Roofers in Bersted

North Bersted's conservation area was designated in February 1975, and Arun's guidance remembers it for its many fine 16th, 17th and 18th century farmhouses. The Victoria County History, writing in 1953, adds that the main street had six or seven flint and brick thatched cottages of about 1700. Those descriptions are dated and individual roofs have changed since, so none of it tells us what covers your house. It tells us what the village is built from, and that old buildings sit tight against each other.

1.1 Where thatch meets tile and lead

Thatching is a specialist craft, and a thatcher is the right person for the thatch itself. Our part in a village like this starts where the thatch stops: the tiled or slated roof next door, the chimney that rises beside a thatched ridge, and the lead that seals a roof against an older wall. Wherever a newer roof butts up to an old one, the junction takes water from both slopes, and a back gutter or a soaker (a small folded piece of lead worked in between the courses) has to carry it away. A shared gable means a word with the neighbour before anything is fixed to it. Our pitched roofing page explains how tiled slopes are stripped and relaid, and the lead roofing and leadwork page covers the junctions.

1.2 Flint, brick and a farmhouse roof

Flint and brick walls are sound but unforgiving: they hold water where a flashing fails and show the stain months later. A farmhouse roof tends to be long, with valleys (the sunken line where two slopes join) and chimneys at awkward points, so a survey covers the loft as well as the outside, looking at rafters and battens from below. A published 60-year life for clay tile tells you little about an old peg-tile roof, so condition and survey photographs decide our verdict. For a sense of scale, Checkatrade's repair costs (table dated June 2026) give clay tile repairs at £110 to £160 per square metre, with VAT added on top, which is worth confirming on any written quote you receive.

Moving south, St Mary Magdalene in South Bersted is built of rubble that includes beach boulders, with ashlar dressings (squared stone around the corners and openings). The Victoria County History says it is roofed with tile, apart from the shingled broach spire. The church is listed Grade II*, and it shows how an old roof is judged: by its covering, and by the consent route that applies to it.

3.2 What a tiled church roof needs

A big tiled roof on a rubble building has plenty to look after. Tiles slip, ridges loosen, and the gutters and downpipes carry a lot of water onto walls that soak it up. From the ground we look for slipped tiles, blocked outlets and green staining that shows where water is running the wrong way. Up close we check the flashings where the roof meets a tower or a higher wall, since that junction is where a long roof most often lets water in. A repair that matches the existing tile in colour and size looks right from the churchyard, and a sound old roof is usually better patched than replaced. Scaffold on the public footway needs a licence, which West Sussex County Council issues as the highway authority.

3.3 Open ground and the water a roof sheds

Bersted lies on the coastal plain north of Bognor, with the Aldingbourne Rife crossing the parish. Open ground gives a roof little shelter, and manufacturers such as Wienerberger say a fixing specification depends on the location, the altitude and the local wind exposure, so we fix ridges, hips and verges to BS 5534 and check them after a gale. A long farmhouse run also needs a gutter that sheds water properly. Brett Martin suggests a fall of 1 mm for every 600 mm and brackets no more than 900 mm apart, and a sagging length of gutter is the first thing a survey tends to find. We lift or flush a section to see where the water actually goes, rather than guess from the ground.