Roofers in Colerne
Roofers in Colerne, the hilltop village above the Box valley, where an elevated site, a rebuilding after the fire of 1774 and a large conservation area set the brief for every roof.
Colerne at a glance
- Distance
- 26.8 road miles south of Stroud
- Council
- Wiltshire Council
- Conservation area
- Colerne, 84 listed buildings
- Setting
- Hilltop above the Box valley and By Brook
Colerne's roofs on the hill: Daubenys, the 1689 Manor House and a village rebuilt after a fire
Colerne stands at 545 feet in an elevated, exposed position overlooking the Box valley, with the Fosse Way on its western boundary and the By Brook to the east. It is known as the Village on the Hill, a name the climb up to it explains. For a roofer, a hilltop is a particular kind of site: the roofs are seen from a distance, they sit high in the sky, and anything loose has nothing to shelter it.
Many of the village's houses date from the 18th century, partly because of a large fire in 1774. Those houses may therefore carry roof frames from that rebuilding, now around 250 years old, though only a look in the loft confirms it for any one house. The older landmarks stand out against that background. St John the Baptist church is early 13th century in origin, saw heavy restoration in the 19th, and entered the list at Grade I in 1960. Daubenys, on the High Street, is a Grade II* listed long house of about 1400, and the Manor House near the church is dated 1689.
Colerne also has a recent past that is quite different. Construction of RAF Colerne began in 1939. The station closed in 1976 and the Army took over the site as Azimghur Barracks. A village beside a former air station may include premises of many kinds, and we take on small domestic jobs and larger buildings alike.
Whatever your building, our survey starts the same way: what is up there, how old it is, and what it has to withstand on a hill.
Row of Victorian terraced houses with slate roofs, bay windows and brick chimneys 
Street of stone terraced houses with slate and clay tile roofs
Chapter 01
545 feet up: fixings, underlay and ventilation on Colerne's exposed hill
On a hilltop the roof's hidden parts do the most work.
Chapter 01In this chapter
Colerne's position is elevated and exposed, and its weather often runs opposite to that of low-lying Bath: windy and wet in winter, foggy when the towns below are clear, and liable to be cut off when it snows. A roof on a hill takes the weather from more directions and with less shelter than one in a hollow. That should shape the specification, and it is better settled at the survey than discovered after a gale.
Start with the fixings. A tile or slate is held by nails, clips or pegs, and on an old roof those can corrode or loosen long before the covering wears out. When we lift a few courses to check, we look at whether each unit is secured and whether the battens, the timber strips the covering hangs from, are sound. Battens that have softened explain many a roof that looks healthy from the road and then begins to drop tiles.
Under the covering sits the underlay, a membrane that catches wind-blown rain and any water that gets past the covering. Old roofs often have none, or have bitumen felt that has become brittle. Where we re-roof, we fit a new underlay with the right laps and check how the roof void breathes. Marley's reading of BS 5250 for cold roofs asks for 10 mm of eaves ventilation above a 15° pitch under a non-breathable underlay, plus continuous 5 mm high-level ventilation once the pitch passes 35° or the span passes 10 m. A well-ventilated loft protects timbers from condensation, and the details are specific to each roof.
At the edges, the ridge, hips and verges need mechanical fixing. The 2014 revision of BS 5534 asks for every ridge and hip tile on Colerne's hill to be fixed mechanically, not held by mortar bedding alone, so any re-bed we quote includes those fixings. Dry-fix systems tested to BS 8612 are the alternative, and we set out the choice for your roof. Our pitched roofing page gives an overview of coverings and how each is fixed.
Gutters deserve a word of their own on an elevated site. Water running off a roof high on a hill can fall a long way if a downpipe fails, and it can strike the wall below with some force. Brackets should be firm, joints sealed and outlets clear. Gutter makers advise laying runs to a slight fall, in the region of 1:600 to 1:350 depending on the system, and we compare that with what is fitted.
None of this means a hilltop roof is a worse roof. It means the unglamorous layers deserve attention, and it is why we take pictures whenever a roof is opened, so the condition of battens and underlay is in front of you before you approve a price.
On a hill, the hidden layers of a roof do the most work.
- 545 ftheight at which Colerne stands, overlooking the Box valley
- 1774year of the large fire, one reason why many houses date from the 18th century
- 1689date of the Manor House near the church
Chapter 02
After the 1774 fire: 250-year-old roof frames under new coverings
A rebuilt village now has a generation of roofs due for the same questions.
Chapter 02In this chapter
A large fire in 1774 is one reason why many of Colerne's houses date from the 18th century. Each house is judged on its own survey, whatever its street. The safe observation is that a house rebuilt then has a roof frame close to 250 years old, and the frame is the real subject of a re-roofing survey.
Frames of that age have carried a lot. Rafters may have sagged slightly, purlins, the horizontal timbers that support the rafters part-way up, may have deflected, and the feet of rafters where they meet the wall plate can have rotted if a gutter has leaked for years. Some timber will be sound and some will need repair. Each part is examined from the roof void with a torch and a probe, and the weak spots are marked and photographed, so the quote can cover timber repairs as well as the covering.
Weight matters here. If the new covering is around 15% heavier than the old one, Building Regulations approval and a structural check come in, as set out by the Planning Portal and Approved Document A. A switch to a much heavier covering should be raised with building control before anything is ordered.
The other trigger is insulation. When a roof is stripped back to its rafters and rebuilt, Part L can apply. Under Approved Document L, the whole roof should be brought up to standard when more than 50% of its surface is renovated, or when more than 25% of the building envelope's surface is. The Planning Portal states the same boundary from the other side: no building control application is normally needed while under 25% of the envelope and under 50% of the roof is touched. Past those limits, the thermal upgrade has to appear in the price. Our roof replacement page explains how that is built into a quote.
Unsure of your roof's age? The loft often tells the story: sooty timbers, hand-cut joints and wooden pegs speak of an old frame. Send us photographs from inside the loft and the lane and we can say what a survey would need to look at.
Chapter 03
84 listed buildings in 22.5 hectares: Colerne's conservation area
In a conservation area this dense, nearly every roof has a listed neighbour.
Chapter 03In this chapter
The village is 26.8 road miles south of Stroud, and its conservation area covers about 22.5 hectares and holds 84 listed buildings. That is a notable concentration of listed property in a village. Daubenys, a Grade II* long house of about 1400, is a good illustration. A long house is a type of building where the living quarters and the working part of the building sit under one roof line. What matters to us is that a roof over a building like that is a long, continuous structure, and any fault in it can travel a long way.
The consequence for roof work is that you should expect to ask questions. For a listed building, any work that alters its character needs listed building consent from Wiltshire Council. The conservation area adds a layer of attention for work visible from the street. Changing the covering or adding new features is not the same as repairing like for like. Our rule is to propose like for like in the first instance, and to tell you if we think a proposal might need the planning team's view.
The village church shows how many chapters a building can have: early 13th-century origins and a heavy restoration six centuries later. A church still in use gets its roof work authorised by a faculty from the diocese, which stands in for the council's listed building route.
Beyond the historic core, a village with a former air station may well have newer premises. Larger buildings with flat or low-pitched roofs call for different thinking from a cottage, because water must be moved off in the right direction. The figures that matter for a flat roof come from BS 6229: a design fall of 1:40, so that the finished fall reaches 1:80. Our flat roofing page explains coverings and typical costs.
The 84 listed buildings also mean that a number of your neighbours will already have been through the consent process, and their experience can be useful. A neighbour who has re-roofed a listed cottage can tell you how long Wiltshire Council took to reply and what the planning team asked to see. We are happy to work from that kind of local knowledge, alongside our own survey photographs.
Wherever your property falls in the village, the path is the same. You ask for a survey, we record the roof in photographs and prepare a written quote, and if consent is needed we explain who issues it. We give a ten-year workmanship guarantee in writing and leave the property tidy.
Map showing Colerne and the Stroud service radius, with nearby towns we also cover.
Near Colerne
Roof work we do here
Daubenys, the 1689 Manor House and the 1774 fire
My Colerne house was rebuilt after the 1774 fire. Is the roof frame likely to need work?
It may. Timbers of that age often show some movement or rot at the rafter feet. The frame is inspected from the loft, weak points are marked on photographs, and any timber repair is explained to you apart from the new covering.
Does Colerne's hilltop position change how you fix a roof?
It makes the hidden layers more important. Nails, clips, battens and underlay all get checked, and ridge and hip tiles get the mechanical fixings BS 5534:2014 expects.
Do all of Colerne's roofs need listed building consent for repairs?
No. Only listed buildings need it where the work would affect their character, and the conservation area adds attention to visible changes. We recommend you confirm with Wiltshire Council's planning team before agreeing any change of material.
Can you work on a flat-roofed extension at a Colerne house?
Yes. The fall to the outlet, the state of the covering and the upstands at the walls come first, then we explain whether a repair or a new covering makes sense and what typical national ranges apply.