The Church of St Nicholas
Listed Grade I on 4 February 1958; a Church of England parish church, so roof work goes by faculty.
Roofers in Combe St Nicholas
A Grade I church, a listed barn and the Blackdown Hills edge
Combe St Nicholas has a Grade I church, 19 listed entries within 500 metres of its centre and a conservation area that reaches Wadeford. Each roof is surveyed first.
From the church tower to Whitehall Farmhouse
The barn at Whitehall Farmhouse
The barn about 12 metres north of Whitehall Farmhouse has Grade II listing, dating from 30 November 1987.
Churchyard wall and lamp post
Gates, railings and a wall on the churchyard's north side, plus a lamp post, are each listed Grade II.
Street map of Combe St Nicholas with Chard, Horton, Broadway, Blindmoor marked around it, and Taunton.
On the road between Chard and Ilminster
Chard lies to the south-east and Ilminster to the north-east, with Horton and Broadway north-east, Blindmoor to the north-west and Ashill to the north.
About 9 miles south-east of Taunton, Somerset Council (unitary).
Combe St Nicholas homes: our roof services
Four checks where old buildings set the rules
Walking a Combe St Nicholas roof, from the church wall to the loft room
Consent for old buildings, new openings in a slope and the paperwork behind a fresh covering: four things to settle before anyone climbs up.
Check 1 of 4A Grade I church's consent route
Whose say-so a church roof needs
The Church of St Nicholas holds a Grade I listing (entry 1248506 on the National Heritage List). It is a Church of England parish church, in the benefice it shares with Chard, and that detail matters, because consent for work on a church in use depends on the denomination. Some denominations sit outside the council's consent system altogether and run an approval process of their own.
Who has to agree to a church roof repair?
An Anglican church in use goes through the faculty system. Catholic, Methodist and United Reformed congregations each run a process of their own, as do Baptist buildings held by a Schedule 1 trust. Listed Unitarian or Quaker buildings, together with closed churches and chapels turned into homes, need listed building consent from the council. Scheduled monuments are different again, since scheduled monument consent comes from the Secretary of State and never from the council. For St Nicholas the faculty is the first call, the parish makes the application, and the repair then follows whichever specification that process signs off.
Does a nearby house feel any of this?
Not through the church itself. A house beside a Grade I building is not listed because of its neighbour. What it may share is the conservation area, which takes in Combe St Nicholas and Wadeford. Next to old stone, careless repairs show up quickly: a bright patch of new tiles on an old slope, or a stack capped in fresh cement, will be seen from the lane. If your home was once a chapel, say so when you call, because its consent route may differ from that of an ordinary house.
At the survey we photograph and describe each slope, so whoever has to approve the work sees the roof as it stands today. That record is also useful if you are asked to show what the roof looked like before a repair.
Check 2 of 4Barns and walls with a listing
Nineteen listings near the centre
The National Heritage List for England shows 19 listed entries within 500 metres of the centre of Combe St Nicholas. They are not all houses. A barn about 12 metres north of Whitehall Farmhouse is listed Grade II, and so are the gates, railings and wall on the north side of the churchyard and a lamp post. A farming village keeps its working buildings, and their roofs are among the biggest in the parish. A big plain slope shows every slipped slate or lifted sheet, and rain runs off it in sheets, so a small fault can let a lot of water in.
Look for
- Slipped slates near the eaves
- Sagging between the rafters
- Rusted fixings on old sheets
- Light showing through the roof
On a listed barn, matching replacements are the easiest case to put to the council.
Does a listed barn need consent for a new roof covering?
Listed building consent applies to any work that would change a building's character as one of special interest, and a different covering changes how a barn looks even where the shape stays the same. Replacing worn pieces with matching ones, in the same material and size and laid the same way, is the easiest case to put forward. Slate stays slate and clay stays clay wherever it matters to how the building looks. The survey tells you which slopes can be repaired and which have gone too far, and our pitched roofing page covers the repair itself.
How can I tell if my own building is listed?
Look the address up on the National Heritage List, or ask Somerset Council. A listing can cover a whole farmstead, a house with its outbuildings or one wall, and the entry says which. We read the entry and inspect the roof side by side before pricing. A barn turned into a home must also meet the energy rules for a renovated roof, and those apply alongside the heritage question without replacing it. Stone and old timber behave differently from a modern shed, so we also look at how the roof frame is carrying its load.
Where a listing applies, the next step is to settle the consent route, and the price waits for it.
Check 3 of 4New roof windows and loft rooms
Light, insulation and where the stairs go
The Blackdown Hills National Landscape reaches the edge of the ground around Combe St Nicholas, though the centre of the village lies outside it. It was an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty until the rename in November 2023, and the rename did not change the law. If your house sits inside the boundary, no permitted-development dormers are allowed there, and the same applies inside a conservation area. Roof windows set into the slope are a different matter, and a good deal of loft work goes ahead without a dormer at all. A dormer is the small projecting window box with its own little roof; a roof window lies flat in the slope and is cut into the rafters.
From the ground
- Which slopes face the lane
- How much headroom the loft has
- Where the stairs could land
- Whether the slope is stone or tile
Leave to a roofer
- Cutting rafters for an opening
- Weathering the new frame
- Flashing around the window
- Checking the timbers around it
What U-value must a roof window reach?
For a new roof window in an existing dwelling, Approved Document L (2021 edition) sets 1.4 or a minimum of Window Energy Rating Band B. A rooflight is held to 2.2. When a loft is converted, the roof itself is a renovated element: the starting threshold is 0.35 and the improved figure is 0.16, relaxed by paragraph 4.13 where that is not feasible or the payback exceeds 15 years.
Does a loft room need a protected stair?
Converting the loft of a two-storey house usually calls for a protected stairway, though Approved Document B also accepts other solutions, sprinkler protection to open-plan areas among them. Escape windows are only counted for storeys no more than 4.5 metres above the ground. That is why the stairs often decide whether a loft room is worth doing, long before the window is chosen. We talk through headroom, floor strength and where the stair would land at the survey, and take photos inside the loft to show you the points we raise. Our roof windows and skylights page explains the practical side of fitting one, and the energy figures above are the ones to hold the supplier to.
Check 4 of 4A new covering and its paperwork
When building control gets involved
A full re-roof is the job that brings the most paperwork with it. The Planning Portal puts the starting line at two tests. No building control application is normally needed where less than 25 per cent of the building envelope, meaning the walls, floor, roof, windows and doors together, and less than 50 per cent of the roof is affected. Weight is the second test: a new covering that is 15 per cent or more heavier needs Building Regulations approval, and the Portal's advice is to have an engineer or surveyor look at the structure first.
What decides the price
- Size and pitch of the roof
- Slate, clay or concrete covering
- Chimneys, valleys and roof windows
- State of the battens and the timbers
Who deals with building control in Combe St Nicholas?
Somerset Building Control, which covers the former district councils, on 0300 303 7790. It publishes no percentage rule for re-roofing, so the Planning Portal's tests are the ones we work to. When a re-roof is notifiable, it charges the work as renovation of a thermal element. Work done without approval after 11 November 1985 may be put right through a regularisation application.
What decides what a new roof costs?
Roof area and the covering chosen count first. Typical UK ranges for a new roof sit far apart between guides. MyJobQuote gives an average of around £5,250 (Oct 2026), while HomeBuilding puts a 3-bed semi with plain concrete tiles between £10,000 and £15,000 including labour, scaffolding and insulation (HomeBuilding, Sep 2025). Access, the number of chimneys and valleys, and the state of the battens move the figure too, and a larger roof replacement brings those questions up quickly.
The survey is where we stop guessing, and the written price follows it. To begin, tell us roughly when the house was built and where the damp shows, and we will arrange the visit. Photos from your phone of the ceiling stain or the slipped slate help us plan what to bring up the ladder.
Walked the roof?
- 1 read
- 2 not read yet
- 3 not read yet
- 4 not read yet
When you have read the checks, we walk the roof and show you the photos.
Combe St Nicholas roofs, from the church to the farm barns
Who signs off repairs to the Grade I roof of St Nicholas church in Combe St Nicholas?
St Nicholas is a Church of England parish church, so roof work goes through the faculty system and not through listed building consent from the council. The parish applies for the faculty, and the roofer builds to whatever specification it approves, with survey photos to support the application.
Can a roof window go into a Combe St Nicholas house without planning permission?
Often, on an ordinary house, though a listing, a conservation area, an Article 4 direction or a planning condition can change that. The conservation area reaches Combe St Nicholas and Wadeford, so check with Somerset Council's planning team before materials are bought. The national picture is in our guide to planning permission for roof work.
How can I tell whether my Combe St Nicholas house is one of the listed buildings near the church?
Look the address up in the Historic England list of protected buildings, where the entry gives the grade and the date of listing. There are 19 entries within 500 metres of the village centre, and Somerset Council can confirm too. We read the entry before pricing, since a listing decides which consent is needed.
Can roof work go ahead if bats use the roof space of an old barn here?
Not without care. Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, section 9(4), the offence is to disturb a bat in its shelter, or block its access, either intentionally or recklessly, and the Habitats Regulations 2017 cover damaging a breeding site or resting place. GOV.UK lists repairing a roof among activities that can affect bats.
Arrange a survey in Combe St Nicholas
Tell us what the roof is doing and whether the house carries a listing, then we will fix a visit.