A Mendip village of grey limestone cottages with clay tile roofs

Roofers in Evercreech

Evercreech is 21.4 road miles south of Bath, still well inside the 30 miles we cover. Its Grade I church tower has a pierced, embattled parapet, its old silk factories have become roofs of a different kind, and above the village Small Down Knoll, a Bronze Age hill fort, rises to 222 metres.

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Local roofs

Quarries, kilns, silk throwing and a hill fort above them

The Church of St Peter is a 14th century Grade I building. Its three-stage tower is of the East Mendip type, with pinnacles and a pierced, embattled parapet. The market cross, 15th century with a 3 metre shaft set on four steps, has Grade II* status and is also a scheduled ancient monument.

The village earned its living from the ground and from textiles. Historic industries include quarrying of blue lias and clay, and brick making. From the late 18th century until just after the First World War there were three silk factories, two of them throwing mills. Today agriculture is the leading industry.

Above the village is Small Down Knoll, a Bronze Age hill fort that rises to 728 feet, which is 222 metres. At Chesterblade, in Evercreech parish, the tiny Church of St Mary is 12th century. The parish is in the Mendip South ward, and Somerset Council is the planning authority.

Distance has never stopped us surveying here. At 21.4 road miles from central Bath, Evercreech sits well within our radius, and a survey is no harder to arrange than it is in the city.

Council: Somerset Council
From central Bath: 21.4 road miles, south
Church of St Peter: 14th century; Grade I; pierced parapet
Market cross: Grade II*; also a scheduled ancient monument
Small Down Knoll: Bronze Age hill fort, 728 feet (222 m)

What we find

Pierced parapets, brick stacks and long workshop runs

A pierced parapet and what hides behind it

St Peter's tower shows how often a roof most at risk is the one nobody can see.

The Church of St Peter has a three-stage tower of the East Mendip type, with pinnacles and a pierced, embattled parapet. A pierced parapet is cut through with openings, usually in a pattern, and embattled means it is shaped like a castle wall. It is a decorative edge on top of a roof, and behind it lies a plain engineering problem, which is where the rain goes.

On a building with a parapet, the roof slopes towards the wall, and the water collects in a channel behind it. That channel is called a parapet gutter, and it is usually lined with sheet lead. At each end or at intervals, an outlet takes the water through the wall and into a downpipe. If the lead splits, the water goes into the masonry. If the outlet clogs, the gutter fills and overflows into the building. Both failures are slow and hidden until a stain appears inside.

You may not own a church tower, but the same principle applies to a Georgian or Victorian house with a parapet along the front, or to a shop with a stone coping at the roofline. Our lead roofing hub shows how new lead is laid, with falls, drips and laps formed so the sheet can expand and contract without tearing.

Stone parts need attention too. The coping stones on top of a parapet shed water to either side, and the joints between them open with age. The pointing behind and between them is where lime mortar is the right material, because it moves a little and lets moisture escape. Hard cement does the opposite and can damage the stone.

Reaching the work is the other half. A tower or a high parapet cannot be reached from a ladder. It needs scaffold, a mobile platform or a roof ladder fixed to a safe point, and the cost of that goes into the price from the start. If the building is listed, a consent application to Somerset Council comes before anything is erected against the stone.

Silk mills, workshops and long, shallow roofs

Three silk factories, two of them throwing mills, left Evercreech with roofs built for work rather than for show.

From the late 18th century until just after the First World War, Evercreech had three silk factories, two of them throwing mills. Throwing is the process that twists raw silk into thread. Mill and workshop buildings of that kind usually have wide, plain roofs.

A converted mill or workshop roof asks different questions from a house roof. The pitch may be shallow, so water runs slowly and finds any weakness at the laps. The span may be wide, with few internal walls to stiffen it. The covering may have been replaced several times, with different materials meeting along the line of an old repair. And the use below has often changed: a room that was once heated by machinery may now be insulated and sealed, which can trap moisture in the roof space.

Our survey follows a fixed route. We look at the outlets and gutters first, because most failures start with water that cannot leave. Next come laps and fixings, then flashings at walls and rooflights, then the structure seen from inside. A short report follows, listing each defect and what it needs. For larger flat or shallow areas, the flat roofing hub compares the membranes: felt, EPDM, GRP and lead, each explained there with what it costs and how it ages.

Some owners need a repair that gets the building through a season. Others are planning to keep the roof for many years. We help you choose, because both are reasonable and the choice changes the price. On a commercial property, we treat the roof as an asset and give you a clear picture of what is left in it.

If an older roof covering is asbestos cement, the position changes. Lifting whole sheets gently falls under HSE's non-licensed category, whereas heavy breakage turns the job into a notifiable one. Nobody should drill or break a sheet of unknown material, and we will not start until we know what we are dealing with.

Words you will hear

Throwing: Twisting raw silk fibres into a thread ready for weaving.
Lap: The overlap where one sheet or course sits over the next.
Outlet: The opening where roof water leaves a gutter or flat roof.
Upstand: The short vertical return of a membrane up the face of an abutting wall.

Blue lias, clay and brick: roofs that sit on local materials

Quarrying blue lias and clay and making bricks built a village's walls, and they decide how its chimneys and gables weather.

Historic industries in Evercreech include quarrying of blue lias and clay, and brick making. No house gets a guess from us before we have seen it. What the village's history does suggest is that brick, stone and clay products were close at hand, and that a roof here sits on walls and stacks that came from the ground nearby.

Brick behaves differently from stone. A soft or under-fired brick can lose its face when water gets into it and freezes, and the result is a surface that flakes and crumbles. Stacks are the most exposed brickwork on a house because they stand clear of the roof, so the first signs of trouble are often on the stack: pointing that has washed out, bricks with broken faces, and a flashing that no longer sits tight in its joint. The roof replacement hub describes what changes when a whole roof is renewed, including the stacks, the flashings and the detailing at the eaves and verges.

Gables bring their own risks. The edge of a roof over a gable wall is the verge, and it is traditionally held by mortar. Standards no longer treat mortar alone as enough for the ridge, hip or verge, which means that new work gets mechanical fixings, and older mortar-bedded verges should be checked for movement. A cracked verge pointing line is the first place a gale will find.

Eaves and gutters link the roof to the wall. A gutter that leaks at a joint sends water down the face of a wall, and brick and stone both suffer. A downpipe emptying at ground level beside a wall can send damp up through it. We look at these together, because a damp patch inside a room may have its cause in the gutter and not in the slates.

On a renewal, the covering makes up only part of the bill. Scaffold, strip-out, disposal of old material and any thermal upgrade all matter. MyBuilder's 2026 guide gives £5,000 to £12,000 as the usual national band for a new roof, with scaffold adding about £1,125. Those are national ranges, not our figures, and the number you receive comes after a survey.

Myth

If a wall is damp inside, the roof covering must be what let the water in.

Fact

Gutters, downpipes, flashings and wet ground can all produce the same patch, so the cause has to be traced before the roof is touched.

The hill above the village and the hamlet below

Small Down Knoll rises to 222 metres, and Chesterblade's 12th century church is a reminder of how small old buildings can be.

Small Down Knoll is a Bronze Age hill fort above the village that rises to 728 feet, or 222 metres. A house on higher, open ground may see more wind than one in a sheltered street. That is an observation about the setting, not a claim about any particular street. Our survey tests the roof against what the site demands.

On an exposed slope, the first thing wind finds is anything loose. A lifted ridge tile, a verge with missing pointing or a slate whose fixing has corroded all give it something to work on. We look for the pattern: gaps along one edge, a line of damaged units near the ridge, or isolated losses. A pattern points to the cause. A single loss may only need one new unit.

Small old buildings, such as St Mary's at Chesterblade, a 12th century church, show a different set of risks. The roof is small, but the walls are thick, the gutters are few and each one carries a lot. A blocked outlet on a tiny roof wets a wall quickly. If you look after a small chapel, hall or outbuilding, a regular check of the gutters is as valuable as any major repair.

Birds and bats favour old roofs and stacks. Both are protected, and we stop to take advice if we find signs during a survey. Bringing this up at the start helps us plan the timing of the work.

The survey itself is free, whether the roof is on the hill, in the village or at Chesterblade. After we have inspected the roof, the price comes to you as one fixed, written figure. Workmanship carries a 10-year guarantee. For urgent leaks, we prioritise the work and make the roof safe before anything else.

Exposed or sheltered

On a hill-side roof, fix loose ridge, verge and edge units first, because wind starts there.

Nearby

Roofers near Evercreech

Roofing services in Evercreech

Local questions

Evercreech questions from the silk mills to the knoll

My Evercreech house has a brick chimney that is flaking. Is this a repair job or a rebuild?

It depends on how deep the damage goes. If only the pointing has washed out and a few bricks have lost their faces, repointing and replacing those bricks may be enough. If the stack leans, the bricks crumble through their depth or the flue is open to water, a partial or full rebuild is the sound answer. The stack, its flashings and its cap are all inspected before we give an answer.

Can you work on a former silk mill or workshop roof in Evercreech?

Yes. We survey the outlets, laps, fixings, flashings and structure, and report on what each part needs. If the roof has asbestos cement sheeting, we identify it before any work begins. Commercial and shared roofs are priced on a survey, and the price is fixed once it is complete.

Does the pierced parapet on a church or large house need special lead work?

It needs lead that can move. The gutter behind a pierced parapet is lined in sheet lead formed with drips and laps so it can expand and contract without splitting. The stone coping and its mortar need attention at the same time, in lime. On a listed building, consent from Somerset Council comes first.

Is Evercreech too far out for a free survey?

No. It is 21.4 road miles from central Bath and inside the 30 road miles we cover. A survey is free and includes a look at the roof, the gutters and the structure beneath, with a written price afterwards.

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