Roofers in Apuldram

The parish church of St Mary the Virgin stands by itself in the north of the parish, and the Victoria County History describes it as built of flint rubble with ashlar dressings, principally Caen stone, and roofed with tile. Ashlar means dressed stone cut square and laid in neat courses, and Caen stone is a pale limestone from Normandy that was shipped across for fine work. Historic England's list entry (number 1026474) records the church as Grade I, first listed on 5 June 1958. A building of that standing is looked after slowly and carefully, and any roofer who works on one should be ready to explain every step to the people responsible for it. The roof tells its own story if you read it: the colour of the tiles, the patches where later repairs were fitted and the places where moss and damp have settled all point to what is failing and why.

1.1 Tile meeting stone and flint

A tiled roof is only as watertight as the edge where it meets the wall. At St Mary's that edge runs along flint rubble, which has an uneven face, and past dressed stone, which is softer than it looks. Lead (the flashing metal sheet that seals the joint) has to be dressed into the mortar joints and not forced into the stone itself, and the mortar needs to be a soft, matching mix. A hard cement repair can crack the stone around it, and the damage shows up in the very place the repair was meant to protect. Gutters matter here as much as the roof: a leaking joint that has run down a wall for a few winters washes out soft mortar and wets the masonry, so we look at the rainwater goods on every church and manor survey. Our pitched roofing page explains how a tiled slope is taken off and put back when a repair is not enough. When a tiled roof shows slipped or cracked tiles, we replace those and check the battens beneath, which are the timber laths each course hooks over. Where water has got in, they are often the first thing to rot.

1.2 The wooden bellcote

The sides and small broach spire of the bellcote are covered in wooden tiles, not clay. A broach spire is an eight-sided spire that rises from a square tower, with a small sloping piece, the broach, filling each corner. Wooden coverings are a specialist's job, and we would tell you that before pricing. What we can do is the lead, the tiled slopes below it and the guttering and downpipes that carry the water away.

1.3 Who agrees the work

Because St Mary's is a Church of England church in regular use, it sits outside listed building consent, and its works go to the Church of England's faculty system. The outside of the building can still need planning permission. The parish deals with that route. We prepare a written quote for the roof work and photographs of what the survey found, which is what a parish needs to put in front of its advisers.

The parish is bounded on the west by the main channel of Chichester Harbour, and Apuldram lies inside Chichester Harbour National Landscape. The harbour was designated an area of outstanding natural beauty on 4 February 1964, and in 2023 all such areas were renamed National Landscapes. The practical effect for a roofer is that the land counts as protected land when planning rules are applied, so rules for dormers and roof windows are tighter than on an ordinary street. Our guide to skylight planning permission explains where the lines fall, and Chichester District Council's planning team gives the answer for your address.

3.1 Sea weather on open ground

A house beside open water takes the weather as it comes. Gales, driving rain and the salty air close to the shore all work on a roof, and they show up first where the fixings are weakest: the ridge, the verges, the tiles at the eaves. Fixing specifications are site-specific, and Marley notes that a pitch of less than 30 degrees can leave the windward slope under severe suction. So we look at how each roof is held down before we judge how it keeps rain out. If a ridge or verge sits on nothing but old mortar, the answer is mechanical fixings, not another coat of mortar.

3.2 Scattered buildings, one roof at a time

The Victoria County History is blunt: there is no village here. The church, the Manor House and Rymans sit apart across the parish, and the roofs have little in common except the weather. We do not treat Apuldram as a single type of job. We survey each building, photograph the problem and give you one of three answers: refix, repair or replace. A farm outbuilding with a failed covering is a different question from a listed wing, and the written quote reflects that. Bats and nesting birds are protected by law, which matters on old roofs near water, so we check for them before lifting anything. If an outbuilding was built or refurbished before 2000, the HSE says to assume it contains asbestos until it has been checked. Sheets of asbestos cement are fragile, so nobody should walk on one, and careful removal without breaking the material up is non-licensed work, though broken or substantially damaged sheets make it notifiable. Household asbestos waste also travels on a consignment note. We raise this at the survey, not halfway through a job.