Roofers in Dilton Marsh

The brick and tile works in the east of the parish gave Dilton Marsh its colour. Many houses are brick, and others are rubble stone with red brick used at corners, windows and doors. Some have brick on the front walls only. That detail matters to a roofer because walls built in two materials can move differently from one side to another.

Brick and stone expand and shrink at different rates, and old rubble walls are rarely square. The roof on top has to follow the line of whatever is beneath it. Tiles laid on such a building will not always sit as they would on a modern house, and a repair has to allow for that. A rigid mortar fillet along a verge, for instance, will crack where the wall flexes, while a bed that can give a little will last.

We do not assume the roof was originally tile just because the village had a tile works. An old house may have been re-covered more than once, in clay, concrete or slate, so the opening task is simply identifying what is there. Clay tiles that are soft and flaking at the surface are at the end of their life, while hard-fired ones with a few cracked units can be repaired and kept. A tile that crumbles at the edge when lifted is a warning, because frost lifts moisture out of the face in flakes.

Matching is the second job. Clay tile varies in colour from yard to yard and kiln to kiln, and a new run set beside weathered ones will stand out. Reclaimed tiles often blend best, and a mix across the whole slope hides the join. Clay, concrete and slate are each covered under pitched roofing.

Holy Trinity Church was built in 1844 in the centre of the village to designs by T.H. Wyatt, in Romanesque style, and is Grade II* listed. Chalcot House, in Chalcot Park, was built in the early 18th century and extensively altered in 1872 by James Piers St Aubyn; it too is Grade II* listed. Between them they show two periods of building.

For a listed roof, the planning authority is Wiltshire Council, and the system it applies is listed building consent. This is separate from planning permission, so a conversation with the council's conservation staff is the right first step for anything beyond routine upkeep. We cannot decide for you whether a piece of work needs consent, but we can lay out the job precisely enough that the council can give you an answer.

On a church the weak point is usually the abutment between roof and tower, where a lead flashing has to climb a masonry face and tuck into a joint. On a country house, the roof may have several pitches, valleys and lead-lined parapet gutters, all concealed from view. We climb to those places and look at them directly, and a gutter we cannot inspect from a ladder is photographed so you can see it too.

Not every repair on an older building is major. Replacing a handful of slates, refixing a loose ridge or renewing a short length of lead are jobs that can often be done in the existing materials, and the council may need no more than a conversation. For anything larger, the sensible approach is to plan the consent and the timetable together. Our lead roofing page describes the hidden detailing that often makes the difference on these roofs.