01903 299063 Get a quote

Roofers in Albourne

Albourne is a village on a Lower Greensand ridge, with most of its listed buildings around the southern end of The Street. We survey its framed, brick and tile-hung roofs and photograph each fault.

Get a quoteCall 01903 299063

Albourne's oldest roofs, and what holds them together

  • An old cottage roof with a dip

    Timber-framed houses like Gallops

    Gallops, on the east side of The Street, has red-brick herringbone infill and some sandstone, with the date 1661 formed in nails on its old door.

    Read more about Timber-framed houses like Gallops

    A roof on a frame that old has moved with it for centuries.

  • Tile-hung walls under a clay roof

    The tile-hung rectory

    The Georgian rectory near the church is tile-hung from top to bottom, and it stands with St Bartholomew's outside the village near Albourne Place.

    Read more about The tile-hung rectory

    Hung tile and roof depend on well-dressed lead where they meet.

  • A flint church beside a tiled roof

    St Bartholomew's and its flint

    St Bartholomew's stands outside the village near Albourne Place, of flint with stone dressings, largely rebuilt in the 19th century, with a brick south porch added in 1641.

    Read more about St Bartholomew's and its flint

    Flint walls make their own demands on flashings.

Street map of Albourne, north-east of central Worthing, with a pin on the town.

What Mid Sussex records for Albourne

Planning authority
Mid Sussex District Council
Councils
Mid Sussex District Council and West Sussex County Council
Conservation area
Albourne, designated 1989; most of the village's listed buildings stand within it
Article 4
Not recorded for Albourne; confirm with the Mid Sussex planning team
Church
St Bartholomew's (Church of England), flint with stone dressings
From central Worthing
17.5 road miles, north-east, about 25 minutes by car

Albourne roofs

Herringbone brick, hung tile and flint

Three roof questions that arise from the oldest buildings of one small Sussex village.

Chapter one

Timber frames with herringbone brick infill

Gallops shows what Albourne's oldest houses are: a timber frame, brick infill and a roof that has moved with them for centuries.

Gallops stands on the east side of The Street. It has red-brick herringbone infill between its timbers and some sandstone, the date 1661 formed in nails on its former entrance door, and a restoration by W. H. Godfrey in about 1935. A house with that history can carry two eras of roofing on a single slope: the original structure, and repairs from the 1930s or later. We cannot guess which is which from the road, so the first job is a close inspection of the roof, from outside and from the loft, with photographs of anything unusual. Moss and old repairs can mask the real shape of the covering, so we compare what the loft shows with what the slope shows.

At a glance

  • Gallops carries the date 1661 in nails
  • Its infill is red-brick herringbone with some sandstone
  • W. H. Godfrey restored it in about 1935

1.1 A roof that follows the frame

In a timber-framed house the roof is tied to a structure that has been moving for centuries. Walls lean a little, ridges dip, and the rafters, the sloping timbers that carry the covering, are seldom evenly spaced. Tiles must follow every dip, and where they cannot, gaps open at the laps. On a survey we sight along the ridge and across each slope for sag, then check inside whether a rafter has cracked, a joint has opened or the wall plate, the timber along the top of a wall, has softened. Nothing is straightened for its own sake. The aim is a roof that keeps water out and respects the building. Because the movement that opened a gap goes on after a quick patch, we say plainly when a patch will not hold.

1.2 Relaying and strengthening

When tiles have failed but the structure is sound, the usual repair is to strip a slope, keep the good tiles, fix new battens (the timber laths the tiles hang from) and relay over a breathable underlay. Where a timber has weakened, a new piece is fixed alongside the old one so that the original stays in place. An old frame does not like being forced, so we steer clear of heavy coverings: a new covering that adds 15 per cent or more to the weight brings in building control and may need a structural check. Our pitched roofing page covers relaying in more detail, and the photographs we send show each stage of the work.

New lead valley between two slate roof slopes

Fig. 1 On the survey Old roof timbers dipping between two walls

Both photographs show an old frame, before and after repair.

Roofer unloading tools from a plain white van on a residential street

Chapter two

Tile-hung walls and a Georgian rectory

The Georgian rectory, tile-hung from top to bottom, shows how closely the walls and roof of an Albourne house depend on each other.

Near the church, outside the village, the Georgian rectory is tile-hung from top to bottom, as Mid Sussex District Council's conservation area notes point out in their description of the village. Tile hanging means small clay tiles fixed in overlapping courses over battens on a wall, so the house wears a second skin of tile. When hung tiles come down, the originals are worth keeping, since matching old clay in colour and texture is difficult. It sheds weather well, but it creates a lot of edges: at the eaves, around windows, up the verges and wherever the wall meets a roof. Bay windows and porches that carry their own small tiled roofs add edges of their own. Each edge needs the right flashing or soaker, and the wall tiles and roof tiles have to lap in the right order, with water always running over the next piece and never under it.

At a glance

  • The rectory is tile-hung from top to bottom
  • It stands outside the village near Albourne Place
  • Hung tile meets the roof at lead-lined joints

2.1 Lead behind the tiles

The strip of lead that bridges wall and roof is tucked behind the hung tiles at the top and dressed down over the roof covering at the bottom. If it has been pulled out, cut short or smeared over with sealant, water gets behind the hanging and runs down inside the wall, often showing as a brown stain well below the real gap. Typical signs are tiles slipped or lifted at the roof edge, and damp patches indoors in the corners of upper rooms. We lift the lowest hung courses to look, photograph what is behind them, and rebuild the junction in lead of a suitable weight; Leadworx lists code 5, 2.24 mm thick, for general, vertical and pitched work. Our lead roofing page explains the weights and the dressing.

2.2 St Bartholomew's and its flint

St Bartholomew's stands outside the village near Albourne Place. It is built of flint with stone dressings, was largely rebuilt in the 19th century, and has a brick south porch added in 1641. Flint walls are uneven, so flashings are tucked into mortar joints cut to suit the stone. The church is in Church of England use, so work to its roof goes through the Church's faculty system under the ecclesiastical exemption. Bats and nesting birds are both protected by law, which matters on roofs this old, and we plan any stripping around that.

What people sayTile hanging is only decoration, so it has little to do with how the roof performs.

What is trueHung tile is a weatherproof skin that meets the roof at lead-lined joints, and those joints decide whether water stays out of the wall.

Chapter three

The Street's conservation area and the Weald clay

A conservation area from 1989 covers the village core, so consent questions come before covering questions along The Street.

Part of Albourne was designated a conservation area in 1989, and most of the village's listed buildings stand around the southern end of The Street, within it. There were about 13 houses in 1681, and in 1984 several buildings of the 17th century or earlier still survived along The Street. At its southern end the road forms a hollow-way, a lane worn below the level of its banks. That makes access the first practical question on a roof here: where a ladder can stand, where a delivery can unload, and whether scaffolding would block the lane. Large lorries may not fit, so materials can arrive in smaller loads and be hoisted, which affects both the time and the quote.

At a glance

  • The conservation area was designated in 1989
  • Most listed buildings stand at the southern end of The Street
  • The southern end of The Street is a hollow-way
Stacks of new handmade clay plain tiles on scaffold boards
Stacks of new handmade clay plain tiles on scaffold boards

3.1 Consent along The Street

Mid Sussex District Council is the planning authority, and Albourne lies outside the National Park. Repairing like for like seldom needs planning permission, but a change of covering inside the conservation area deserves a word with the council's planners first, and a listed house can need listed building consent where work departs from the existing materials. No Article 4 direction is recorded for the village. Our roof planning permission guide sets out the usual rules in plain terms, and we put what the council tells you into the survey notes. Because the roofs of a small village are seen together from The Street, replacement tiles are chosen to sit comfortably beside their neighbours in size and colour.

Stacks of new handmade clay plain tiles on scaffold boards
Stacks of new handmade clay plain tiles on scaffold boards

3.2 A ridge above the Weald clay

The modern village stands on a Lower Greensand ridge, while the flatter northern half of the parish lies on Weald clay draining towards the River Adur. On higher ground, a tile maker's site-specific fixing specification takes account of altitude and local wind exposure, which is Wienerberger's wording, so we ask for the specification when a whole roof is being recovered. Gutters and downpipes matter as much as the covering in a village where so much rain runs off roofs, and they are part of our roof replacement surveys. A downpipe that discharges beside a wall should be led away from it, since damp rising at the foot of a wall is sometimes blamed on the roof. A re-covering that touches less than 25 per cent of the building envelope and less than 50 per cent of the roof is normally outside building control, according to the Planning Portal.

Rules of thumb for an Albourne re-roof

Building control limits
Under 25% of the envelope and under 50% of the roof (Planning Portal)
Heavier covering
15 per cent or more added needs approval
Thermal upgrade
Over 50% of the roof element renovated (Part L)
Hip and ridge tiles
Mechanically fixed under BS 5534
Scaffold on the highway
West Sussex licence, 10 working days' notice

Source: Planning Portal; Approved Document L Vol 1; BSI; West Sussex County Council, fetched October 2026

What we do on Albourne roofs

Albourne roof questions, from Gallops to the rectory

Does the Albourne conservation area affect re-tiling a house on The Street?

Re-tiling to match is rarely a planning matter, but The Street lies in a conservation area designated in 1989, and most of the village's listed buildings stand within it. If your house is listed, repairs that depart from the existing materials can need listed building consent. A call to the Mid Sussex planning team before you change a covering settles the question, and we photograph the existing roof to support it.

Can an old timber-framed roof in Albourne be re-covered without disturbing the frame?

Usually it can. We strip one slope at a time, keep the sound tiles, add new battens and a breathable underlay, and leave the old timbers where they are, strengthening a weak rafter with a new piece alongside it rather than replacing it. We avoid a heavier covering, because one that adds 15 per cent or more to the weight brings in building control and a structural check.

How would you reach a roof at the hollow-way end of The Street?

The southern end of The Street forms a hollow-way, so space is tight. At the survey we measure what room there is for ladders, a scaffold tower or a delivery lorry, and decide whether scaffolding on the highway is needed. If it is, a licence comes from West Sussex County Council through the scaffold firm, and the county wants ten working days' notice, which we build into the start date.

Who approves roof repairs on St Bartholomew's church at Albourne?

St Bartholomew's is a Church of England church, so while it stays in use, works to its roof go through the Church's faculty system under the ecclesiastical exemption, not through listed building consent from the council. A church that closed would lose that exemption. Houses near it follow the ordinary route instead: planning questions go to Mid Sussex District Council, and building control to the council or a registered approver.

Roofers near Albourne

Tell us about your roof

Describe what is happening and we will call you back to arrange a visit.

  • Photographs of what we find
  • A written quote with one total price
  • Or call 01903 299063

10-year workmanship guarantee, in writing.

Call Get a quote