Roofs around the Green, timber gables and a conservation area.
Wonersh sits close to Bramley on stream-washed sand and gravel, with half-timbered houses, a Grade II* church and a conservation area over part of the village. Each roof is surveyed, then priced in writing.
In 1911 the Victoria County History noted two or three houses with very perfect half-timber fronts and projecting upper storeys on curved brackets. Where a roof meets a timber frame, we study the join.
Timber-framed house with a tiled roof
At the top of the Green stands a timber house with a projecting gable and a barge-board pierced with small quatrefoils. A gable edge like that is a feature and a weak spot at once.
Gable end with a decorated barge board
The history mentions an early 18th-century house with a hipped roof on the village's eastern side, and a brick-filled timber gable at Shamley Green. Hips, gables and infill each get a separate look.
Hipped tiled roof on a brick house
Map of Wonersh and the neighbourhoods around it, with Crawley for reference.
Wonersh lies on the Guildford to Cranleigh road, 3.5 miles or so south-east of Guildford, with Bramley station close by.
Wonersh job notes
Three short chapters on how a roof meets an old frame, on what the conservation area and St John's Grade II* listing mean, and on the Waverley and Surrey steps for a larger job.
Stage 01 · The houses
A half-timbered house and a modern roofer look at one building from different angles, so we begin by agreeing what is actually up there.
The Victoria County History, writing in 1911, singled Wonersh out for its old cottages and houses. It names two or three with very perfect half-timber fronts and upper storeys that project on boldly curved brackets. At the top of the Green it describes a timber house with a projecting gable, a moulded bressummer on brackets and a barge-board pierced with small quatrefoils. It records an early 18th-century house with a hipped roof on the eastern side of the village, and at Shamley Green, in the same parish, a timber-framed gable filled in with brick. The village stands on sand and gravel washed down by a tributary of the Wey, about 3.5 miles south-east of Guildford and close to Bramley station. Few of these buildings look alike, and none can be priced from a quick glance at the front door.
Because timber and weather argue at every junction, and the argument is usually settled by rain. The bressummer is the beam that carries an upper storey's wall, and where a slope or a gable ends against it, rain has a short run into the frame. A barge-board is the board that trims the sloping edge of a gable; when it is carved or pierced, renewing it is joinery rather than a quick swap. Infill is the brick or plaster that fills the gaps between posts, and a crack in it beside a roof edge can hold water against the wood. So the timber and the covering are read together, in one visit, not one after the other.
It falls away on four sides, which gives it hips, the angled lines where two slopes meet at an outward corner. Hip tiles can slip, and their bedding can crumble. We inspect how they are held, then check the nails and battens under them for rot and rust, since a hip is only as secure as what it is fixed to. The pitched roofing service explains our tile, batten and underlay repairs in more detail, including what we do when the hip bedding has gone.
Four terms from Wonersh's houses
Whatever the style, the survey leaves you with pictures of your own roof, a plain explanation of the fault and one written price for the work needed. A slipped hip needs a hip repair. A rotted frame needs a carpenter, and we tell you that directly instead of letting a roofer pretend otherwise. Naming the two trades apart also helps to plan the order of work, because any carpentry has to be finished before fresh tiles go on top of it.
Stage 02 · Heritage
Part of Wonersh sits inside a conservation area, and the buildings around the Green include several that are listed.
The national planning dataset maps a conservation area at the village itself. Planning.data.gov.uk lists it under the village name and notes that part of Wonersh lies inside, so the answer changes from street to street. St John the Baptist church is listed Grade II*, entry 1241510, dated 9 March 1960. The Dower House is Grade II*, and the Archway to Wonersh Court is Grade II.
You cannot tell from the postcode, because only part of the village is covered. Waverley Borough Council publishes its conservation areas, and one call to their planners settles whether your house falls within the line. The status matters for roof work because planning rules treat a conservation area as protected land, which changes what may proceed before anyone has to apply. For plain repairs and like-for-like re-roofing the practical difference is small. For a new dormer or a change to the roof's shape it is large. Our answer on re-roofing in a conservation area takes you through it step by step.
Listed and protected in Wonersh
Worship continues at St John the Baptist under the Church of England, which holds exempt status. Roof works there are approved inside the Church through a faculty, and the council's listed building consent does not come into it. The parish and the diocese run that process between them. A listed house nearby is treated differently: anything that affects its character, whether a new covering, a changed ridge finish or fresh lead around a chimney, needs listed building consent before it begins, and the owner applies for it.
Old roofs reward patience, and a rushed visit shows nothing a longer one would not. On a roof that is old, protected or both, we make a record before lifting a single tile. That means the size of the tiles, how the courses are spaced, how the ridge ends and where there is lead. If an application is needed, those photos go with it. If the roof needs nothing beyond repair, the record still shows what was matched and how, which is handy when the house is next sold and a buyer's surveyor asks what was done to the roof and when.
Stage 03 · Permissions
Waverley Borough Council decides planning and runs building control for Wonersh, while Surrey County Council decides licences for scaffold on the road.
Putting back what was there needs little paperwork. Questions begin when a job changes the look, replaces most of a roof, or pushes scaffold out onto the road. Wonersh sits outside the South Downs National Park, which makes Waverley Borough Council the planning authority; approvals fall to its own Waverley Building Control service, and the one council covers both.
Begin with the Planning Portal's national test. Normally no building control application is needed while under 25 per cent of the total building envelope, and under 50 per cent of the roof, is touched at all. The same Portal says approval does apply to a covering adding 15 per cent or more in weight, or to one that would fare quite differently if fire broke out. Waverley's building control page lets you book a next-day inspection, provided the request arrives by 4pm the day before, and that rhythm helps a job once approval has been given. Our lead work page covers the flashings and valleys that often decide how big a re-cover needs to be, and the roof replacement service follows a new roof from first visit to final handover.
Who handles what here
Scaffold standing on the carriageway, verge or footway needs a highway licence, and in Wonersh Surrey County Council issues it. Where a lane is narrow, the position of the scaffold, and whether it leaves room for passing traffic, is something we plan at the survey stage, long before any scaffold arrives. The fee list shows £208 per 28 day period, with renewals at the same rate, and an application fee that cannot be reclaimed. Surrey wants the request in a full 10 working days before the start, and its own processing time is 10 days. It also requires a layout drawing with the application. We organise the licence alongside the scaffolder, and any other firm quoting you should be asked who applies. If the poles stand entirely on your own plot, no highway licence arises.
Bats receive full legal protection, and the government's guidance puts roof work on the list of jobs that can affect them. If the survey hints at a roost, the job pauses and we ring you before anything is moved. Begin with a photograph of the gable, hip or slope that bothers you, plus your postcode.
We read the timber and the roof together. Where a slope or gable meets a bressummer or a barge-board, or where brick infill has cracked beside a roof edge, rain has a short route into the frame. Each of those junctions is photographed on your roof, and any carpentry the frame needs is named apart from the roofing, so you can see which trade each item belongs to.
Ask Waverley Borough Council's planning team, which publishes the boundary and can say whether your house is inside it. Plain repairs and like-for-like re-roofing change little there, but a different roof shape can, and a call settles it quickly. Do the check before the survey, so that any application can use our photographs from the outset and nothing has to be photographed twice.
Waverley will arrange an inspection for the next day when asked before 4pm on the day before. Not every re-roof needs approval, because the Planning Portal sets the test, but where one does, we agree the inspection with your building control officer as the work reaches that stage and keep our own timetable flexible enough to match, so the inspector sees the work at the right stage rather than after it is covered up.
Surrey's published fee is £208 per 28 day period, and the council wants the application in at least 10 working days before the start you have in mind. If the scaffold stands entirely inside your boundary, there is no highway licence to obtain. Where one is required, the scaffolder and Crown settle the paperwork between them, and your start date comes after that.
Send a picture of the gable, hip or tiles you are unsure about, with your Wonersh postcode, and a survey visit follows.
Message us on WhatsApp
