The short answer
Report the theft to the police, photograph the gap from a safe place on the ground, and tell your home insurer before arranging anything permanent. Cover depends on your policy, and no one can promise a payout. Cotswold District Council's guide notes that old stone slates have been taken from roofs, so a replacement should be matched stone, not whatever is available.
Why stone slates get taken
A stone slate is not a throwaway object. The council's technical guidance for Cotswold owners observes that demand for second-hand slates has led to the stripping of many old buildings, occasionally through theft. Salvaged stone has a market because new stone is dearer to source and because some owners want an old weathered look on a repair or an extension.
That makes an exposed roof at an empty or isolated property the most likely target: a barn, an outbuilding, a holiday cottage or a house that stands unoccupied while it is for sale. Slates near the ridge and on a hidden pitch can go unnoticed for weeks, while the gap behind them lets rain reach the battens.
How often it happens near you is not something we can measure. What is certain is that a missing patch of slates is a repair with a clock running, and the first step is to stop the weather getting in. Each wet week rots a little more of the timber beneath, and a bay of battens that has stayed wet all winter may need replacing along with the slates.
First steps: safety and records
Do not climb up to look; stone slates are slippery when damp and the battens beneath the gap may be rotten or loose. Stand back on the ground and photograph the roof from several angles, with the gap in view and the neighbouring slopes for comparison. Date-stamped images are best. If you can see inside the loft safely, photograph any daylight or wet timber from below as well.
Tell the police what has happened and write down the crime reference. Next, phone your insurer. Advice from the ABI, issued for Storm Eunice in 2022, was to ring the insurer early, to check with them ahead of any emergency work, and to keep every receipt. It was written about storms, but the sensible order of events is the same here.
Whether a loss is covered depends on the wording of your policy, and the decision sits with your insurer. Nobody can promise the outcome in advance.
Making the roof safe before the right stone arrives
Matching stone can take time to find, and rain will not wait. A temporary cover can protect the exposed battens and the rooms below. Our practice is to prioritise leaks and storm damage, making the roof safe first and planning the lasting repair separately.
A temporary measure needs care on a stone roof. Slates are heavy and brittle, and tarpaulins that flap in the wind can chip the edges of sound ones. A cover should be fixed to the roof structure in a way that does not rely on nailing through good slates.
Tell your insurer what you plan before the work is done. The ABI advice mentioned above makes the point, and a short written record with photographs helps whoever handles the file later.
Choosing the replacement stone
English Heritage policy as given in the council's guide favours newly cut stone over second-hand wherever possible. Old slates, it says, should be refitted solely to the roof they came off, and substitutes made of fibre resin, concrete or reconstituted stone are inappropriate for historic buildings. See our page on reconstituted stone slates for what that means in practice.
The policy also says that sandstone and limestone slates must not stand in for each other or share a roof. Cotswold slates are limestone, so a replacement has to be limestone of a matching thickness and tone. Our page on sandstone and limestone explains why.
Do not buy a pallet of old slates from an unknown seller to fill the gap quickly. You cannot tell whether they were taken from someone else's roof, and buying stolen goods is a risk you do not need.
Ridges, hips and the pieces thieves also take
Slates are not the only part of a stone roof that can be removed. The council's guide records that ridges were traditionally shaped from dressed stone into a plain angle, and these are bulky, valuable pieces that can be lifted off a roof by hand. If one has gone, the replacement must be dressed to suit the stone below it. Our page on stone ridge tiles covers the detail.
Look also at the lead at chimneys and abutments, which is a different material with a different resale value. A thief who takes slates may take the flashing too, and the first leak you notice may come from the lead rather than the stone.
If the loss is on a listed building or inside a designated area, ask your local council before you replace anything, because the covering is often part of what the designation protects. Our page on stone roofs in conservation areas explains the position.
How we approach a theft repair
We start by making the roof weathertight, then survey the damage from inside and out. Our written quote includes pictures taken on your roof, and we propose the lightest repair that restores the covering properly in matching stone.
Afterwards, simple steps help prevent a repeat: keep ladders and scaffold out of sight, photograph the roof once a year so any change is obvious, and ask neighbours to watch an empty property. Send us a photograph of the gap through our Cotswold stone roofing page and we will advise on the next step.