A Wiltshire market town street with stone and brick houses and clay tile roofs

Roofers in Westbury

Westbury lies 15.6 road miles south-east of Bath and stands beneath the white horse cut into the slope to its east, with Salisbury Plain behind it. Market Place buildings in Bath stone and red brick need lime, lead and careful matching, while the estates of Leigh Park are now old enough for their first ridge and verge repairs.

Get a free survey Call 01225 285181

Local roofs

A town at the foot of the Plain

The town sits at the foot of Salisbury Plain's north-western edge, and the Westbury White Horse watches over it from a slope some 1.5 miles to the east. A town set against rising ground meets weather differently from one in a sheltered valley. Roofs here are worth checking for wind damage after a storm, and for the sort of loose ridge, lifted verge or displaced tile that wind finds first.

The Market Place is the old centre, and its buildings show the range of materials in the town. Bank House stands north of the Market Place, an early 18th century house of red brick trimmed with stone dressings. The former town hall on the Market Place, from the early 19th century, is built in Bath stone ashlar with a colonnaded front. Westbury has Grade I listed All Saints' Church, five Grade II* listed houses and one Grade II* monument, the Phipps mausoleum.

At the other end of the age scale is Leigh Park, a large housing estate developed from the late 1990s immediately north of Westbury Leigh. Nearby, the Church of the Holy Saviour at Westbury Leigh, built in 1877 with its tower added in 1890, stands in honey coloured limestone to designs by William White. We report on every roof with photographs of the roof itself, whichever of these ends of the town you are in.

Council
Wiltshire Council
From central Bath
15.6 road miles, south-east
Landmark
Westbury White Horse, about 1.5 miles east
Estate
Leigh Park, developed from the late 1990s
Listed
All Saints' Church (Grade I) and five Grade II* houses

What we find

Wind-lifted ridges and young estate faults

Lifted ridges and verges after windOn ground that rises towards the Plain, wind gets under the roof edge first. We look for ridge tiles that have shifted, verge tiles standing proud and gaps along the line where mortar has let go.
Failed joints at stone frontsA colonnaded or ashlar front is expensive to repair, so water must be kept off it. We check the gutters, parapets and coping that protect the stonework, because a blocked channel sends water down the face.
First faults on estate roofsRoofs of the Leigh Park era are now old enough to show wear. We look for cracked bedding on ridges, flashing that has lifted at chimneys and softened underlay at the eaves.

The Market Place: brick, stone and a colonnade

Buildings in two different materials need roof work that protects both.

Bank House is early 18th century, red brick trimmed in stone, and the former town hall, from the early 19th century, is in Bath stone ashlar with a colonnaded front. They stand close together and use different materials, which makes the Market Place a useful lesson in how stone and brick behave under a roof.

Bath stone is a soft limestone. It is cut cleanly into ashlar blocks, laid with thin joints, and it wears from the surface when kept wet. A roof drainage fault near an ashlar front can do years of harm quietly. A cracked gutter outlet or a parapet that sheds water onto the face leaves dark streaks, and in time the stone itself starts to flake. The protection is above the stone: the lead, the coping and the gutters. We check these before anything else, and we repair them in materials that match.

Brick has its own habits. Red brick with stone dressings gives a roof edge made of two materials, so the verge or eaves meets surfaces that absorb water differently. Lime mortar is softer than the brick it holds and allows moisture to escape through the joint, while cement forces it through the brick face and can spall it. For repointing round a roof edge or stack, the mortar should be softer than the masonry.

If the building is listed, as several Market Place buildings may be, consent comes first, and it comes from Wiltshire Council. We explain the steps in order, so you know what has to be settled before a start date can be set. How we trace a leak on stone and brick buildings is set out under roof repairs.

Myth

Stone walls are strong enough that a leaking gutter beside them does not matter.

Fact

Soft limestone wears quickly when wet, and a blocked gutter or split lead can mark and decay the face long before a leak shows indoors.

All Saints', the Phipps mausoleum and listed roofs

A Grade I church and a run of Grade II* buildings make consent a regular topic here.

Westbury has a Grade I listed church in All Saints', five Grade II* listed houses and one Grade II* monument, the Phipps mausoleum. Grade I and Grade II* are the upper tiers of listing. Roofs on such buildings are often the result of many rounds of repair, and any new work needs to respect that.

Consent for works to a listed building is a distinct permission, apart from planning. In Westbury that means Wiltshire Council, whose conservation staff can say whether a particular repair needs consent. All Saints' is the exception: it is a working Anglican church, so its permission comes as a diocesan faculty and not from the council. We cannot answer for them, but we can help you ask a good question. We describe the covering, the lead, the method of fixing and the extent of the work in writing, and attach photographs, so that the reply is concrete.

A monument such as the mausoleum is a rarer case: a small, solid masonry structure with no loft to inspect. Water entering such a roof has nowhere to go, and it can saturate the masonry. The approach there is to look at the joints, the lead dressings and the drainage, and to fix those without adding anything that changes the appearance.

Church roofs are generally large, high and complex. Access can account for a large share of the cost, and so can the lead. The right order is to survey, set out the repairs in stages, and let the church or owner decide which to do now and which to plan for. A thorough survey costs little against a failure found by accident. Where lead is the main worry, lead roofing describes how it is laid and why it fails.

5

Grade II* listed houses in Westbury, besides All Saints' Church (Grade I)

1.5

Approximate miles from the town to the Westbury White Horse

1890

Year the tower was added to the Church of the Holy Saviour

Figures: Westbury, Wiltshire entry, Wikipedia, checked October 2026

Leigh Park and the late-1990s estates

A large estate from the late 1990s now has roofs old enough for first repairs.

Leigh Park is a large housing estate developed from the late 1990s, immediately north of Westbury Leigh. Houses built in one period tend to age together, which means that faults appear along a whole street at similar times. A roof from that period has passed its first quarter century, and repairs which were not needed in the early years are now arriving.

Look first at the ridge. Ridge and hip tiles of that period were commonly set on mortar, and mortar fractures as the roof shifts through the seasons. Mechanical fixing is now expected for any ridge we rebuild, and dry-fix systems offer a mortar-free alternative on suitable tiles. The verge is next: a mortar strip along the gable edge that, once cracked, lets wind lift the end tiles.

Flashings come after that. Lead round a chimney can lift or split, and even a narrow gap lets water in. Underlay is the final piece. If the felt has softened at the eaves, it sags into the gutter and holds water, so the lowest courses become a wet zone. A repair to the eaves can be a modest job on an otherwise sound roof.

Neighbouring houses often share a fault, so a street of Leigh Park homes sometimes shares a plan: one visit to assess several roofs and quote them separately. Neighbours who arrange this can share the cost of scaffold access where the roofs allow it, although every roof still gets its own survey and its own written price. For the fixings and edges on this sort of roof, ridge and verge repairs compares the mortar and dry-fix options.

Words you will hear

Ashlar
Stone cut into neat rectangular blocks and laid in fine joints.
Coping
The capping on top of a wall or parapet that throws rain clear.
Dry-fix
Clips and caps that hold ridge and verge tiles without a mortar bed.
Eaves
The bottom of the slope, overhanging the wall above the gutter.

Westbury Leigh, Holy Saviour and a windy site

Limestone, a tower and exposed ground set their own demands for a roofer.

The Church of the Holy Saviour at Westbury Leigh was built in 1877, and its tower was added in 1890. It is built in honey coloured limestone to designs by William White. A Victorian church roof is a large timber structure under a covering of slate or tile, with lead valleys, gutters and flashings, and a tower adds a second roof at height.

The Plain and the White Horse slope give Westbury a rising backdrop, and a roof on a site like this meets the wind squarely. Exposure does not change the materials that should be used, but it changes how closely we look at fixings. A slate held by one rusted nail will survive a calm year and be lost in a gale. We check by hand, tapping and lifting courses, because eyes on the ground do not spot a nail that has gone.

Stone towers put a roof at the end of a long run of access. Fall-arrest, a platform or scaffold is often needed, and the planning of that work affects price more than any material. For anyone responsible for a hall, a chapel or a school, we put the access question first in our report, so committees know what they are being asked to approve.

After storms, a roofer is often asked to look at damage for an insurance claim. Insurers often set a 55 mph gust as the test for a storm, and general wear and tear is usually excluded, so a roofer's report and photographs can support a claim. We do not handle the claim and cannot promise its outcome, but we can describe the damage and its probable cause. For urgent leaks, we prioritise making a roof safe. Where a whole covering has run its course, roof replacement explains the alternative.

Map showing the location of Westbury.

Nearby

Roofers near Westbury

Roofing services in Westbury

Local questions

Asked beneath the White Horse at Westbury

Does living under the edge of Salisbury Plain make my roof wear faster?

It can make wind damage more likely, since air coming off rising ground reaches roof edges directly. That shows in ridge tiles, verges and fixings rather than in the covering itself. We check those after storms and when a roof is surveyed for any other reason.

Can a Bath stone front like the old town hall be protected by roof work alone?

The roof is the first line of defence for a stone front. Sound gutters, outlets, lead and coping keep water off the face, and failure there is what stains and flakes ashlar. Repairs to the stone itself are a mason's work, but we can fix the water source.

My Leigh Park roof is from the late 1990s. What is likely to need attention first?

The edges: ridge bedding, verge mortar and the eaves underlay. Flashings round chimneys and soil pipes are close behind. A survey with photographs tells you which are due and which can wait.

Is a roof near the Phipps mausoleum or All Saints' affected by their listing?

Only when your own house is listed or within a protected setting. The council can confirm, and the National Heritage List for England records listed buildings. A neighbouring listing does not by itself restrict repairs to an unlisted house.

Get your free survey

Get your free roof survey

Tell us what's happening and we'll call you back to arrange a visit. Prefer to talk? Call 01225 285181.

  • Photos of your own roof
  • A fixed price in writing
  • 10-year workmanship guarantee
Call Free survey