Irving House
Listed Grade II and the birthplace of Sir Henry Irving, so any roof change needs a consent check first.
Roofers in Keinton Mandeville
A blue lias quarry village with Castle Street terraces and listed homes
Keinton Mandeville grew on its blue lias quarries, and by the early 1890s there were said to be 14 in the parish. A survey comes before any price.
Irving House, Castle Street and the lias quarries
Castle Street terraces
Quarry stone supplied villas and modest terraced housing in the early 19th century, most of it in Castle Street.
Corner House and Manor Farm
Corner House and a barn south-east of Manor Farmhouse are listed Grade II, so ask before changing their roofs.
Street map of Keinton Mandeville with Butleigh, Baltonsborough, Compton Dundon, Somerton marked around it, and Taunton.
Between Butleigh and Somerton
Baltonsborough lies north of Keinton Mandeville, with Butleigh and Street north-west and Glastonbury beyond. Somerton is south-west, Compton Dundon west and Ilchester south.
About 21 miles east of Taunton, Somerset Council (unitary).
Roof, roofline and chimney work in Keinton Mandeville
Quarry village, four checks
Reading a Keinton Mandeville roof, from stone walls to scaffold
Quarry-stone streets, listed barns and shared roofs: four checks, covering consent, covering, party walls and scaffold.
Check 1 of 4Listing and the nearest conservation areas
Which nearby protections apply to you
The nearest conservation areas in the national dataset are Charlton Adam, Kingweston, and West Charlton and Charlton Mackrell, all within about 2.5 km of Keinton Mandeville. An address on the edge of the village may sit nearer one boundary than you would expect, so we check the planning map before we price anything, and Somerset Council's planning team can confirm the answer. The National Heritage List records 14 entries within 500 metres of the village centre, which makes the listing check worth doing on every job. If you are buying or selling, the same checks help: a surveyor's flag on the roof is easier to answer with photographs and a consent answer already in hand. We put the outcome of the listing and conservation checks at the top of the survey, so it is the first thing you read.
Which Keinton Mandeville buildings are listed?
Irving House in Castle Street, the birthplace of Sir Henry Irving, is Grade II. So are Corner House and the barn about 2 metres south-east of Manor Farmhouse, which was first listed on 30 September 1985. The barn has its own list entry, so its roof is held to the same standard as a house roof. Old buildings here can surprise you: at the 18th-century Shield House in Row Lane, an internal ground-floor wall is made of two 7-ft-high blue lias slabs known locally as shields.
What do I need if my roof is listed?
A roof that is merely worn may need a like-for-like repair, which is normally the straightforward case. A roof that must change its look, through a new material, a restyled ridge or a different chimney, needs listed building consent from Somerset Council before work begins. Our page on planning permission for roof work sets out the routes. Photographs from the survey record the slates, ridge and stacks as found, which helps whoever deals with the application.
Look for
- Slates or tiles that don't match
- New dormers or roof windows
- Chimneys repointed in cement
- Stonework patched with new stone
Check 2 of 4Re-covering a roof that was once thatch
Old rafters, new covering
- Sound: slates even, battens firm
- Needs work: gaps, rotten batten ends
The Victoria County History (volume 10, 2010) describes the village houses of the late 18th century as neat, comfortable and of two storeys, and it records that the Three Old Castles inn and the Homestead in Queen Street have since lost their thatch. Any roof that has changed covering over the years is worth reading carefully, because the timbers underneath were first sized for the old covering and not the new one. Rafters, wall plates and joists all carry the load, and a roof that sags between the rafters is telling you something. A dip in the ridge line seen from the lane is often the first clue. Up in the loft we check for chinks of daylight, dark marks on the boards' undersides, and the way the rafters bear on the wall plate.
What decides the price
- Weight and type of the new covering
- State of rafters and battens
- Storey height and access
- Size of the slope being re-covered
Can an old roof take a heavier covering?
Sometimes, but it is a question to settle before the order goes in. The Planning Portal says a new covering that increases the weight of the roof by 15 per cent or more needs Building Regulations approval, and it advises taking advice from a structural engineer or surveyor. From the roof space we study the rafters, the wall plates and the ceiling joists, and report back. If the structure is tired, strengthening it is part of the written price, not a surprise on day three.
What sits beneath slates and tiles?
Slates and tiles are hung on battens, narrow timber laths running across the rafters, with an underlay beneath, which is the membrane that catches stray water. Both age out of sight, and rotten batten ends are a common reason a slate slips. Slates and tiles also depend on their fixings: nails can corrode and clips can fatigue, and battens split where nails passed through. Where a whole slope is tired, the better buy is a full strip and re-cover, as set out on our roof replacement page. Where it is sound, repair on the pitched roofing basis does the job and leaves your money for something else.
Check 3 of 4Terrace roofs, shared walls and valleys
Where one house's roof meets the next
Quarry stone supplied the villas and the modest terraced housing of early 19th-century Keinton Mandeville, much of it in Castle Street, according to the Victoria County History. Terraced roofs behave differently from detached ones. Several houses share a roofline, so one tired slate can drip into the next house's loft and the repair becomes a matter of manners as well as workmanship. Chimney stacks often sit astride the wall between two neighbours, and rainwater has to find a way off where two slopes meet. That junction, an internal angle called a valley, is lined with lead or fitted with tiles, and its edges and joints are where leaks tend to start. We trace those lines on both sides of a party wall before deciding what a repair involves.
Neighbours share a wall and a roofline, so a good terrace repair starts by looking at both sides.
From the ground
- Dark streaks below valley lines
- Stains on shared chimney breasts
- Gutters sagging between houses
- Cracks where roof meets wall
Leave to a roofer
- Re-lining a lead valley
- Renewing flashings at shared stacks
- Re-bedding a ridge across a row
- Checking junctions at party walls
What if the chimney stands on a shared wall?
Work on a chimney that sits on a party wall can bring in the Party Wall etc. Act 1996, where two months is the minimum lead time for the formal notice. A neighbour who stays silent has not agreed, and answers on paper protect both households, and any dispute goes to an appointed surveyor, not to the building control team. We raise this early, because a shared stack that leaks affects two households, and the conversation is easier before the scaffold goes up. Where a stack is sound and only the flaunching or flashing needs work, the job often stays within a single owner's side of the wall.
What does lead do in a valley?
Lead in a valley or round a stack has to stay watertight for decades. MyJobQuote says lead can last for over 80 years, a lower limit and not a promise. Soakers, the small bent lead sheets that sit under each tile course against a wall, and flashings, the strips dressed over the joint, finish the job. Our lead work page explains thicknesses and where each is used.
Check 4 of 4Scaffold, building control and the survey
What happens before the first slate comes off
Somerset Council, the highway authority for the village, licenses scaffold on the road or pavement (section 169 of the Highways Act 1980) and will accept applications only from accredited contractors, which means the contractor appointed for the job handles the paperwork. The fee is £124.60 per 28-day period (April 2026), with at least 10 working days' notice. A scaffold kept within your boundary stays off the highway, and we say early which kind your house will need, since access shapes the whole plan.
What decides the price
- Highway or driveway scaffold
- Weeks the scaffold is hired
- Share of the roof that is worn
- Telling building control about the job
Do I need Building Regulations approval to re-roof?
Use the Planning Portal's test. Less than 25 per cent of the building envelope and less than 50 per cent of the roof affected means no building control application is normally needed. Somerset Building Control, on 0300 303 7790, is the service for the village, which sat in the former South Somerset district, and it is the body to ask about a particular address.
Can bats stop a re-roof?
They can alter the timetable. The bat provisions in section 9(4) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 cover disturbing a bat inside its shelter and blocking its way in or out, where the person acts intentionally or recklessly. We look for signs in the roof space at the survey, and we say what we find before a price is set.
At the visit we go over each slope, the stacks, the valleys and the gutters, photograph what we find, and talk through which items are urgent and which can wait for another year. Photographs of your roof come with the quote, which is a single price in writing for everything, and we explain how the work will be sequenced. Give us the Keinton Mandeville address and the problem as you see it, and we will book a visit.
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.
Keinton Mandeville roofs, from Castle Street to the lias
Can a former thatched house in Keinton Mandeville be re-roofed with slate?
Swapping one covering for another usually changes how a house looks, so Somerset Council's planning team should be asked first, and a listed house also needs listed building consent. Weight matters as well: a covering 15 per cent or more heavier needs Building Regulations approval. We examine the rafters at survey before suggesting any covering.
What notice is needed to remove a shared chimney between terraced houses in Keinton Mandeville?
Where the stack stands on a party wall, the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 expects a formal notice to the neighbour, served at least two months in advance. An appointed party wall surveyor settles disputes, not building control. Taking out a chimney breast also needs Building Regulations approval in every case, because it is part of the structure.
Do bats affect re-roofing a Keinton Mandeville cottage?
They can. GOV.UK's guidance says every bat species is fully protected, roosts included, and it names roof repair as one job that can affect them. The statutory offences covering a bat disturbed in its shelter, or its way in being blocked, need intent or recklessness, so our survey looks for signs before any start date is fixed.
What decides how long a slate or clay roof lasts in Keinton Mandeville?
Quoted lifespans are ranges. The roofing contractors' body CORC says well-maintained natural slate can reach 100+ years, while the 60-year BRE minimum that Marley quotes applies to clay tiles only. In practice the nails, battens and underlay beneath the covering often decide when a roof reaches the end of its useful life.
Villages between Somerton and Glastonbury
A roof survey in Keinton Mandeville
Describe the slope, chimney or valley that worries you and a visit can be set up.