Brick and limestone cottages around a small village green

Roofers in Crudwell

Crudwell is a stone village in the Upper Thames valley, north-east of Malmesbury, with a designated conservation area. Its stone houses, church and working buildings each call for a different roof plan, set out in survey photographs and a written quote.

Get a quote Call 01793 626096

Crudwell's roofs, from stone slate to workshop

Stone-built house with a stone slate roof — Seventeenth-century stone houses

Wiltshire Community History records that most of Crudwell's seventeenth-century buildings are of stone, and that a few of them have stone slate roofs. Stone slate is the traditional covering of split limestone. It is heavy, and it is laid so that the slates grow smaller as the roof climbs, with the biggest down at the gutter line. A technical guide from Cotswold District Council, dated 2000, gives roughly 1,000 kg for every 10 square metres of stone slate roof. That load is carried by old timbers, so any repair starts by checking what is holding the covering up, and by keeping every sound slate we can. Lead at the chimneys and valleys is usually the first thing to wear out, and it can be renewed without disturbing the stone around it.

Old stone church beside village houses — Church, conservation area and Crudwell House

All Saints, probably begun in the eleventh century and now listed at Grade I, is built of rubble and ashlar stone, and it was linked to Malmesbury Abbey until the Dissolution. Crudwell House, an early nineteenth-century house listed at Grade II, adds a later, more formal period to the village. The heart of the village is a designated conservation area. For an owner nearby, that makes two checks worth doing early: whether the house is listed, and whether the planned work changes what the street sees. We help you read the position before a quote is agreed, and the quote you receive afterwards reflects what we found up close, not a guess from the road.

Farm outbuildings with sheet roofs — Hamlets, yards and working buildings

The parish takes in Eastcourt, Chedglow, Chelworth and Murcott, and the village has a working past: veterinary chemicals from about 1867 to 1964, the Pinnegar agricultural machinery works and limestone quarrying. Barns, sheds and yard buildings left by that history often wear profiled sheet or low-pitched coverings instead of tiles. Sheets weather, fixings corrode and gutters between buildings fill with debris. On an older building, we treat any cement sheet as possible asbestos until it has been tested, and where a roof is simply tired, a patch or a section of new sheeting is often all it needs.

From Swindon to the clay and limestone of Crudwell

Distance: 18 road miles west-north-west of central Swindon
Council: Wiltshire Council
Local council: Wiltshire Council
Conservation area: Crudwell
Setting: Upper Thames valley village on clay and limestone

Roof questions in Crudwell

Can stone slate in Crudwell be saved rather than replaced?

Very often. The slates usually outlast the pegs, battens and fixings under them, so refixing and re-hanging the sound slates is normally the better choice, and any broken ones replaced with matching stone.

Is my Crudwell house inside the village conservation area?

Wiltshire Council can confirm the boundary and whether the building is listed. Ask before work is priced, because the answer decides which consents might apply and whether we need to adjust our plan.

Is an old sheet roof on a Crudwell barn asbestos?

It may be. If the building dates from before 2000, treat the sheets as suspect. We arrange a test first, and nothing is broken or drilled until that is settled.

Is a Crudwell stone slate roof worth repairing?

Roofer fixing new red ridge tiles along a concrete tile roof

Roofer kneeling on diminishing courses of a stone slate roof

The short answer

Usually, yes. On most stone slate roofs it is the pegs, battens and fixings that give up first, long before the stone. Repairing, or lifting and re-laying the same slates, normally suits the building and the budget better than a new covering of another material.

Only a few of Crudwell's stone buildings have stone slate roofs, according to Wiltshire Community History, which makes each one worth keeping. Once lost, a roof of this kind is hard to put back, because the right stone, in the right sizes, is not easy to source.

What fails first on stone slate?

The slates themselves are rarely where trouble begins. Wooden pegs rot, battens soften and the bedding under the courses breaks down, so slates slip. Valleys, chimneys and the ridge are the usual leak points, which is why they are the first places we photograph, and why a repair there can save a slope that looks past saving from the ground. The same 2000 guide records that scraping a stone roof clean once a year could double its life, and that on stripping, about 50% of the slates have commonly perished. A survey tells us which case we have.

What are diminishing courses?

Each course of a stone slate roof is a little smaller than the one below. The largest slates, about 600 mm long, go along the eaves, and they shrink steadily until the smallest, up by the ridge, are a fraction of that length. Replacement slates have to be sized to suit the course they fill, or the roof will not lie flat. Traditional pitches run steeply, at about 47 to 55 degrees.

Must stone be replaced with stone?

Guidance the council reproduces says worn stone slates should be replaced with stone, not with concrete or artificial substitutes, and reclaimed slates belong back on the building that provided them. Our stone roofing page explains how we approach this kind of work. Where a stone roof has to come off, we photograph and number the slates in sections before anything is lifted, so they go back in the order they came down.

What does Crudwell's conservation area mean for roof work?

The answer

Renewing a roof in the same covering and the same way counts as maintenance, which is not normally a planning matter. Switching material, or working on a listed building, is different, and Wiltshire Council should be asked first. We find that out before the quote is written.

The village has a designated conservation area. Conservation areas exist to keep the character of a place, and the roof is a large part of it. They do not freeze a village. They make the council interested in changes to the way buildings look, which is why a quiet, matching repair is always the safest way through.

Do matching repairs need consent?

Refixing slates, renewing lead and re-hanging stone in the original pattern all leave the building looking as it did. Maintenance that does not materially affect external appearance is not development under the 1990 planning Act, so a matching repair generally needs no application. The caveat is a listed building or a direction that withdraws permitted development rights, and neither can be assumed from the outside. A house that looks plain may be listed, and one that looks grand may not be, so the council's records are the only reliable guide.

Which changes will the council want to see?

Replacing stone slate with another material, or rebuilding a chimney in a different style, changes the way the building looks. We suggest speaking to Wiltshire Council's planning team about those before work is booked. Our roof repairs page sets out how a repair is separated from a bigger change.

Does re-covering a Crudwell roof bring building control into play?

Re-covering a large share of a roof can bring building control into the picture. If it does, the survey is where we spell out the notification, made to Wiltshire Council's building control team or a registered building control approver, and the thermal upgrade that sometimes follows. Church work takes a separate route, because an Anglican church in use is dealt with by faculty rather than listed building consent.

Our view

Match the old roof exactly and the conservation area rarely gets in the way.

What should be checked on an old sheet roof?

Roofers fitting profiled metal sheets on a commercial unit roof

Long flat roof on a 1960s brick building being re-covered

The short answer

Find out what it is made of. Anything built or refurbished before 2000 should be treated as containing asbestos until a test says otherwise. Lifting intact asbestos cement with care is non-licensed work in HSE's terms, but breaking it up changes the rules, so nothing is cut, drilled or dropped until the material is confirmed.

Crudwell's working past, from the machinery works and quarrying to farm yards in the outlying hamlets, left plenty of sheds, stores and barns. Many are covered in corrugated or profiled sheets that have been in place for decades, and a good number are still in daily use as workshops, stores or stables, so a leak there costs money.

What might the sheets be made of?

HSE's advice is blunt: if the building dates from before 2000, assume there is asbestos in it. Asbestos cement sheeting is a common roofing material from that era. It is safe while it is intact and undisturbed. It becomes dangerous when it is broken, drilled or scrubbed, which releases fibres. A laboratory sample settles the question before any work begins.

How is asbestos cement removed properly?

HSE says asbestos cement that is not substantially damaged can be removed with care by non-licensed workers. If the sheets are broken, or lifting them would break them, notice must be given before the work starts. Asbestos waste from a domestic property needs a consignment note and a carrier registered for waste. Anything that needs a licence is handed to an outside specialist, and we do not take shortcuts. If the sheets turn out to be asbestos cement and are in poor condition, we explain the options and the cost drivers before anything is agreed, and the survey photographs show the state of the sheets.

What if the sheets are not asbestos?

Modern profiled steel and insulated panels can be refixed, overlapped and resealed. Faulty rooflights and rusted fixings account for many leaks, along with laps that have opened as the sheets have flexed in the sun and frost. Resealing a lap or replacing a few fixings is a modest job, and sometimes that is the whole job. Our commercial roofing page covers larger sheds and units.

Roofing services in Crudwell

Nearby towns we cover

Questions from Crudwell's church, quarries and yards

Why do only some Crudwell houses have stone slate roofs?

Wiltshire Community History notes that most of the village's seventeenth-century buildings are of stone, and only a few of those have stone slate roofs. Others will have been re-covered over the centuries, in clay tiles, slate or later materials, so the roof on a stone house is not always the original one. A survey of the loft usually shows which period the timbers belong to.

Do you work in Eastcourt, Chedglow, Chelworth and Murcott?

Yes. Crudwell is inside the 30 road miles we cover, and the hamlets in the parish are close by. Malmesbury is the nearest town. The areas pages list the other places we work if you want to check an address, and a call to 01793 626096 settles any doubt.

Is a stone ridge different to repair from a clay ridge tile?

Yes. Cotswold District Council's guidance says traditional stone ridges were cut from dressed stone, so a repair is a mason's job in matching stone. Clay ridge tiles are bedded and also mechanically fixed, as BS 5534:2014 moved away from trusting mortar by itself.

Who do I ask about listed buildings in Crudwell?

Wiltshire Council's planning team holds the listing position for a house. Crudwell House, for example, is an early nineteenth-century house listed at Grade II, but plenty of old houses are not listed at all, so ask the council directly and do not rely on age alone. If the house turns out to be listed, we talk through any change of covering with the conservation officer before a price is given.

Ask us about your roof

Tell us what’s happening and we’ll call you back.

Photos of what we find
A written quote
10-year workmanship guarantee

Or call 01793 626096