01903 299063 Get a quote

Roofers in Bury

Bury sits where the South Downs meet the Arun Valley, its stone and flint cottages under clay tile and reed thatch. We survey each roof and show you the photographs.

Get a quoteCall 01903 299063

Under Bury's clay, slate and reed

  • Plain clay tiles on a cottage

    Stone and flint under plain clay

    In The Street and Church Lane, the Neighbourhood Plan study describes older properties of stone and flint under plain clay-tiled pitched roofs.

    Read more about Stone and flint under plain clay

    We check that the tiles are sound and that the flashing meets the wall tightly.

  • Tiles beside a thatched cottage

    Reed thatch and the tiles that replaced it

    Reed cut from the river banks has thatched Bury's cottages for hundreds of years. Hand-made Wealden clay tiles replaced it on some houses and slate on others, so one village carries three different coverings.

  • A cedar-clad church spire

    A cedar-clad church spire

    St John the Evangelist is listed Grade I, with a 12th-century tower and nave beneath a broad cedar-clad spire.

    Read more about A cedar-clad church spire

    A church in use has its own approval route, so roof work there starts with the Church, not the council.

Street map of Bury, north-west of central Worthing, with a pin on the town.

Bury on the planning record

Planning authority
South Downs National Park Authority
Councils
Chichester District Council and West Sussex County Council
Conservation areas
Two in the parish: Bury village, and West Burton
Article 4
None listed for Bury on the Park Authority's directions page
Listed example
Parish Church of St John the Evangelist, Grade I
From central Worthing
15.1 road miles, north-west, about 23 minutes by car

Bury roofs

Thatch, clay and a cedar-clad spire

Three roofing questions arising out of the village's materials and its spot beside the Arun.

Chapter one

Wealden clay, slate and reed thatch

Bury's roofs have been reed, then hand-made clay, then slate, and a repair has to know which one it is dealing with.

The Bury Neighbourhood Plan's heritage study describes a village whose roofs have changed with the centuries. Reed, originally cut from the river banks, thatched the cottages for hundreds of years and still does. Hand-made tiles from local Wealden clay then took over on some houses, and slate on others. For a roofer that means two neighbouring houses can need quite different handling. A clay roof is judged by its tiles, battens and nails. A slate roof is judged by its fixings and its headlap, the overlap that stops water creeping uphill under each slate. A thatched roof belongs to a thatcher. We read what the house in front of us has, not what its neighbour has.

At a glance

  • Reed from the river banks thatched Bury for centuries
  • Hand-made Wealden clay tile replaced thatch on some houses
  • Slate replaced thatch on others
Street of 1930s semi-detached houses with clay-tiled roofs below the Downs
Street of 1930s semi-detached houses with clay-tiled roofs below the Downs

1.1 Hand-made clay and how it ages

Hand-made tiles are never perfectly flat or uniform, and that unevenness is part of the village's look. It also means machine-made replacements sit differently: they lie flatter, run to a steadier colour and can show up as a patch. When one slope needs attention, we reuse the sound tiles, look for hand-made or reclaimed clay to fill the gaps, and photograph the result against the neighbouring slopes. A low-pitched porch or lean-to deserves a second look, because each clay plain tile has its own minimum pitch, listed in the table below. Clay roofs also carry ridges and hips, and the 2014 revision of BS 5534 expects those tiles to be mechanically fixed as well as bedded. A bedded ridge with proper fixings is a sound repair; a ridge held up by old mortar and nothing else is one we would re-set.

Street of 1930s semi-detached houses with clay-tiled roofs below the Downs
Street of 1930s semi-detached houses with clay-tiled roofs below the Downs

1.2 Slate where the thatch went

Slate fails differently from clay. Slates slip when the nails or hooks holding them corrode, and a roof can look intact from the lane while a quarter of its fixings are failing; the loft shows daylight or damp first. BS 5534, as quoted by Cupa Pizarras, indicates a minimum pitch of 20 degrees for natural slate, and slate hooks are ruled out on any pitch below 25 degrees. Where a house has thatch beside slate or tile, the joins between them, such as a tiled porch, an extension or a chimney, are where we are most often asked to look. Our slate roofing page covers re-slating and repairs in more depth.

Minimum pitches for Bury's coverings

Clay plain tile, Canterbury
40 degrees (Marley)
Clay plain tile, Ashdowne
35 degrees (Marley)
Clay plain tile, Hawkins
30 degrees (Marley)
Natural slate
20 degrees; no hook fixings below 25 degrees (Cupa Pizarras)
Slate headlap at 20 degrees
115 mm for 500 x 300 slates (Cupa Pizarras)

Source: Marley; Cupa Pizarras, citing BS 5534:2014+A2:2018, fetched October 2026

Chapter two

The Grade I church and the National Park

St John the Evangelist is Grade I listed, and the village lies inside the National Park, so the planning route is the Park's.

Knapped flint wall meeting the eaves of an old clay tile roof
Knapped flint wall meeting the eaves of an old clay tile roof

The Anglican parish church of St John the Evangelist is listed Grade I. Its tower and nave are 12th-century, and the tower carries a broad cedar-clad spire. The spire is clad in thin cedar tiles laid in overlapping courses, a covering that belongs to specialist church work. Work on a Church of England building in regular use goes through the Church's own faculty system under the ecclesiastical exemption, so there the Church decides, not the council. Our own work in Bury is on the houses around it, and the Neighbourhood Plan study names the church among the village's heritage assets, alongside Bury House, Grade II, where the novelist John Galsworthy lived from 1926 to 1933.

At a glance

  • St John's tower and nave are 12th-century
  • A broad cedar-clad spire tops the church
  • The parish has two conservation areas

2.1 A village inside the National Park

Bury lies within the South Downs National Park, so the South Downs National Park Authority is the planning authority, and in this Chichester part of the Park, Chichester District Council deals with planning questions and applications on its behalf. Re-covering in matching material is not usually development needing permission, with or without the Park. If you are unsure whether a proposal counts as like for like, send us photographs and at survey we compare what is on the roof with what we would lay. Park status does bring tighter limits on some roof alterations, which our roof planning permission guide sets out in plain terms. Building Regulations apply as they do anywhere else, and your building control body can confirm the route.

2.2 Listed cottages and the two conservation areas

The parish has two conservation areas, one around the heart of the village and the other centred on West Burton, and the Park Authority's Article 4 page lists no direction for Bury. For a listed building, the Park Authority's guidance is that upkeep and small repairs carried out in place need no listed building consent, whereas work that alters, or wholly replaces, historic fabric and so touches the building's character does. On a listed thatched or tiled cottage we therefore record what is there before we touch it, and agree the repair with Chichester District Council, acting for the Park Authority, where there is any doubt. Roosting bats and active nests are protected, so older roofs are checked for them before stripping. Inside a conservation area, the useful question is whether a repair changes how the roof looks from the lane: new tiles of a different colour or size would, matching ones would not. Photographs taken before work begins give the planning officer something concrete to look at.

What people sayA listed cottage in Bury cannot have any roof repair without first applying for consent.

What is trueSmall repairs done in place and routine upkeep need no consent in the Park Authority's guidance; replacing historic fabric that affects character does.

Chapter three

Reading a roof beside the River Arun

Bury's cottages stand where the Downs fall to the Arun, so a repair is planned around the site as well as the tiles.

The village stands on the west bank of the Arun, where the Downs come down to the river. A ferry from The Wharf carried people across to Amberley until 1955, and in the 1800s boats were loaded at the wharf with raw materials, so Bury has long been a place of carried goods and passing trade. Its cottages were roofed with what land and river supplied: reed from the banks, clay from the Weald. A roof in a valley like this meets weather from both the Downs side and the river side, so we choose fixings for the particular site and hold an exposed run to the same standard as a sheltered one.

At a glance

  • A ferry crossed to Amberley from The Wharf until 1955
  • Boats were loaded at the wharf in the 1800s
  • Stacks and flashings are checked before the field of tiles
Lead-lined valley where two clay-tiled roof slopes meet
Lead-lined valley where two clay-tiled roof slopes meet

3.1 Stacks, flashings and the joins

On stone and flint cottages the chimney stack is a frequent source of a stain on the ceiling below. The flashing is the lead strip that seals the stack to the roof, and it fails when the mortar it is wedged into crumbles or the lead itself splits. Leadworx treats code 4 as the usual pick for general flashing, and MyJobQuote gives a lead flashing a life of over 80 years, so a failure is often the mortar and not the metal. Our chimney repairs page covers stacks, pots and flaunching, the sloped mortar fillet that beds each pot.

Lead-lined valley where two clay-tiled roof slopes meet
Lead-lined valley where two clay-tiled roof slopes meet

3.2 Repair, or start again

A roof with one bad join does not need stripping, and neither does one where a tiled extension has simply pulled away from an older range. The valley between the two, the internal angle where slopes meet, has either a lead lining or a modern liner and is one of the first things we trace a leak to. A roof whose battens are brittle and whose nails have failed across every slope usually does need it, and we will tell you so plainly. The evidence comes as photographs of your roof, alongside a written quote that gives one total price. Our roof repairs page describes how a leak is traced, from the ceiling stain back to the entry point. Gutters and downpipes on older cottages hang from brackets fixed into stone and flint, and an overflowing gutter can soak a wall as readily as a failed tile can. We check the gutter line and the outlets when we survey the roof. Where a re-roof is planned, ask whether the price includes VAT and the scaffold.

How a survey runs in Bury

  1. Trace We follow a ceiling stain back to the stack, valley or join where the water actually enters.
  2. Photograph Each fault is photographed on your own roof, so the written quote can point at what it describes.
  3. Match Repairs use clay, slate or tile that suits the neighbouring slopes, because Bury's roofs differ from house to house.
  4. Fix Ridges and edges are mechanically fixed to BS 5534, and we clear the site at the end.

Booking roof work in

Bury roof questions, from the Arun to the Downs

What replaces hand-made clay tiles on an older Bury cottage?

Where the old tiles are sound we reuse them, and for the gaps we look for hand-made or reclaimed clay close in colour and camber. Machine-made tiles lie flatter and can look patchy beside hand-made ones. On a listed cottage, agree the covering first with Chichester District Council, which handles planning here for the Park. We photograph each slope before and after, so you can compare the repair with its neighbours.

Does the South Downs National Park change how I re-roof in Bury?

The Park Authority is the planning authority, with Chichester District Council handling applications for it in Bury, but re-covering in matching material is not usually development needing permission. Park status matters more for alterations such as new openings or dormers, covered in our roof planning permission guide. Building Regulations are unchanged by the Park. If the cottage is listed or the work changes its appearance, check with Chichester District Council before ordering materials.

Do the church's Grade I listing and spire affect cottages in Church Lane?

Not by themselves. The listing applies to the church, whose roof work is a matter for the Church of England's faculty system. A cottage is affected if it is listed itself or lies in the Bury conservation area, so ask Chichester District Council, which deals with planning here for the Park, what applies. Either way, we survey first, photograph the existing tiles and keep repairs in matching materials.

Why does the ceiling stain under a flint chimney not sit under the leak?

Water runs along the rafters and the underside of the felt before it drops, so the stain can appear a metre or more from the entry point. On a stone and flint stack, the usual culprits are crumbled mortar around the flashing, a split lead strip or a cracked cap. We trace the line back from the stain and check the stack before the tiles.

Roofers near Bury

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