Roofers in Churchill

Height above the Levels is the first thing we weigh in Churchill. A roof on low ground sits in still, damp air and often under trees. A roof higher up towards the Mendip side meets the wind head on, with little shelter between it and the open slope. Both can be perfectly sound when built. They age in opposite ways.

On the high side, wind is the working problem. It lifts ridge tiles, pulls at verges, rattles loose slates and drives rain sideways under the lap of any tile that is not seated. A slipped tile that looks like a small gap from the garden can be letting water onto the battens (thin laths that carry each course) for several wet weeks before a stain shows indoors. We walk the slopes, look along each course for the telltale shadow of a slipped tile, and check the pegs, nails or clips holding the covering.

On the low side, the problem is moisture. Shaded north slopes grow moss and algae, valleys silt up, and gutters overflow behind the fascia without anyone noticing. A tile that stays wet in winter is exposed to frost, and an old clay or concrete tile can flake at its face and let the water through. We look for tiles that have spalled and for gutters that have started to sag.

The point of the survey is to avoid assuming. A re-roof is rarely the first answer, and a repair is rarely the last. We name the parts that are sound, the parts that need attention this year, and the parts that can be left. Wind work on a hillside house usually begins with ridge and verge repairs.

The Sidney Hill Cottage Homes opened in December 1907. They are twelve cottages in an Arts and Crafts vernacular style, set on three sides of a quadrangle. The Arts and Crafts tradition liked simple forms made with local craft, and its roofs usually show it: steep pitches, broad eaves, deep gables, and chimneys treated as a feature in their own right.

Those details bring their own work. A steep roof sheds water quickly, which is a good start, but every gable, dormer and chimney introduces a valley, a verge or an abutment, and a quadrangle layout multiplies them. Where two roofs meet, the valley collects water from both, and if it is lined with lead, the lead must lie flat enough to shed water and be large enough to take a heavy downpour. Wide eaves put the gutters a long way out, so a failing bracket or a blocked outlet can drop water down a wall.

Whether any of these buildings are listed or protected is a question for North Somerset Council, and we would not guess. It is worth asking before replacing a covering on any building of the date and style, because a change of material changes how a row of cottages looks as a group. Where a roof has to be repaired, we match: the same kind of covering in the same size and colour, laid to the same pattern, so the mended section blends into the old.

The same applies to any older house in the village. A roof that once carried hand-made clay tile or natural slate is best repaired in that material. Where we cannot tell what is underneath, we lift a section and look. The bigger decisions, when a roof is beyond patching, are set out under roof replacement.

Figures: Churchill, Somerset entry, Wikipedia, checked October 2026