Rear slate roofs and chimneys of Victorian terraces

Roofers in Sunningwell, Oxfordshire

Roofing work in Sunningwell, Bayworth and the eastern edge of Boars Hill, from houses around St Leonard's church to the homes spread over the slopes south of Oxford.

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Sunningwell's roofs, from the church to Boars Hill

Village houses grouped around an old parish church — Around St Leonard's church

Abingdon Abbey held the manors of Sunningwell and Bayworth by 1086 and kept them until the Dissolution in 1538, so the settlement is far older than most of its houses. St Leonard's church carries a Grade II* listing, with a nave from 1246, a late 15th-century north tower and an Elizabethan west porch, and it was restored in 1877 under J. P. Seddon. Buildings near a church of that age deserve slow, careful roofwork. Old roofs here may have been patched more than once, with different tiles from different decades, so we look at what is actually on the slope, and at how it was fixed, before suggesting any repair.

Large detached houses with several roof levels — Bayworth and the Boars Hill edge

Sunningwell includes the hamlet of Bayworth and the eastern part of Boars Hill, and the ground rises as you climb away from the village. Houses on a slope catch weather from the open side, so the verges, the ridge and the exposed gable ends are the parts we inspect first. Larger detached houses here often have several roof levels, dormers, bays and valleys, and each junction is a place for flashing to fail. A roof with that many details is cheaper to keep sound with regular attention than to rescue after a long leak.

Brick extension with a low flat roof — Extensions, garages and outbuildings

With Oxford only 3.5 miles north, Sunningwell is a place where many homes have been altered and extended to fit changing families. Rear kitchens, garden rooms, garages and conservatories bring flat or shallow roofs onto older houses, and the join between the new roof and the old wall is the weak point. A failing upstand or a poor lead detail lets water into brickwork, and the damp shows inside long after the original leak began. Where we find this, we explain what happened and fix the junction before any covering is renewed.

From Swindon to Sunningwell

Distance: 27 road miles east-north-east of central Swindon
Council: Vale of White Horse District Council
Council: Vale of White Horse District Council
Church: St Leonard's, Grade II* listed, nave of 1246
Setting: 3.5 miles south of Oxford, near Boars Hill

Sunningwell roof questions, answered

Which council deals with roof consent in Sunningwell?

The Vale of White Horse District Council. Ask it about listed buildings and any conservation area before work begins. Building control is shared with South Oxfordshire.

Is a house near St Leonard's church automatically listed?

No. The church is listed Grade II*, but a house beside it is only listed if it has its own entry. The Vale can confirm your address.

Why does a Boars Hill roof need more checking after storms?

Because sloping ground leaves one side open to the weather. Ridge tiles, verges and gable ends take the strain, so we check their fixings first.

How old can a Sunningwell roof really be?

Torch beam lighting slate undersides and timbers in a loft

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

The short answer

Very old on the ground, but the covering is usually much younger. The village goes back to the Domesday era, yet most roof coverings have been renewed since, often more than once. What matters is the structure under the covering, which can be centuries older than the tiles above.

When people picture Sunningwell they picture the church, with its 1246 nave and 15th-century tower. The houses around it have their own histories, and a roof over an old frame is usually the latest of several.

Does an old building mean an old covering?

Not necessarily. The timbers can date from long ago while the tiles were laid within living memory. We lift a tile or two in the loft side to see how the covering is fixed, what is underneath, and how much of the original timber is still sound. What we see there decides if patching will last, or if the old timber is being asked to carry more than it can.

What does the loft tell us that the outside cannot?

Plenty. Chinks of light, dark marks on rafters, damp insulation and rust on nail tips under slates each point to a particular fault. A lined roof has underlay, a membrane beneath the tiles that sheds any water that gets past them, while an older roof may have none at all, and then every slipped tile is a direct route for rain. Our roof inspections and surveys page describes what the photographs show.

Should an old roof be replaced as a precaution?

No. Where we can, we keep the work to what the fault needs, and on many older roofs that means a handful of tiles, a new flashing or a rebedded ridge. A full strip makes sense when the battens, which are the strips of timber the tiles hang from, have rotted and the underlay has perished, because fixing tiles to soft battens only postpones the problem.

A short note on timing: an ageing roof seldom gives up in a single night, so a survey in a dry spell, before the autumn gales, gives you room to plan the work and choose the right moment for it rather than reacting to a leak at the worst time. Whatever turns up, you receive the quote in writing after the visit, along with pictures of your own roof so each step of the advice can be checked against what is actually up there.

What the loft can reveal

What you see	What it usually points to
Daylight between tiles	Slipped or cracked tiles
Dark rafter staining	A slow leak or condensation
Rusty nail tips	Damp reaching the underside of slates
Soft battens	Long-term moisture; re-battening likely

How do I protect a Boars Hill roof from wind?

The answer

Check the parts that face the open side: the ridge, the verges and the gable ends. These are held by fixings that loosen over time. A ridge or verge held by clips or screws as well as its bed is far less likely to lose tiles in a storm, and it is a small job compared with a re-roof.

A roof on sloping ground behaves differently from one in a sheltered street. The slope below can funnel air upward, and the edges of the roof are where that force acts first.

Which parts of the roof take the force?

The verge is where the covering ends at a gable wall. A hip is the angled rib formed where two slopes meet on a corner. The ridge is the level line across the top. Each of these can be bedded in mortar, and mortar cracks and crumbles with time. Since BS 5534:2014, the standard approach is to fix these tiles mechanically too, and BS 8612:2018 covers dry-fix systems that do the job without relying on mortar at all.

Is dry-fix suited to an older house?

Often yes. A dry-fix ridge uses clips or a long strip screwed down to the roof structure, with each ridge tile gripped in place, and it can be tidier and more consistent than a mortar bed. On a listed building, or one in a conservation area, speak to the Vale of White Horse District Council first, because the look of the ridge matters. Our ridge and verge dry-fix page explains the choice.

What else should I look at before winter?

Gutters and downpipes. Overflow from a blocked gutter soaks fascias and walls, and the problem is often blamed on the roof when it is a drainage fault. Leaves from garden trees are the usual cause on houses set in larger plots, and a clear run to the downpipe costs far less than repairing rotten timber behind it. A quick look after heavy rain tells you more than a ladder in dry weather: where does the water go, and is any of it landing where it should not?

If you notice tiles on the lawn after a storm, take photographs and send them to us. Water coming in is stopped first, and the lasting repair is planned once the roof is dry.

Do Sunningwell extensions need their own roof checks?

New brick house with a red tiled roof inside scaffolding

Timber roof trusses on a new brick house behind scaffolding

The short answer

Yes. The joint between an extension roof and the original wall is the most common place for water to enter a house that has been altered. A flat or shallow roof also wears faster than the tiled roof beside it, so it is worth inspecting separately, ideally before damp appears inside.

Houses near Oxford rarely stay the size they were built. Every addition brings another roof, and each of those has an edge that has to be sealed into the wall of the old house.

Where do extension roofs usually fail?

At the upstand, where the roof covering turns up the wall, and at the flashing above it. If the detail was rushed, water runs behind it and into the brickwork. A flat roof also needs a fall, a gentle slope to an outlet, and if it ponds, the covering suffers. On a conservatory or garden room, a solid replacement roof is treated as a building control matter, so check before changing glass for tiles. Our conservatory roof replacement page sets out the rules in more detail.

Is a repair realistic on a flat roof?

Where the deck is sound and the damage is local, a repair is realistic. A deck is the board under the covering, and if it has gone soft the whole roof needs redoing. We press on it, photograph it and send you the pictures, so the reasoning behind one route over the other is plain to see.

Who signs off the work?

Sunningwell building control runs through the Southvale service that the Vale of White Horse shares with South Oxfordshire; a private registered approver can do the same job. When the work needs notifying, we take you through each stage and lodge the paperwork for you.

Ask any firm whether a quote includes VAT and scaffolding, since both change the final figure considerably.

Our view

Mend the junction before anything else, since fresh covering cannot cure a poor upstand.

Roofing services in Sunningwell

Nearby towns we cover

Questions from the slopes south of Oxford

Do you work on houses in Bayworth and Boars Hill as well as Sunningwell village?

Yes. Sunningwell includes Bayworth and the eastern part of Boars Hill, and they sit within our 30 road miles of Swindon. If an address is close to the edge, send the postcode by phone or WhatsApp and we will say yes or no on the spot.

Can you repair a roof beside a Grade II* listed church?

We can work on any house beside it, but the church itself is a different matter. The ecclesiastical exemption covers Church of England buildings in worship use, and their changes go through a faculty. A neighbouring house is not listed because the church is, so ask the Vale of White Horse District Council about your own address.

Is my Sunningwell house inside a conservation area boundary?

Ask the Vale of White Horse District Council, whose website lists its designated conservation areas with their appraisals and maps. We do not guess at boundaries. If your home turns out to be inside one, matching repairs usually carry on as normal, and changes to the look are worth discussing with the council first.

My ceiling is stained under a Sunningwell extension. Where do we start?

Send us photographs of the stain and of the outside of the extension roof. We look first at the upstand, the outlet and the edge trim, then the deck. The pictures from the visit and the quote we write afterwards will show if mending or re-covering is the sensible route.

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