A Mendip village of grey limestone cottages with clay tile roofs

Roofers in Wookey Hole

Wookey Hole is a village one mile north-west of Wells, 22.9 road miles south-west of Bath, where a Victorian paper mill, a country house and an 18th-century farmhouse are all Grade II listed. Roofs in the village vary in age and size, and the work here can mean relining a valley gutter on a house or mending mill-scale sheeting on one of the old works.

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Local roofs

Mill, river and listed houses on the edge of the Mendips

Wookey Hole lies in the civil parish of St Cuthbert Out, one mile north-west of Wells, on the border of the Mendip Hills AONB (now called a National Landscape, as all English AONBs have been since 22 November 2023). It is a small place with an unusually varied set of historic buildings.

The former paper mill, whose water wheel is turned by a small canal drawn from the river, dates from around 1860 under a Grade II listing. That grade also covers the Church of St Mary Magdalene (1873 to 1874) and Glencot House, a country house of 1887 by Ernest George and Harold Peto. In the older village, the 18th-century Bubwith farmhouse and the post office in the High Street are both Grade II listed.

A village of this size holds a wide spread of protected buildings: industrial, church, grand domestic and farm. Their roofs differ in kind, and they fail in different ways. A mill roof is broad and often carries rooflights and gutters at scale. A Victorian country house has valleys, stacks and lead in abundance. A farmhouse has older timbers and a covering that has probably been renewed more than once.

Somerset Council is the authority for planning and listed building consent here. We survey the roof, report on what we find with images of your own slopes, and give you a written price, setting out where consent is likely to be a question.

Council: Somerset Council
From central Bath: 22.9 road miles, south-west
Listed mill: Former paper mill, around 1860, Grade II
Country house: Glencot House, 1887, Grade II
Parish: St Cuthbert Out, bordering the Mendip Hills AONB

What we find

Waterside gutters, mill valleys and farmhouse timbers

The paper mill and large-scale roofs

Industrial buildings put area, access and drainage ahead of ornament.

The former paper mill dates from around 1860 and is Grade II listed, with a water wheel still driven by a small canal from the river. The mill was built for industry, and its roofs were meant to cover space cheaply and drain it quickly. A building of this sort has broad pitches, long runs of gutter and, often, large areas of glazed or lit roof that were designed to bring daylight to the work floor.

The problems on that scale are of a different order from those on a cottage. A long gutter that falls slightly the wrong way ponds, and a ponded gutter fails. Brackets that carried the original iron or timber gutters can rust or rot. An outlet that blocks in autumn leaves overflows the full length of a wall. A lost fixing in a large sheet or tile run can spread to its neighbours in the first strong wind.

We survey a building like this in sections, often from a mobile platform or scaffold, and we write the findings up by roof plane so that an owner or managing agent can see where the risk lies and what can wait. The report separates urgent items from planned ones and places a figure on each part once we have measured it.

Where a historic industrial building has been converted to housing or offices, as many mills have, the roof often serves several occupiers. We then work with the managing agent on a single scope that all parties can see. Pricing is set after the survey; a large complex building gets a survey scope agreed in advance, as the national cost guides only cover simple cases. Larger and non-domestic work is covered under commercial roofing.

The listing means any significant change to the roof needs consent from Somerset Council before it begins: matching repairs prompt a conversation, while altering covering, rooflights or outlets means making a formal request.

Large roofs

On a mill-scale roof, survey first by section, then repair what is failing and plan the rest.

Glencot House and the roof of a Victorian country house

A house designed in 1887 by Ernest George and Harold Peto has a roof built for effect as well as shelter.

Glencot House, a country house of 1887, holds Grade II status. Houses of that period in that style were composed of gables, projecting bays, tall chimneys and steep pitches, and their roofs are correspondingly complex. Each change of plane makes a valley or a hip, each wall that rises through the roof needs a flashing, and each bay has its own gutter. The more complicated the shape, the more places water has to be turned away.

A hip is the sloping outer corner formed by two planes of roof, finished with ridge tiles or lead. A valley is the matching internal angle. A flashing is the strip of metal, normally lead, that seals the junction of a roof with a wall or a stack. On a house like this, all three appear dozens of times, and the lead has usually been repaired in part rather than renewed as a whole. Mixed repairs can hide the true state of the roof until water finds the weakest piece.

We therefore go slowly. We trace the water path from each ridge to the nearest downpipe, lift the covering at the junctions where we can, and photograph the lead as we find it. Lead that has been patched with mastic or bitumen tells us something about previous failures. Lead that has split at the same position on several chimneys tells us the detail was wrong at the start and needs forming differently.

Access matters as much as skill. A tall, steep roof needs a scaffold or a platform that reaches every slope, and a MyBuilder cost guide from 2026 puts scaffolding at roughly £1,125 on a standard UK roof. A country house takes more. We note it in the written price instead of leaving it to be added later. Our lead roofing page explains the details in full.

On a listed house, works of this kind are agreed with Somerset Council in advance. We give you the description it needs.

Words you will hear

Hip: A projecting corner of the roof where two planes meet, capped with ridge tile or lead.
Valley: The inward corner between two planes, where the water from both is collected.
Flashing: Metal, usually lead, set into a wall and dressed over a roof to keep the junction watertight.
Purlin: A horizontal timber carrying the rafters at mid-span, set into the end walls or trusses.

Farmhouse timbers and the High Street

The 18th-century Bubwith farmhouse and the post office show how older buildings in the village carry their age.

The Bubwith farmhouse is from the 18th century, and the post office in the High Street is listed Grade II too. Buildings from that period have roofs that were framed by hand from timber of whatever size was available. The rafters are rarely identical, the ridge may dip, and the structure has been altered more than once. Such quirks are not faults as such, but they mean that a roofer has to read the frame before deciding what to do to the covering.

We begin in the loft. Dark staining on timber near the eaves suggests long-term damp. A soft spot in a rafter foot where it meets the wall plate (the timber running along the wall top on which the rafters bear) is a different problem from a stained sarking board. Daylight through the covering identifies a missing slate or tile, but it can also reveal that the covering was never fully lapped. Where the timbers are sound and merely out of true, we work with them; we do not try to straighten a roof that has settled.

The covering on top may be the third or fourth on this frame. Old batten, thin or missing underlay and heavy mortar bedding are all common in older buildings of this sort, and we price for the work that is actually found. Our rule is to retain whatever is healthy and renew the rest in a matching material so that the result looks as it should from the lane.

Many old roofs in the country also shelter wildlife. Bats and active nests are legally protected, and finding traces of either makes us pause and call you. A protected species survey is a matter for an ecologist, not a roofer.

Repair is often the right course, and the roof repairs page explains how we decide. If the structure needs a full re-cover, we tell you that clearly and show the loft evidence.

St Mary Magdalene and the edge of the National Landscape

A church of 1873 to 1874 and a village on the border of the Mendip Hills show why scope and consent come first.

St Mary Magdalene church went up in 1873 and 1874 and holds a Grade II listing. A church roof is a particular job. It is high, long, and often laid out as a nave, chancel and perhaps an aisle, each with its own ridge and gutters. Access is difficult, lead is used widely, and the people who commission the work are usually a committee or a trust, not an individual. A clear written scope is what lets them decide.

The pattern we follow is the same for any church or village hall. Our survey begins at ground level and continues from a platform if conditions allow. We list every defect against its position on a plan, give each an order of priority, and set a price against each item so that works can be phased to fit a budget. We keep the language plain so it can be read aloud to a committee.

Wookey Hole sits on the border of the Mendip Hills AONB, which has been called a National Landscape since 22 November 2023. We are not planners, and we cannot tell you what that designation means for a particular roof. What matters in practice is that a covering chosen to match its neighbours is likely to sit more easily in this setting than one that does not, and that any listed house still needs consent from Somerset Council for changes beyond like-for-like repair, while St Mary Magdalene, as a Church of England church in use, has such changes authorised by a faculty from the diocese.

The roof inspections service is the usual way in for a church or hall, since it produces a report with photographs before any repair is agreed. For reference, the 2026 MyBuilder guide reports UK inspections at £150 to £500 overall, the spread coming from the method used, how detailed the report is and roof size. Larger buildings sit towards the upper end.

Gutters and downpipes deserve special attention on a stone church. Overflow can stain and decay walls long before anyone sees a leak inside.

1887

Year Glencot House was built

1860

Approximate date of the former paper mill

1 mile

Distance north-west of Wells

Figures: Wookey Hole entry, Wikipedia

Nearby

Roofers near Wookey Hole

Roofing services in Wookey Hole

Local questions

Questions from the paper mill village near Wells

The mill roof where I rent a unit leaks near the river side. Who should survey it?

The building owner or managing agent normally commissions repairs to a shared roof, and a tenant should raise the leak with them first. We survey roofs of this kind in sections, photograph the defects and write up a scope that the owner can circulate. A listed industrial building also needs consent for significant change, so the report notes where Somerset Council would need to be asked.

Our Victorian house has a lot of valley gutters. Do they all need replacing at once?

Not necessarily. Valleys age at different rates, depending on pitch, shade and the quality of the original lead work. We open each one, record its condition and rank them. Often a few are failing and the rest have years left. Replacing only those in poor condition keeps costs down, so long as the repairs match the lead that stays.

How can I tell if timbers in my old farmhouse loft are sound enough to keep?

Look for dark staining, soft or powdery wood near the eaves and any sag in the rafters. A damp patch near the wall plate is more serious than surface staining. We can inspect in person, press the timber with a probe where it looks doubtful, and report what we find. With a healthy frame, the covering can be renewed and the timbers left alone.

We look after a village hall near the church. Can the work be phased over several years?

Yes. We rank each defect by urgency and price it individually, so a committee can fund the pressing items first and plan the rest. We keep the descriptions plain and include photographs, which helps when the committee needs to approve spending or apply for a grant.

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.

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