Roofers in West Thorney

West Thorney is also called Thorney Island, and the Victoria County History puts it in the estuary of Chichester Harbour. Until the 19th century a causeway ran across to Emsworth, and the same history says it was only completely uncovered at low water of spring tides. The building that anchors the place today is the parish church of St Nicholas, which stands by the waterside on the island's east edge. Its walls are rubble flint with ashlar dressings of Caen stone, the roofs are tiled, and only the shingled tower breaks the pattern. The list entry puts the church at Grade I, first listed in June 1958. A building with that grade and that position is looked after in small, patient steps.

1.1 Where tile stops against flint

On a tiled church, trouble starts where the covering ends. At a gable the tiles finish in a line called the verge, bedded against the wall below. Where the roof meets a wall, a flashing, which is a cut strip of lead, is tucked into the mortar joints rather than glued to the face. After many winters the pointing around those cuts wears back, the lead loosens, and water runs behind it into the wall head. From the ground that looks like nothing much. Up close, the repair is modest: lift the lead, rake out the joint, repoint, and dress the lead down again. Our lead roofing and leadwork page shows how flashings are formed and fixed, and why the thickness of the sheet matters.

1.2 Who signs off a church roof

St Nicholas is an Anglican parish church that remains in use, so the ecclesiastical exemption applies: repairs are authorised by faculty, and nobody files a listed building consent application. The exemption has limits, because work that changes the building's outer appearance may still call for planning consent. So the first people to speak to are the churchwardens and the diocese, before anyone prices a job. Once they are content, we can survey the tiled slopes and the lead and set out what we find in writing, with a photograph of each fault. Nobody should climb a church roof on a hunch.

The whole island sits inside Chichester Harbour National Landscape. The Chichester Harbour Conservancy records that the harbour was designated on 4 February 1964, under the name it carried then, and that all such areas were rebranded in 2023. The island sits in Chichester District, which makes Chichester District Council the body to ask about planning and building control. Whatever the setting, the sensible habit is a phone call to the council before work starts, not a letter afterwards.

3.1 What a like-for-like repair needs

Under the Town and Country Planning Act, work that leaves a building's outward appearance materially unchanged is not development. In practice, mending a roof with matching tile will not normally call for a planning application. The caveats are a listed building, where anything touching its character needs consent, and any local direction that removes rights. Re-roofing also touches the Building Regulations. The Planning Portal puts the threshold at under 25 per cent of the building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof being touched by the work, below which no application is normally needed. A markedly heavier covering, or one whose fire performance differs, can alter that answer. Where a job is notifiable, we explain what is required and handle the notification, so the paperwork does not turn up halfway through. If the house is listed, we read its list entry before quoting for anything beyond a matching repair. Thinking about roof windows? Read our guide to skylight planning permission before ordering anything.

3.2 Scaffold dates and wildlife

Should the scaffolding need to sit on or over a public highway, the licence comes from West Sussex County Council, which wants a minimum of 10 working days' notice. The wait for that licence can fix your start date, which is why it comes up at the survey rather than on the day. Bats are protected by law, as are nesting birds, so a careful look at the roof space and eaves comes before any stripping begins.