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Roofers in Westhampnett

Westhampnett lies on Stane Street, east of Chichester, where flint, red brick, tile and some thatch share one parish. We trace water to its source and give you photographs of your own roof.

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Three Westhampnett roofs: flint beside tile, brick farmhouses, thatch among the tile

  • Tiles beside a flint wall

    A flint church under tile

    St Peter's church is built of flint rubble with some reused Roman bricks in the chancel, and its roof is tile apart from the cap on the tower.

    Read more about A flint church under tile

    Wherever tile meets flint, lead and pointing carry the weather.

  • A brick farmhouse roof

    Brick and dressed-flint farmhouses

    Old Place Farm is an Elizabethan red-brick house on a flint plinth, with rooms under its roof, and Westerton farmhouse has a dressed-flint front.

    Read more about Brick and dressed-flint farmhouses

    Houses this old put the strain on chimneys, valleys and the lead between them.

  • A thatched roof by a chimney

    Thatch among the tile

    A few individual buildings in the parish carry thatch. Thatch changes the rules for any chimney beside it, and the tiled roofs around it still depend on sound lead at every junction.

Street map of Westhampnett, west of central Worthing, with a pin on the town.

Checking Westhampnett against the planning map

Planning authority
Chichester District Council
Councils
Chichester District Council and West Sussex County Council
Conservation area
Ask Chichester District Council's planning team about your address
Article 4
Chichester District Council's planning team can say for your address
National Park
Outside the South Downs National Park boundary
From central Worthing
21 road miles, west, about 30 minutes by car

Stane Street roofs

Flint, brick, tile and thatch on Stane Street

Three jobs that flow from the old materials, chimneys and roads that make up Westhampnett.

Chapter one

St Peter's flint and the lead beside it

Flint walls give a roof an uneven edge to seal against, so the lead and pointing at each junction decide how dry it stays.

Westhampnett's church and village lie on Stane Street, in the south of the parish. St Peter's is built of stone in the form of flint rubble, with some reused Roman bricks in the western part of the chancel, and it is roofed with tile except for its shingled tower cap. That cap is a different kind of covering from the tiles, so it gets its own look for gaps and rot where it meets the tower walls. Flint is a hard nodular stone laid in mortar, and a wall of it never gives a roof a straight line to work against. Wherever tile meets such a wall, the junction depends on lead flashing, and the lead in turn depends on what holds it, namely the mortar joint it is pushed into and the wedges that keep it from springing free.

At a glance

  • St Peter's is flint rubble with reused Roman bricks
  • Its roof is tile apart from the tower cap
  • Uneven flint needs lead dressed into the joints
Lead-lined valley where two clay-tiled roof slopes meet
Lead-lined valley where two clay-tiled roof slopes meet

1.1 Lead on an uneven wall

On brick the lead lies flat. On flint it has to follow the bumps, so it is tucked into a raked-out joint, held with lead wedges and pointed over. When the pointing fails, rain gets behind the lead, and the damp can reach a ceiling a good way from the cause. At a survey we look at the joint, the lead's condition and whether sealant has been smeared on to hide a failure, because sealant over a loose flashing only postpones the leak. Leadworx names Code 4 as the code most often specified for general flashing, and reserves thicker sheet for heavier duty, and on a flint church or farmhouse our choice of code depends on how long the run is and how exposed it sits. Our lead roofing page explains the codes.

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

1.2 Who decides for a church roof

The parish church of St Peter is Anglican. For as long as it is open for worship, the Church's own faculty jurisdiction, not the district council, approves roof work, and that arrangement ends if the church closes. For a house the picture is simpler. Matching the existing tile and mortar is the sensible starting point, and aged roofs can house bats and nesting birds, which are legally protected, so the eaves and any gaps under the tiles get a look before stripping starts. Whether a conservation area or an Article 4 direction touches your address is something Chichester District Council's planning team can answer, and we ask the question before quoting for any change of covering.

Regency rooftops of slate and lead with the sea beyond

Fig. 1 On the survey Lead pulled from a flint joint

Chapter two

Thatch, chimneys and Elizabethan roofs

On old houses with thatch nearby, the chimney stack and its lead need the most care.

Victorian terrace chimney stacks with spalled bricks and old lead flashing
Victorian terrace chimney stacks with spalled bricks and old lead flashing

The county history records that some individual buildings in the parish are thatched, and houses such as Old Place Farm, an Elizabethan house of two storeys with rooms in the roof, in red brick on a flint plinth, are old enough to have been altered many times. Rooms under the slope add a loft question of their own: we look for condensation on the underside of the covering and for damp insulation, because a warm room below a cold slope shows its faults on the ceiling first. A roof of that age holds layers of past repair: tiles of different ages, a patched valley, a chimney rebuilt in a different brick. Our survey reads those layers, because each earlier fix shows where the building has been moving or leaking, and a new repair should not copy a mistake.

At a glance

  • Old Place Farm is Elizabethan brick on a flint plinth
  • Some buildings in the parish carry thatch
  • Flues near thatch follow larger clearances
Edwardian semis with concrete tile roofs, brick chimneys, rooflights
Edwardian semis with concrete tile roofs, brick chimneys, rooflights

2.1 Thatch and the chimney beside it

Approved Document J requires bigger clearances around a flue near thatch than it does around ordinary roofs, and its Diagram 18 sets them out. So a chimney by thatch is more than just a taller or shorter stack, since its height and position are set by a rule of their own. Around a thatched building our work is the stack, the lead at each junction, and the tiles and gutters next to the thatch. The ordinary clearance for a solid-fuel flue passing through within 600 mm of a ridge is at least 600 mm above that ridge, which is the kind of figure the English document uses, unlike the American 3-2-10 rule some websites quote.

Edwardian semis with concrete tile roofs, brick chimneys, rooflights
Edwardian semis with concrete tile roofs, brick chimneys, rooflights

2.2 What we check on a farmhouse stack

A brick stack standing in wind and rain loses its pointing first, then the flaunching, the shaped mortar crown that beds the pots and sheds rain off the top. Pots themselves crack in frost, and a pot that has split lets water into the flue, so we check each one and any cowl or cap above it. Frost gets into open joints and lifts the brick faces. At the base the lead tray and apron seal the stack to the roof, and a failed tray lets water run down the flue lining and into the chimney breast. We look at every one of these from the roof or a tower, photograph what is wrong and explain whether pointing, a rebuild of the top courses or a complete rebuild is the right answer. Our chimney repairs page sets out the options in more detail.

What people sayThe 3-2-10 rule fixes how high a chimney must stand above a UK roof.

What is trueThat is an American rule of thumb; in England the height of a solid-fuel flue outlet follows Approved Document J.

Chapter three

Repairing or re-roofing an old brick house

A house with centuries of repairs on its roof needs a survey that explains the history before it prices the future.

Westhampnett parish covers 1,908 acres, and part of Goodwood Park forms its north-east quarter, so the housing runs from farmhouses through village streets to newer homes on the coastal plain. For an old brick house, the question is rarely the whole roof at once. Valleys, chimney trays and ridges tend to fail before the slopes do, and a house can live for years on repairs that actually suit it. The survey decides whether this is one of them. We note slipped and cracked tiles, test the battens, check the loft for chinks of daylight, and plot where the faults group together.

At a glance

  • Valleys and stacks usually fail before slopes
  • A re-roof needs a licence if scaffold blocks the road
  • Part of Goodwood Park lies in the parish
New single-ply membrane flat roof with a welded upstand and edge trim near the sea
New single-ply membrane flat roof with a welded upstand and edge trim near the sea

3.1 Matching what is already there

On an Elizabethan or Georgian house the tiles are part of the look, so we match size, colour and surface texture, and we re-use sound old tiles on the visible slopes where they can be sorted and relaid. New tiles go on the back where possible. If the building is listed, listed building consent covers any change of material, and the planning team at Chichester District Council can answer the question. The Planning Portal puts the building control line at 25 per cent of the building envelope and 50 per cent of the roof. Below both, a re-cover normally needs no application; above either, we explain what building control requires and take care of the paperwork. Valleys deserve their own note. A valley is the trough formed where two slopes meet, and on an old house it often hides a lead-lined channel beneath the tiles; nails driven through that lead, or lead that has crept and split, send water straight into the rafters. We open a section of the valley and photograph the lead before suggesting a repair.

New single-ply membrane flat roof with a welded upstand and edge trim near the sea
New single-ply membrane flat roof with a welded upstand and edge trim near the sea

3.2 Scaffold, licences and price

Scaffold that overhangs a village pavement or road needs a Highways Act licence, which West Sussex County Council issues and the scaffolder obtains. Westerton farmhouse and Old Place Farm are far from unusual in having been added to over the centuries, and an extension from one era often meets the main roof at a poorly made junction, so those joins are photographed as carefully as the slopes. Our roof replacement page follows the whole job. The chart gives national guide ranges only. A re-roof carries VAT at 20 per cent, so see that it is accounted for in every total you are shown.

Guide prices for the roof of an older house

  • Chimney repointing£500 to £2,000
  • Moderate roof repair£500 to £1,000
  • Gable re-roof, semi£5,000 to £8,000
  • Rebuild a chimney stack£2,000 to £10,000+

The written quote arrives once we have surveyed your roof. Whichever firms you compare, look for scaffold, VAT and waste removal inside each total. Source: MyBuilder chimney repair, roof repair and new roof price guides, updated 21/08/2026.

Roofing services for Westhampnett's flint, brick and tile

Westhampnett roof questions, from flint flashings to thatched neighbours

How is lead flashing refixed against a flint wall in Westhampnett?

The old pointing is raked out, the lead is dressed to follow the uneven face and tucked into the joint, wedged so it cannot spring free, and then pointed over. If the lead itself has split or thinned, we replace that length in a suitable code instead of re-fixing it. Photographs of the failed joint accompany the quote, so every step has a visible reason.

Is the chimney on a thatched Westhampnett cottage treated differently from one on a tiled house?

Yes. Approved Document J sets larger flue clearances near thatch, so changing a stack's height or position there is a design question, not a repair. For the stack as it stands, we check pointing, flaunching and the lead tray, and we work carefully around the thatch. A chimney sweep or a flue specialist should confirm the flue itself; our job is the part that meets the weather.

Is Westhampnett in a conservation area, and would that change a re-roof?

Chichester District Council's planning team can tell you whether a conservation area or Article 4 direction touches your address; ask before changing the covering. The village is outside the South Downs National Park, and Chichester District Council handles planning for it. A like-for-like re-covering rarely needs permission, while a listed house needs listed building consent for any change of material.

Who arranges a scaffold licence for a roof job on a Westhampnett road?

The scaffolder, not the roofer, applies. Licences come from West Sussex County Council whenever scaffolding gets in the way of a footway or carriageway, and its guidance asks for a gap of ten working days from application date to erection date, so the start date is planned around it. A scaffold wholly inside your boundary needs no licence from the highway authority, but do check whether each quote includes scaffolding at all.

Roofers near Westhampnett

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