A Wiltshire market town street with stone and brick houses and clay tile roofs

Roofers in Sherston

Sherston is 18.7 road miles out from Bath, to the north-east, in Wiltshire Council's area, and most of the village sits inside a conservation area. We mend and re-cover its roofs the way they were built, from the 17th century rebuilds on the High Street to the converted chapel on Grove Lane.

Get a free survey Call 01225 285181

Local roofs

A village rebuilt after a fire

Sherston has an unusual starting point for a roofer. A fire in 1511 destroyed most of the village's buildings, and there was much rebuilding in the 17th century as the place was put back together. That is a long time for a roof to have lived through, and it is why we look at the timbers before the covering.

The village keeps its landmarks close together. The Church of the Holy Cross is Grade I listed. It was begun in the 12th century, and its high tower was rebuilt in 1733. On the High Street, Old Swan House and numbers 19 and 21, the former Swan Inn of the late 16th century, are Grade II* listed, and so are Court House and 1 and 3 Cliff Road, rebuilt around 1680. The former Angel Hotel has a 16th century core with a twin-gabled addition of 1648.

Most of the village was designated a conservation area in 1973. For anyone planning work on a roof that faces the street, that status is the first thing to check, along with whether the building is listed. Wiltshire Council deals with both questions, and its conservation and planning officers are the people who can say what a particular house needs.

Roofs of this age behave differently from a house of the last century. Gables are steep, valleys are short and awkward, and the junction between a roof and a thick stone wall has often been repaired more than once. Our first visit is about learning what the roof really consists of, and the written report that follows carries photographs of your own slopes before a price is named.

Council: Wiltshire Council
From central Bath: 18.7 road miles, north-east
Conservation area: Most of the village, designated 1973
Fire: 1511, with much rebuilding in the 17th century
Grade I listed: Church of the Holy Cross, tower rebuilt 1733

What we find

Post-fire timbers, gable verges and thick-wall abutments

The High Street houses and the roofs that came after the fire

After the 17th century rebuilding, a roof here may have been patched and altered many times since.

A walk along Sherston High Street shows how a village is put back together in stages. Houses of different dates sit shoulder to shoulder, each with its own pitch, its own ridge height and its own idea of where a chimney should go. For a roofer, that variety means no two roofs can be priced from a description. We go up and look.

The first question on a house of this age is what the roof was built from and what it carries now. Some will still have a stone or clay covering that has been lifted and relaid in the past. Others will have been stripped and re-covered in something heavier or lighter, and a change of that kind has consequences for the timbers beneath. Planning Portal guidance puts the line at 15 per cent extra weight over the existing covering, or more: beyond that, Building Regulations approval is required, and in practice that brings a structural check of the rafters.

That check is not a formality on a house with 17th century framing. Before we talk about the covering we look at the roof from the loft side with a torch: the condition of the rafters at the eaves, whether any purlin has dropped, and whether earlier repairs have used timber that is the wrong size for its job. Daylight showing between the battens (the narrow timber laths that carry the covering) tells its own story.

Where the roof is sound and the covering is what has failed, we repair. A re-lay, with good existing material kept, sorted and put back, is usually kinder to an old house than a complete strip. Where the timbers need work, we tell you and show you the photographs, so that the decision on the order of work rests on what is actually up there. The pitched roofing service covers full re-covering, though a repair that solves the fault is always the first thing we put to you.

Listed rooflines on the High Street and Cliff Road

With Grade II* houses in the village, consent is a question for the first visit rather than the last.

Sherston has several buildings listed at Grade II*, a higher grade than most village houses ever receive. Old Swan House, numbers 19 and 21 High Street, Court House and 1 and 3 Cliff Road are among them, and the church is Grade I. If your own house is on the list, the roof counts as listed fabric, so contact the Wiltshire Council conservation team before booking any work.

Three different permissions are easily muddled. Listed building consent covers changes to a protected building, planning permission covers development more generally, and Building Regulations cover how work is carried out. They are separate, and having one does not mean you have the others. We cannot rule on your house for you, and we would not try. What we can do is describe a repair precisely, with the material, the fixings and the lead work set out, so that the council has something concrete to respond to.

For like-for-like repairs, the usual direction of travel is to keep as much original material as possible. Slipped or cracked pieces are replaced to match in size, colour and thickness, the lead is renewed to the original detail, and anything that is sound stays in place. For a larger change, like swapping slate for tile or cutting a new opening, the council has to be asked first.

A house that is unlisted but within the conservation boundary sits under looser but still real controls. Some alterations that would normally need no application can need one in a designated area, and some streets have extra restrictions. Check with Wiltshire Council before you assume a change is free of conditions. The local authority's own pages at wiltshire.gov.uk explain how to ask.

On the practical side, listed roofs often need scaffolding for longer, because the work is slower and the details more careful. We build that into the written price after the survey, so it is not a surprise partway through the job.

Listed or not

Settle the listing and conservation question for your Sherston address first, since it decides what any roofer may propose.

Chimneys, stone walls and the junctions that leak

In an old village the leaks start where the roof meets something else.

Ask a Sherston homeowner where their roof leaks and the answer is rarely the middle of a slope. It is the chimney, the valley, the wall against a neighbour's roof, or the awkward corner where an extension was joined to an older house. Each is a junction, and each depends on a small piece of metal or mortar doing its job.

Chimneys come first. The mortar crown on top of the stack, called flaunching, seats the pots and carries rain outward. When it splits, rain finds a path down the flue wall and appears as a brown patch on a bedroom chimney breast. Beneath it, the joints between stones lose their surface with age, and the lead flashing at the point where the stack leaves the slope can lift along its top edge. Soakers, the small pieces of lead slid between each course of covering beside the stack, are hidden from view and can fail long before the flashing above them.

Valleys are the second place to look. Here two slopes run together in an inward-facing gutter of lead or mortar, and every drop from both ends up in it. On an old house it may be lined with lead that has split at a lap, or with a mortar fillet that has long since gone. Moss and leaf litter hold water against the metal and speed the process. We lift the edges, check the lead and clear the channel before deciding on a repair.

Against stone walls, the question is the mortar. Old walls were laid in lime, and repairs in hard cement can crack the stone beside the joint, because the wall can no longer shed moisture through the mortar. We use lime where the building was built with lime, and we make sure the lead is chased into the joint rather than stuck to the face of the wall.

Work on stacks, from repointing up to a full rebuild, sits under chimney repairs, while a leak away from any junction usually belongs to roof repairs. If water is already coming through, we make the roof safe first and plan the lasting repair afterwards.

Words you will hear

Flaunching: The mortar crown capping a stack, in which the pots are bedded and from which rain runs off.
Soaker: A piece of lead slid between courses of covering beside a stack or wall, forming a watertight join.
Valley: The internal angle between two roof slopes, which carries rainwater from both.
Abutment: The place where a roof slope meets a wall that rises above it.

Converted chapels and the quieter roofs of the village

Not every Sherston roof is centuries old. Conversions and farm outbuildings bring their own faults.

Sherston's former Methodist church on Grove Lane was sold in 2024 and converted for residential use. A chapel conversion is a good example of how an old roof gets a new job. A large, simple roof built for a hall now covers bedrooms and a kitchen, and that changes what the roof needs to do. Insulation goes in, rooms go under the rafters, and the ventilation that once took care of itself now has to be planned.

The common problems on a converted roof are condensation and trapped moisture. Where insulation is jammed hard under the tiles with no gap for air, warm damp air from the rooms below condenses on the cold face and wets the timbers. Approved Document L fixes the thermal standard for a renewed roof element, and a roof stripped to its battens can trigger an insulation upgrade. We explain what applies before the price is agreed, and the work is notified to building control where it needs to be.

Farm buildings and outbuildings around the village raise a different set of questions. Sheeted roofs on barns and stores are often corrugated, and some older sheets contain asbestos cement. Under HSE guidance, lifting whole sheets with care is non-licensed work, yet smashing them changes the position, so we find out what the sheets are before planning anything.

For ordinary family houses outside the old core, the faults are the familiar ones. Tiles shaken loose by a gale, ridge tiles whose bedding has crumbled, a gutter sagging at one joint and spilling down the wall. These are usually quick to put right, provided the cause is found, not just the symptom. Where a repair is competing with a bigger job, the reasoning is laid out under roof repairs.

Wherever the roof is, the aim is the same: leave it as it was meant to be, with the weak points put right and the site cleared. Waste goes with us, and the written guarantee covers the workmanship for ten years.

1511

Year of the fire that destroyed most of the village's buildings

1648

Date of the twin-gabled addition to the former Angel Hotel

1973

Year most of the village was designated a conservation area

Figures: Sherston entry, Wikipedia, checked October 2026

Nearby

Roofers near Sherston

Roofing services in Sherston

Local questions

Asked along the High Street and Cliff Road

Does the 1973 conservation area affect re-roofing a house in Sherston?

It can, depending on the house and the work. Most of the village sits inside the conservation area, and some alterations that need no application elsewhere may need one there. A like-for-like repair is a different matter from changing the covering. Check with Wiltshire Council about your address first, and if the house is also listed, ask about listed building consent. Our written description of the job gives you something exact to show them.

Our Sherston cottage dates from the 1600s. Can the roof be re-laid rather than replaced?

Often, yes, where the existing covering is sound enough to reuse. We lift it, sort good pieces from poor ones, fit new battens and underlay and relay the sound material, topped up with matching pieces. Whether that is sensible depends on the timbers, so we look at those from the loft before recommending anything.

Can you work on a roof in the old Swan Inn or Cliff Road group of Grade II* houses?

Yes, with consent in place first. Listed roofs need agreement from the council before changes are made, and unauthorised work is an offence. We prepare a clear description of the repair, with the material, fixings and lead details, so the conservation officer can respond to specifics rather than a general idea.

A neighbour's chimney sits against my roof in Sherston. Who looks after the flashing?

That depends on who owns the wall and the stack, and we cannot give a legal opinion. What we can do is find where the water is getting in, photograph the join and describe the repair. A shared wall often means a conversation with the neighbour, and a written account of the fault makes that conversation easier.

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