Roofers in Fyfield, Oxfordshire

Fyfield Manor was built about 1320 and enlarged in the Elizabethan era, and the White Hart dates from the 15th century. Both have belonged to St John's College, Oxford for centuries, the manor since the college was founded by Sir Thomas White and the inn since 1580. Both are listed Grade II*, and buildings this old share a set of roof problems: structures altered in several centuries, valleys and abutments where one phase meets the next, and stacks whose upper courses were dismantled and laid afresh in some later decade. Roofs of this kind reward a repair that follows the existing pattern; a clean-sheet replacement rarely suits them.

St Nicholas began as a Norman church in the late 12th or early 13th century, was largely rebuilt in the 14th and was badly damaged by fire in 1893. A fire is a reminder of how roofs fail in a different way from rain: timbers charred, covering lost, and a rebuild laid on top of what survived. Many village roofs have a version of that history, with a later section joined to an earlier one. Where old and new meet there is a line of lead or mortar that needs watching, and the quality of that junction decides how long the roof stays dry. A survey follows that line from end to end, indoors and out, rather than stopping at the first defect.

Beyond the manor and church, Fyfield and neighbouring Netherton hold village cottages, farm buildings and the houses of later decades. Small cottages tend to have simple pitched roofs with a single chimney, where the stack and its flashings are the first thing to leak, and where a ladder or low scaffold reaches most of what needs doing, which keeps the work tidy and the visit short. Newer homes bring their own pattern, such as concrete or clay interlocking tile, shallow garage roofs and flat-roofed extensions, and the jobs we expect are ridge repairs, valley relining and new felt or membrane on the flat areas. We survey whichever type you have and recommend only what the roof needs.