Victorian brick terrace street with slate roofs and chimneys

Roofers in Hannington

Stone-tile, slate and pantile roofs in Hannington, the small conservation-area village on a Corallian spur above the Thames valley, from the rubble stone houses to the farm buildings and the two Grade II* landmarks.

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Hannington's roofs, from hall to Hill Farm

Rubble stone house with a stone-tiled roof — Rubble stone houses

Swindon Borough Council's conservation area appraisal puts it directly: rubble stone houses with either stone-tile or Welsh slate roofs are typical of Hannington, and Cotswold stone roof tiles and natural Welsh slate establish the village's character. Stone tiles are graded by size, with the broadest low on the slope and the smallest near the ridge, and the weight is considerable, so the rafters under them were framed to carry it. Where the carpentry has since softened, the roof sags and the stones open up. Slate is lighter and laid in regular courses. On either, a leak usually starts with a slipped stone or slate, a rotted peg or a rusted nail, or a failed lead detail, long before the covering itself is finished, and that is the scale at which we repair.

Grade II* manor roof with tall stone stacks — The Hall and St John's church

Hannington Hall, built in 1653 by Sir Thomas Freke, and St John the Baptist's church, which stands apart from the village core, are both listed Grade II*, a rating given to particularly important buildings. Roof work on buildings of that grade is planned around listed building consent and the council's conservation officers. Big stone roofs, tall gables, parapets and stacks mean scaffolding and careful lead, so the survey comes before any price. The aim is to keep as much original material on the building as can be saved, and anything replaced matches in size, colour and laying. A house nearby that is not listed still sits inside the conservation area, which brings its own questions.

Clay pantile roof on a farm outbuilding — Pantiles, barns and Hill Farm

Clay pantiles are common on the conservation area's agricultural buildings, and the village's only thatched building stands beside Hill Farm. A pantile is an S-profile clay tile that laps sideways onto its neighbour, and it suits barns, stables and outbuildings with long, plain roof slopes. Their troubles are cracked or frost-lifted tiles, a ridge that has lost its bedding, and gaps at the gable where tile meets wall. Because a pantile roof has no overlapping courses to hide a fault, a single slipped tile can let in more water than the same fault on a plain-tiled slope. Barns converted to homes bring a second layer of questions about insulation and ventilation under the pantiles. The thatch itself is a thatcher's craft; the stack, lead and any tiled additions beside it are the parts we look at.

From Swindon to the Corallian spur

Distance: 8 road miles north of central Swindon
Council: Swindon Borough Council
Conservation area: Hannington, designated 1979 and re-designated on 25 June 1990
Setting: A spur of Corallian outcrop overlooking the south side of the Thames valley
Council: Swindon Borough Council

Hannington roof questions

Does a Hannington re-roof need Swindon Borough Council's consent?

A matching repair or like-for-like re-cover does not usually. A change of material, work on a Grade II* building or anything that alters the look inside the conservation area should be raised with the council before it starts.

Can Hannington's stone tiles be repaired without stripping the roof?

Often, yes. Slipped stones can be re-hung and failed pegs renewed from a ladder or small scaffold. Stripping a slope is only worth it when the battens or rafters beneath have gone.

Do pantiles on a Hannington barn need a different approach?

A little. Their S-profile laps sideways, so a broken tile is lifted from its neighbour rather than slid out, and matching the clay colour matters on a farm building seen across the fields.

Which coverings define Hannington's conservation area?

Brick end-of-terrace gable beside a limestone house, slate roofs

New membrane and battens with plain clay tiles stacked ready

The short answer

The council's appraisal names rubble stone houses with stone-tile or Welsh slate roofs as typical, clay pantiles on agricultural buildings, and a single thatched building beside Hill Farm. Cotswold stone tiles and natural Welsh slate are said to establish the village's character.

Hannington is small, and its roofs are recorded in more detail than most. The council's appraisal reads the village as a set of materials, and that gives a roofer a clear guide to what belongs here and what would look like an intruder.

What separates the stone-tiled roofs from the slate?

The two main coverings sit on rubble stone walls. Stone tile belongs to the oldest buildings and is thick, heavy and uneven, which is what gives a roof here its soft, rolling surface. Welsh slate is thinner and flatter. A slate repair that uses a different size, or a thinner, paler Spanish slate beside Welsh, shows from the lane for years. Matching matters more than speed.

Why are the farm buildings in pantiles?

Clay pantiles appear on the agricultural buildings, where long plain roofs reward a simple, durable covering. They need a sound batten and a ridge that is fixed as well as bedded, because a farm building sits open to the weather on all sides. Our pantile roofs page covers how they are laid.

What about the one thatched building?

The village has just one thatched building, an eighteenth century barn beside Hill Farm. Where thatch meets a masonry stack, the weathering is a joint between two trades, and we leave the straw to the thatcher while making sure the lead and brickwork beside it are sound.

A short walk through the village shows how one covering gives way to the next within a few paces, and that is why each roof is surveyed as itself rather than as a typical Hannington roof. Repairs to a slate house, for instance, use our roof repairs method, while a stone roof calls for the slower stone-tile approach.

Should Hannington's stone tiles be repaired or re-laid?

The answer

Repair where the stones are sound and only pegs, battens or a few stones have failed. Re-lay when a whole slope is moving, sorting the stones by size and laying them back in diminishing courses. Replacing stone with a manufactured substitute is rarely right on an old building.

Cotswold District Council's technical guidance for owners of stone slate roofs, published in April 2000, is traditional practice rather than current regulation, but its lessons still apply to a stone-tiled house on this spur.

How are the stones arranged on the slope?

Quarried stone yields many small pieces for every large one, so the biggest sit in a doubled course at the eaves, with progressively smaller stones above and the smallest near the top of the slope. A repair has to respect that sequence. Each stone is hung over a batten on a wooden peg, traditionally oak, so rotten pegs are the commonest reason a sound stone slips.

Why does the weight of the stone matter so much?

The same guidance describes stone slate roofs as very heavy, about 1,000 kg per 10 square metres, which is why swapping materials needs a structural check. It also observes that scraping moss and debris off every year could double a roof's life, and that stripping often reveals a good share of the slates already perished.

Is reclaimed stone the right choice for gaps?

The English Heritage policy quoted in that guide prefers freshly cut stone to second-hand stock, and reserves salvaged slates for reuse on the very building, or group of buildings, that shed them. It calls artificial slates and concrete tiles inappropriate on historic buildings, and warns against putting sandstone and limestone on the same roof. We follow that discipline, and our Cotswold stone roofing page goes further into it.

In practice, a Hannington stone roof is photographed slope by slope before work starts. Every stone that has to come off is marked and stacked in its course order, so the repaired slope reads like the one around it. Where a stone has truly broken, the replacement is cut or chosen to match in thickness and tone, and fixed to a new peg or a suitable modern fixing, never forced into a gap that does not fit it. You see the photographs before, during and after, so nothing is a surprise when the scaffold comes down.

What it typically costs

Natural stone slate£160 to £210 per m²
Welsh slate£140 to £180 per m²
Reclaimed slate£110 to £150 per m²
Spanish slate£100 to £130 per m²

Typical national installed rates, not a quote for a Hannington house. Roof size, scaffold and the state of the timbers move the figure, and your own figure comes only in the written quote after we have surveyed. Checkatrade slate roof cost per m², last updated September 2026 (stone slate); MyBuilder slate roof cost guide, updated 21/08/2026 (slate).

What consent applies to roof work in Hannington?

Brick and limestone cottages around a small village green

Terraced house roof stripped to rafters inside scaffolding

The short answer

Most repairs need none. Inside the conservation area, altering how a roof looks may need the council's attention, and the Grade II* Hall and church sit under listed building controls. Swindon Borough Council handles planning and building control for the village.

Hannington lies inside Swindon Borough, and the council's conservation area for the village was designated in 1979 and revised to a new boundary on 25 June 1990. That status shapes what the council looks at, though it does not forbid roof work. The 1990 change brought Manor Farm and the cottages opposite inside the line.

What does the conservation area mean for my roof?

Putting back the same material in the same way seldom needs planning permission. A change of covering, a new roof window or an altered chimney can. On the council's conservation area page, Article 4 directions are noted for Bishopstone and the Railway Village but not Hannington. Even so, a question to the planning team costs nothing before you commit to anything that changes how the roof looks, and our slate roofing page explains the matching approach.

What about the Hall and St John's church?

Hannington Hall and the village church, St John the Baptist, are Grade II*, and listed building consent comes first for anything that would alter such a building's character. For a church in use, the route depends on the denomination: an Anglican church uses the faculty system, and a few other denominations hold exemptions of their own. Nobody should touch a church roof without confirming which applies, and the parish or the council can tell you.

Do building control or bats come into it?

Where a re-roof exceeds the Planning Portal limits of 25 per cent of the building envelope or 50 per cent of the roof, building control applies, and so does a check if the new covering is 15 per cent or more heavier. Swindon Borough Council runs its own building control team; when a Hannington job is notifiable, we prepare and send the notice. Old stone roofs and barns can shelter bats and nesting birds, which are protected, so we look before we strip.

MythA conservation area means each roof job must go through planning.

FactA matching repair does not usually, and neither does a like-for-like re-cover. What the council examines is a change of appearance, and any work to a listed building.

Roofing services in Hannington

Nearby towns we cover

Questions from the spur above the Thames

Why do Hannington's stone-tile roofs slip when the stones look fine?

Usually the pegs or battens have failed, not the stones. Oak pegs rot where they pass through the stone, and the stone then hangs on whatever is left. Re-hanging the same stones on new fixings is normally the proportionate repair, and the survey photographs show which stones have slipped and why. Moss packed between courses holds water against the pegs and speeds the decay.

Can you work on the roofs of the Hall or the church?

We can survey and advise on roofs of any size, but Grade II* work follows the consent route first: listed building consent for the Hall, and whichever system the church's denomination uses for St John's. We would explain what a repair involves, then support the owner through the application rather than start anything early.

Do you cover the villages around Hannington?

Yes. Highworth, South Marston, Shrivenham, Watchfield and every other place inside the 30-road-mile radius from Swindon are covered. The areas page shows all of them, and a short message with your address is all it takes to book a survey.

What guarantee comes with re-laying a Hannington roof?

The workmanship on our jobs carries a 10-year guarantee, given in writing. It covers how the work is done, not the age of old materials, and it arrives alongside a written quote and pictures of your own roof from the survey. Afterwards the site is swept and the waste removed.

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

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