhoods around it, with Crawley for reference.
Wivelsfield Green is a village in Wivelsfield parish where lanes branch off in many directions, and 1,012 people were counted there in the 2021 Census.
Wivelsfield Green on site
Three short chapters on timber frames, the listed houses around the Green, and what the planning record says about permissions when a repair grows.
Stage 01 · First look
Pepper Hall and Great Ote Hall show timber frames are part of this village, and a frame decides how a roof is reached.
Wivelsfield Green is a village where lanes branch in many directions, and the 1940 history describes some older houses nearby as timber-framed. The Victoria County History of 1940 describes Pepper Hall, north of the road to Wivelsfield Green, as an early-17th-century house with exposed square-panelled timber framing, partly brick-filled. Great Ote Hall has half-timbered walls on sandstone plinths or later brick, and in 1940 its roofs were covered with Horsham slates. What covers a given roof here is something we only learn on the roof, so take these as examples and not as a rule for your street.
On a Green survey
It means the structure can move, and the covering has to move with it. Old timbers dry, twist and settle, so a ridge can dip and a slope can bow although nothing has failed. We sight along the ridge and rafters from the garden, then go into the loft to look at the timbers from beneath. Where they are sound, the work is on the covering alone. Where a rafter foot or wall plate has rotted, the timber comes first, and you see a photo of it before you see a price. A rafter foot is the lower end of the sloping timber, where it rests on the wall plate, the beam laid on the wall head, and damp from a blocked gutter tends to collect there.
Quite often. On the Confederation of Roofing Contractors' figures, well-kept natural slate can outlast a century, a general range and never a guarantee for your roof. A cracked or slipped slate is a small job, and re-fixing the rest costs far less than stripping the roof. If slates are failing across a whole slope, a re-roof is the straight answer and we explain why. Our pitched roofing page covers repairs to slate and tile roofs.
Whatever the covering, the survey ends with photographs of your roof and a single written price. As a national yardstick only, Checkatrade's October 2026 table puts a job of up to five tiles at £170 to £500, the upper end including scaffold. Yours depends on the access, the height and what lies under the tiles, and nobody can state it fairly from the road. Moss, a sagging ridge or a damp mark upstairs are useful clues to describe when you call, along with how long you have noticed them and whether the stain grows after heavy rain.
Stage 02 · Older buildings
Three Grade II houses stand near the Green and the parish has two 18th-century chapels, so listing comes up on many calls.
Historic England's national list records Botches as Grade II, first listed on 27 September 1979, under list entry 1267496. Jenners (1223059) and Mann's Farmhouse (1267459) are Grade II listed too. Close by, a Congregational chapel went up at Ote Hall in 1778, built by the Countess of Huntingdon, the resident of Ote Hall, and a Baptist chapel was added in 1780. These are the buildings the records name, and they are the reason we ask about listing early on any call.
A listed house keeps its permitted development rights for roof alterations, but consent is needed as well when works would change its character. The 1990 Act bars any alteration or extension that affects a listed building's special interest unless it is authorised. With the South Downs National Park boundary well away from here, Lewes District Council is the planning authority: ask Lewes District Council's planning team what applies to your house, and ask before any scaffold is booked. Our answer on chimney repairs on listed buildings covers the stack side.
Listing words
Questions come first and figures second. We confirm whether your house is listed, record every slope on camera, and match the covering, pot and mortar to what is already there. Chimney work is often the heart of it. Great Ote Hall's three stacks are a reminder that a big stack means a lot of brick, flaunching (the sloped mortar around the base of the pots) and lead flashing exposed to the weather. Checkatrade's October 2026 guide gives around £750 as an average for repointing, with a rebuild above the roofline running from £1,000 to £3,500. Those are national ranges. Scaffold and access move them most, which is why a stack that can be reached from a ladder from the garden costs less to mend than one tucked behind a gable.
Where lead flashings or a valley are failing, a sound flashing is frequently the most economical way to stop a leak on an old house, and our lead work page explains how we dress and fix lead. Whatever we find, you see it in photos before you agree to anything. We also note which slopes we left untouched and why, so a later owner or surveyor can follow what was done, and the quote is a single total for the whole job.
Stage 03 · Permissions
Listed houses, area status, a county highway and wildlife rules can all shape a bigger Wivelsfield Green job.
Putting back matching tiles, or re-covering in the same material, is the plain case, and Lewes District Council can confirm whether your home falls inside a conservation area. Listed houses are the exception, and the rules in the previous chapter apply to them wherever they stand.
The Planning Portal's rule of thumb is simple: under 25 per cent of the building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof, taken together, usually means no building control application. Its other test is weight. A replacement that makes the covering 15 per cent or more heavier, or that would perform in a fire quite unlike the old one, brings approval in. We find out which side of those lines a job falls on while we are still at the survey stage, and speak to your building control body before anyone fixes a date. For a complete strip and re-cover, see roof replacement.
Green village rules in brief
The highway authority does, when scaffold stands on the public road. For Wivelsfield Green that means East Sussex County Council through East Sussex Highways, whose published fee for a 28-day licence is £127, with a 2.77 per cent rise from 1 April 2026. We deal with the licence paperwork alongside the scaffolder. If the job overruns, East Sussex Highways sets a deadline for extensions, no later than five working days before the old licence lapses, so our programme leaves that margin and tells you where the dates stand. A wet spell that delays the roof also delays the scaffold coming down, and the licence clock keeps running. On narrow lanes it is sometimes easier to stand scaffold on your own ground, and that route needs no highway licence at all.
Bats are a matter of law for roof work. Official guidance gives every species full protection, along with the roosts they use to breed or shelter, and says roof repair is the kind of work that could disturb them. Droppings on loft boards, or small gaps under tiles and fascias, are the usual early signs. If the survey shows droppings or gaps where bats might roost, we stop, and nothing more is lifted until you have agreed the way forward. Birds' nests are covered while they are being built or used. Your first step can be a clear photo of the troublesome slope or stack, sent along with your postcode and the name of your lane.
It alters what we inspect first. Timber moves, so the rafters, the wall plate and the ridge line are examined alongside the covering. A rotted timber is dealt with before the tiles and photographed for you. A sound frame usually means work on the covering alone, priced in writing after the survey of your own roof.
Look your address up in the National Heritage List for England, the register Historic England maintains. Botches, Jenners and Mann's Farmhouse are the Grade II entries we know of near the Green. A listed home needs consent before works that alter its character, so put the question to Lewes District Council's planning team early, and keep their reply.
Rarely, though Lewes District Council can confirm whether your home sits in a conservation area. A matching repair is the simple case. A listed house stands apart: it needs consent for works affecting its character wherever it stands. Raise any plan to alter the roof's appearance with the council's planning team, and keep their answer. Matching work seldom needs more than a conversation.
For scaffold on the public highway, East Sussex Highways lists £127 for a 28-day licence, with a 2.77 per cent rise from 1 April 2026. Ask who applies when a quote arrives; we handle the licence with the scaffolder. A scaffold set up entirely inside your own garden needs no highway licence, and a good quote says which case yours is.
Tell us which stack, rafter line or slope troubles you, add your Wivelsfield Green postcode, and expect a call to arrange the survey.
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