Rear tiled roof of a brick semi seen from the garden

Roofers in Great Coxwell

Roof repairs and re-roofing in Great Coxwell, where rubble-stone cottages, thatch, flat tiles and the Great Barn's stone slate sit together on the slope below Badbury Hill.

Get a quote Call 01793 626096

Great Coxwell's roofs, from tithe barn to cottage row

Rubble stone cottages with steep roofs — Corallian stone cottages

The council's conservation area appraisal says the village's cottages and houses are built of local Corallian rubble stone, with decorative brick quoins and coursing, under stone, thatch, slate and tile roofs. That list is the whole story of the place, and it is why no two cottage roofs here need quite the same repair. A rubble wall is thick and uneven, so the eaves rest on masonry that shifts slightly through the year, and lead flashings must be cut to follow the stone instead of a ruled line. When we repair a cottage here we begin at the wall head, where the timbers, the covering and the masonry meet, because most of the faults start there.

Plain clay tiles on a steep cottage roof — Thatch and flat tile

The appraisal also records several thatched buildings and some steeply angled roofs that suggest thatch was original, with flat tiles described as common. A roof that was once thatched usually keeps its steep pitch even when the covering has changed, and that pitch is useful: water leaves quickly and the tiles dry out between showers. Flat plain tiles are laid in overlapping courses, so each tile depends on its neighbours. When one cracks, the courses around it are lifted and the tile replaced, a task that needs patience and matching stock rather than speed. Where mortar-bedded ridge tiles sit on top, we add mechanical fixings as BS 5534 now expects, so the ridge is held down by more than mortar.

A medieval barn with a stone slate roof — The Great Barn and the farm buildings

The Great Barn was built for the Cistercian monks of Beaulieu Abbey around 1292, a seven-bay building with rubble walls, ashlar-faced buttresses and a stone slate roof. It was listed Grade I in 1966 and is a Scheduled Ancient Monument in National Trust ownership. Work on a building of that kind is a matter for its owner and conservation specialists, and nobody should touch it without the right consents. Its importance to householders is practical: it shows how long stone slate lasts when it is looked after, and how large a stone roof can be. Cotswold District Council's traditional guidance reckons a stone roof that gets regular maintenance can run to 100 years with ease, and possibly two or three times that.

From Swindon to the foot of Badbury Hill

Distance: 12 road miles north-east of central Swindon
Council: Vale of White Horse District Council
Council: Vale of White Horse District Council
Conservation area: Great Coxwell, with boundary revisions adopted in 2022
Setting: The northern slope of the Vale of White Horse, on Corallian beds

Roof answers for Great Coxwell homes

What do you repair beside Great Coxwell's thatched cottages?

The tile, slate and stone roofs next door, plus outbuildings, chimney stacks and the lead where a stack rises through any covering.

Does the 2022 appraisal change what I can do to my roof?

It describes what the council values. Matching repairs rarely need permission, but a new material or a listed home should be raised with the Vale of White Horse council first.

Which building control team covers Great Coxwell?

The Vale of White Horse shares a service called Southvale with South Oxfordshire. A registered building control approver is the private alternative, and we explain which applies.

How do you repair a stone slate roof in Great Coxwell?

Roofers on a slate roof along a limestone village street

Brick and limestone cottages around a small village green

The short answer

A stone slate roof is repaired by refixing slipped stones, renewing the pegs and battens that hold them and keeping the stones in diminishing courses, biggest at the eaves, smallest below the ridge. Stripping a whole slope is a last step, taken only when the fixings have failed across it.

The village has a stone slate roof that anyone can look at: the Great Barn. The county history describes its walls as rubble with ashlar-faced buttresses, under a stone slate roof, and it has stood since the late thirteenth century. Smaller roofs in the village work on the same principle, scaled down to a cottage, an outbuilding or a porch.

How do the courses work?

Stone breaks into far more small slates than large ones, so the biggest go along the eaves and the smallest are saved for the top. Cotswold District Council's technical guidance, written in 2000, calls the long eaves stones cussoms and the tiny ones at the top short cocks. Every stone is pegged in oak through a hole at its upper end and hung over a batten.

What goes wrong with stone slate?

The stones outlast what holds them. Pegs rot, battens soften and a stone slips, leaving a gap that water enters. On many cottages the repair is to refix the stones that have moved, with new pegs, and to re-bed the ridge, and the roof carries on for years. A stone ridge is a simple angled piece of dressed stone, and we reset it rather than replace it where we can.

When is a slope stripped?

Where the fixings have gone right across a slope, we strip it carefully, grade the stones by length, replace battens and lay the sound stones again. Broken ones are made up from matching stone, and the guidance prefers new stone to second-hand. Our Cotswold stone roofing page sets out the process.

Stone slate is also very heavy, about 1,000 kg for every 10 square metres in the council's guidance, so we check the roof structure before any plan that changes the covering, and we photograph the slope before it is lifted. On completion we sweep the site and carry the waste off.

Does a conservation area appraisal affect a Great Coxwell re-roof?

The answer

It informs the council's view but does not forbid repairs. The appraisal and management plan, with boundaries revised in 2022, records the village's stone, thatch, slate and tile roofs. Like-for-like work seldom needs permission, while a change of material, or any listed building, should go to the Vale of White Horse council first.

A conservation area appraisal is a description of what makes a place worth protecting, written by the council and used when it decides applications. The Great Coxwell document, with revised boundaries adopted in 2022, is specific about roofs: stone, thatch, slate and tile, with flat tiles common and thatch recorded on several buildings.

What does it mean for repairs?

Renewing a few tiles, or bedding a ridge again in matching material, counts as maintenance. It leaves the building's appearance as it was, so it does not normally need an application. That reasoning holds in a conservation area unless an Article 4 direction removes it. The council's list of Article 4 directions names one, in Abingdon, so none is recorded in the village.

What does it mean for bigger changes?

A different covering, or alterations that change the roofline, are what an officer will look at. If you are considering a roof window, our roof window planning page explains how the rules work, and the council can say whether the conservation area changes the answer for your house.

What about listed buildings and the barn?

Anything that changes a listed building's character calls for listed building consent, roofing included. The Great Barn is a scheduled monument too, so repairs or alterations there need scheduled monument consent. Neither is a householder's concern unless your own house is listed, in which case the council's conservation officers are your first call.

Building control is separate again. Where work is notifiable, the Vale's Southvale building control service or a registered approver deals with it, and we explain the notification when we quote.

MythA conservation area appraisal bans changes to roofs.

FactIt describes character; matching repairs continue, and bigger changes are discussed with the council first.

What should a Great Coxwell survey look for?

Roofer repointing a stone chimney stack above lead flashing

Torch showing a water-stained rafter beneath slates in a loft

The short answer

On a stone cottage, we start at the wall head and the chimney, then follow the slopes. On a tiled or slated roof we look for slipped or cracked pieces, failed nails and ageing lead. The visit ends with photographs from your roof and a written quote naming the minimum work to cure the fault.

A village on a slope below a hill, built from local rubble stone, asks for a particular kind of survey. The walls are thick, the roofs are often steep, and the buildings have been altered many times, so what the ground shows is only the start. The aim is to find what is actually wrong rather than guess from the ground, and to show you the evidence in photographs so the decision is yours.

Why start at the wall head and the eaves?

Rubble walls rarely finish in a neat line. The timber wall plate that carries the rafters sits on an uneven surface, and the roof can settle or lean over time. We check for gaps, damp staining and decayed rafter feet, because those decide whether a repair will last.

What goes wrong at chimneys and flashings?

Stacks on older cottages are built of the same stone as the walls. Pointing and flaunching weather away, and lead flashings crack. These faults let water into bedrooms in surprising places, sometimes a metre or more from the stack itself. Our roof inspections and surveys page explains how the photographs are taken and what the report covers.

How are the slopes checked?

We look at the covering from a ladder or scaffold, and at the underside from the loft where it is accessible. On steep roofs, close inspection matters, since a slate or tile that looks fine from below may be held by a rusted nail, and a gentle push test from a ladder tells us more than binoculars can.

When it is done, you receive a written quote with the photographs. Where a repair settles the matter, that is the recommendation. Where the covering is spent, the quote spells out why and what replaces it.

Roofing services in Great Coxwell

Nearby towns we cover

Questions from the foot of Badbury Hill

Why are so many Great Coxwell roofs steep?

The appraisal notes thatched buildings and steeply angled roofs that suggest earlier thatch, and thatch needs a steep pitch to shed water, because a shallow thatch would hold the rain. When tile or slate later replaced it, the pitch usually stayed. A steep roof dries quickly, but it needs careful access when we repair it, with roof ladders or scaffold so nobody works from the slope itself.

Can I use clay tile instead of stone slate on my cottage?

On a listed building the answer is generally no, because roofing material is part of its character and needs consent to change. On an unlisted house in the conservation area, raise it with the council first. We start from the covering that is already there.

Do you cover Faringdon, Buscot and the villages around Great Coxwell?

Yes. Faringdon, Buscot, Coleshill and the other nearby villages are all comfortably within reach of Swindon on our 30-mile road limit. The areas page names the places we cover, and our enquiry form accepts a postcode.

What does a rubble-stone chimney need after many years?

Usually repointing in a suitable lime-based mortar, new flaunching round the pots and renewed lead at the base. A full rebuild is for stacks that lean or have lost their flue. A chimney breast cannot come out without Building Regulations approval, and a party wall notice is needed where it is on a shared wall.

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