A Cotswold town street of limestone houses with stone tile roofs

Roofers in Dursley

Dursley lies 28.8 road miles north of Bath, tucked under Stinchcombe Hill where the Cotswold escarpment drops towards the Severn Vale. A Georgian town hall stands in the centre and flats now cover former factory land, and a roofer has to read those two very differently before deciding on a repair.

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Local roofs

A town under the hill

Dursley sits under the north-east flank of Stinchcombe Hill, right on the line where the Cotswolds fall away to the Severn Vale. A slope behind and a plain in front: the setting is dramatic, and it shapes how water, wind and light reach the roofs below. The town is also next door to Cam, and the boundary between them is mostly a matter of signposts.

The centre carries real age. The Grade I listed parish church of St James the Great has 13th-century origins and is largely 14th and 15th century in construction. Its original spire collapsed in January 1699, and the Gothic survival belltower that stands today was built by Thomas Sumsion of Colerne in 1708 to 1709. The Town Hall, with its statue of Queen Anne and bell turret, dates from 1738.

Then there is the newer layer. Much of the former Lister Petter factory site, 92 acres (37 hectares) in all, is being developed as a large housing area with some industrial units. The Towers, a large Gothic-style house that was once part of the Lister Petter estate, has been converted into flats and a residential care home.

Put those together and Dursley holds nearly every roofing question in one place: a hillside climate, high-status heritage, a conversion with shared roofs and a big redevelopment. We take each job as it comes and put the findings in writing.

Council: Stroud District Council
From central Bath: 28.8 road miles, north
Parish church: St James the Great, Grade I, 13th century
Town Hall: 1738, with a bell turret
Former factory site: 92 acres (37 ha), Lister Petter

What we find

Standing water, turret lead and shared conversions

Under Stinchcombe Hill: wet roofs and moss

A hillside at your back keeps the sky busy, and a roof that stays damp gathers things.

When a hill rises directly behind a town, the weather behaves differently on the streets beneath it. Trees on the hillside shed leaves and seed onto the roofs below, and a house close under a slope can spend more of the day out of direct sun. None of this is a fault in the building. It simply means that roofs in Dursley that face the wrong way or sit under trees are likelier to stay damp, and damp roofs grow moss.

Moss itself is not an emergency. A thin layer on a sound roof is cosmetic. The trouble starts when it thickens, because a deep mat acts like a sponge: it holds water against the covering, packs into the gaps between tiles and, in a frosty week, can crack the edge of a tile as the trapped water freezes. In a valley or behind a chimney, a heap of moss and leaf litter can also dam the flow and push water sideways under the slates.

Cleaning is straightforward when the method is right. For clay and concrete tiles a careful wash and a biocide treatment clear the growth. For old or delicate coverings, pressure washing can damage the surface, so we pick a gentler way and test it in a corner first. Typical UK prices for roof cleaning are reported by MyBuilder (2026) as starting from about £300, with pitched roofs at £450 to £850. A fixed quote comes once we have surveyed your roof.

Cleaning is only half of the answer. If moss keeps returning, something is holding the water there, whether that is a shaded slope, a blocked gutter or a low-pitched section that cannot shed it. Our roof cleaning service covers the process, and our survey looks for the cause as well as the symptom.

Myth

Moss on a roof is harmless, so it can be left indefinitely.

Fact

A thin film does no real harm, yet a deep mat keeps the covering wet, blocks valleys and can lift or crack tiles in a frost.

St James, the Town Hall and the lead above them

A spire that fell in 1699 and a bell turret from 1738 show what height does to a roof.

The roofs of old civic and church buildings are as interesting as the walls beneath them. St James the Great is Grade I listed, with a 13th-century core and a belltower that was built in 1708 to 1709 by Thomas Sumsion of Colerne, after the old spire fell in January 1699. Dursley Town Hall, with its statue of Queen Anne and bell turret, dates from 1738. Both carry a high feature, a belltower on one and a bell turret on the other, that takes the full force of the weather, and both rely on their roofs to keep weather out of buildings that are meant to last.

Towers, spires and turrets have particular weak points. The base of a turret, where it rises through the roof slope, is a junction that has to move with the metal and masonry on either side. Lead is the traditional answer: it is soft enough to be dressed tight against awkward shapes and durable enough to last. But it swells and shrinks as the temperature rises and falls, so long sheets creep and eventually crack unless they are laid with joints, rolls and drips that let them slide. Lead code, a number that describes the thickness of the sheet, determines how long it lasts.

On a listed building, repair is shaped by consent. Stroud District Council acts as the planning authority, and listed building consent is its own permission, apart from planning. Like-for-like repair in the existing material is the simplest route, while a change in covering or detail will need agreement first.

We cannot advise on legal status, but we can survey a roof, describe what has gone wrong without trade jargon and set out the repair in a form a conservation officer can respond to. The full range of what we do with the metal is on our lead roofing page.

1699

Year the original spire of St James collapsed

1738

Year of Dursley Town Hall and its bell turret

37 ha

Former Lister Petter factory site now being redeveloped

Figures: Dursley entry, Wikipedia, checked October 2026

Lister Petter land and The Towers

Housing on a former factory and a mansion turned into flats both raise the same question: who owns the roof?

Much of the former Lister Petter works, a 92-acre (37-hectare) site, is being developed for housing with some industrial units. A development on that scale puts a great many new roofs in one place, and they are young, so the problems are different from those of a Georgian town centre. They are rarely about decay. They are about workmanship, the details finished in a hurry and the fixings that were meant to be checked.

For owners on the new streets, the best advice is to find out what the warranty or developer guarantee covers before you call anyone. If it still applies, let it run its course for the faults it covers. For anything outside it, or once it has ended, a survey of the ridge, the verges, the flashings and the gutters will show whether there is anything to do.

The Towers is a different case. This large Gothic-style house, once part of the Lister Petter estate, has been converted into flats and a residential care home. Whatever its exact roof plan, one roof now serves many households and a care setting. The practical problem is agreeing a scope everybody accepts. That is where a written survey with photographs helps: each owner or manager can see the fault, the proposed repair and the price in one document.

We work with managing agents and freeholders regularly. We break the survey into areas, flag what is urgent, price the whole and suggest a sensible order of work. For chimneys, often the most vulnerable part of a tall roof, see chimney repairs.

Gutters, fascias and the run-off from above

On a sloping site, how water leaves the roof matters as much as what the roof is made of.

Dursley is built on a slope, and a house on a slope has a particular relationship with its drains. Water leaving the roof has to go somewhere, and on a hillside that somewhere might be a neighbour's garden, a path or a retaining wall. A gutter that overflows on a flat site makes a damp patch. On a slope it can send water down a wall face and into a foundation.

The gutter system has four main parts. The gutter itself must slope towards the outlet at a steady fall. The brackets must be sound enough to carry it when it is full of water and leaves. The outlets and downpipes must be clear. And the fascia, the board the gutter is fixed to, must be sound, because a gutter fixed to rotten wood will drop. Soffits, the boards under the overhang, are also worth a look, since they hide the point where birds and insects get into a roof.

Replacement is straightforward in principle. Old cast iron can be reproduced in cast iron or aluminium; uPVC suits many modern houses. For typical UK prices, MyBuilder (2026) reports guttering at £30 to £70 a metre and fascia at £80 to £150 a metre, with scaffold extra where needed. A fixed quote comes after we have surveyed the job.

The other thing a hillside does is deliver more debris. Leaf fall from hillside trees fills gutters faster than a flat estate ever would. A clear-out in autumn and again in spring is the cheapest insurance a roof has. Our gutters, soffits and fascias service handles repair and replacement on houses and larger buildings alike.

Gutter priority

Fix the fall and the fixings of a gutter first, because a replacement run laid to the wrong slope will overflow just as the old one did.

Nearby

Roofers near Dursley

Roofing services in Dursley

Local questions

Questions from beneath Stinchcombe Hill

Why does moss return so fast on roofs below Stinchcombe Hill?

A roof that sits beneath a slope or trees can stay damp for long periods, and moss grows wherever a covering stays wet. Cleaning removes it, but the real fix is to deal with what holds the damp: a blocked gutter, an overhanging branch or a shaded slope. We look for the cause when we survey, so cleaning is not repeated every couple of years.

Can lead on a bell turret or tower be repaired without replacing the whole roof?

Often, yes. Lead that has split at a seam or lifted along an edge can be patched or replaced section by section, provided the sheet beneath is sound. If the metal has cracked widely, or the fixings have failed, a larger replacement is better value than repeated patches. We inspect the base of the turret first because that is where water gets in.

I own a flat at The Towers. Who decides what happens to the roof?

That depends on your lease and on who manages the building, so ask the managing agent or freeholder first. We can survey the roof and give the group a written scope with photographs and a fixed price, so the discussion is about specifics. Where parts of the building are listed, consent from Stroud District Council may be needed.

My home is on the old Lister Petter site. Should I ask the developer before booking a repair?

Yes, if the warranty is still running. Check its terms first, since having someone else alter the roof can sometimes affect cover. For faults outside the warranty, or once it has ended, we can survey the roof and quote the work in writing.

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