The railway and its depots
Crewkerne station opened in the parish in 1860; by 1894 two dealers in coal, timber and slate traded nearby.
Roofers in Misterton
A conservation area village strung along the old Dorchester road
Misterton lies about 1.5 miles south-east of Crewkerne on the Dorchester road, with a conservation area, 1,037 residents and a corner of the Dorset National Landscape close by.
From the station depots to The Globe Inn
St Leonard's church of 1840
Sampson Kempthorne of London designed it; the church it replaced had been re-roofed in 1822.
Dry Close and neighbours
Dry Close, New Inn Cottages and The Globe Inn are each listed Grade II.
Street map of Misterton with Crewkerne, Mosterton, Haselbury Plucknett, Merriott marked around it, and Taunton.
Crewkerne, Mosterton and Haselbury Plucknett
Crewkerne lies north-west of Misterton, with Merriott beyond it, Haselbury Plucknett to the north-east, Mosterton to the south and Broadwindsor and Beaminster further south.
About 18 miles south-east of Taunton, Somerset Council (unitary).
Misterton in four checks
Reading a Misterton roof from the turnpike to the ridge
Four checks for roofs along the Dorchester road, covering the planning map, the slates, church and chapel consents and the scaffold.
Check 1 of 4Conservation area and landscape edge
Two designations, one set of questions
Misterton's conservation area lies within about 0.75 km of the village centre. Separately, about 7 per cent of a 1.5 km square drawn round the village falls inside the Dorset National Landscape, though the village point itself sits outside it. In November 2023 every AONB in England became a National Landscape, and GOV.UK notes that the rename is not statutory. For a roof, the designation underneath is what counts. Neither is a ban on roof work; both are reasons to ask early.
Does my address sit inside either boundary?
That depends on the street and the house, which is why we ask before we price. Somerset Council is the planning authority here and holds the maps, so its planning team can confirm the conservation area boundary and the landscape edge alike. If you live on the Dorchester road itself, treat the conservation area question as a live one until the council tells you otherwise.
What do the designations change for a roof?
Re-covering with exactly what was there seldom causes trouble. A different material, roof windows on the road side, a new stack or a dormer are the changes to put to the planning team first. Our planning permission for roof work guide explains where the lines fall. Listed buildings add a second layer: Dry Close, New Inn Cottages and The Globe Inn are each Grade II, and listed building consent is the route for alterations that touch what makes them special.
Six listed entries stand within 500 metres of the centre, so a fair part of the village is protected in some way, and the council can say which part. A conservation area village rewards a roofer who checks first. The survey notes your address against the heritage list, so the question is answered before a quote exists.
Look for
- One slope in a different colour
- Roof windows facing the road
- A brand-new chimney pot
- Plastic fascia on an older cottage
Check 2 of 4Slate, a station and slipped courses
A stray slate or a tired slope?
- Sound: even rows with no gaps
- Needs work: slipped slate, gap in course
When the railway reached Misterton's parish in 1860, trading depots grew up round the station, and by 1894 the Victoria County History finds two dealers there in coal, timber and slate. That record cannot tell us what covers any single roof today. It does show that slate could be bought close to home in the 1890s, and nothing more than that.
What decides the price
- Number of slates slipped or broken
- Whether a close match can be found
- State of the battens and underlay
- Ladder or tower to reach the slope
How can I tell a slipped slate from a failing slope?
Look along the slope from the garden. A lone slate hanging below the line, or a dark gap in a course, is one fixing that has let go. Several in the same patch is a pattern. Each slate is held by a nail or hook to a batten, a timber lath running across the rafters. Beneath the battens runs the underlay, the membrane that catches stray water. When nails corrode, the slate slides, and the underlay meets the first rain.
Is an old slate roof worth keeping?
Often. According to CORC, 100+ years is realistic for natural slate that gets maintenance, and the weak point tends to be the fixings and never the stone. One slate can be re-hung on a fresh clip, or a close match swapped in. A run of failures means stripping the slope, renewing battens and underlay and laying the sound slates back, a larger job with a long-lived result. Our slate roofing page sets out how we judge it.
We save every sound slate we can. Old slates are hard to match by colour and size, and a patchwork repair shows from the road. It also leaves more joins for water to find, which is the opposite of what a repair is for. If the survey shows that too many fixings have failed, we say that a patch will not hold, and show you the proof in the photographs.
Check 3 of 4Church and chapel roofs: who consents
Different buildings, different consent routes
St Leonard's church was designed by Sampson Kempthorne of London and built in 1840, replacing a church that had been re-roofed in 1822. Whatever covers it now, the question is the one that faces anyone responsible for a church or chapel in or near Misterton: which consent system applies? The answer rests on the denomination and on the building's present use, and picking the wrong route costs months.
A church roof is repaired only once the right body has agreed what goes back on it.
From the ground
- Look for damp high on inside walls
- Check gutters and downpipes for overflow
- Note missing or slipped slates at the eaves
- Spot daylight in the roof space
Leave to a roofer
- Inspecting the valleys and abutments
- Checking nail and hook fixings
- Renewing damaged battens
- Reaching a high ridge safely
Which route does a church roof take?
Where a Church of England building is still used for worship, roof work goes to the faculty system. Roman Catholic, Methodist and URC buildings answer to their own denominations. So does a Baptist church when a Schedule 1 trust corporation holds it. A Unitarian or Quaker meeting house needs listed building consent from the council if it is listed. Closed churches and converted chapels sit in that group too. Scheduled monuments have a separate consent from the Secretary of State, which the council cannot give.
What does a roofer need from the parish or trustees?
A clear specification and clear photographs. We describe the covering, the fixings and the access, and show every slope and gutter, so the approving body sees the building exactly as it stands. Services and events matter too, so any scaffold plan is agreed with the people who use the building in good time. Bell ringers, flower rotas and weddings all need a clear way in, and we plan around them instead of asking them to plan around us. Parish councils and trustees often need two or three quotes, and a written specification lets each firm price the same job.
If you look after a hall or chapel here and are unsure of its status, ask the parish or trustees first and Somerset Council second, then tell us what they say.
Check 4 of 4A road-front roof and its scaffold
Highway licence, building control, one price
The village grew along the Crewkerne to Dorchester road, turnpiked in 1765, and plenty of houses still stand close to the road. A frame set up on the footway counts as being on the highway, and section 169 of the Highways Act 1980 lets the highway authority licence it. In Misterton that authority is Somerset Council. If the house has a front garden or a drive wide enough, the frame goes there and no licence enters into it.
What decides the price
- Pavement frame or garden frame
- Number of weeks it must stand
- Share of the roof that is tired
- Heavier covering needing a structural check
Who gets the licence?
Somerset Council takes scaffold applications from the appointed contractor only, and licenses accredited firms. Build in ten working days at the very least. The fee is £124.60 for every 28-day period (April 2026). We set the start date round that, so a roof is never left waiting on a form. If bad weather stretches a job past a licence period, we tell you straight away and sort the extension.
Does the work need building control?
The Planning Portal's test sets two limits, under 25 per cent of the building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof, below which a building control application is not normally needed. Weight matters separately: a covering that adds 15 per cent or more to the roof's load needs a structural check and Building Regulations approval. A roof is also somebody's home, and the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 protects nests in use from intentional harm, so we look before we strip, and a nest found in the eaves changes the timing of the work and not the standard of it.
At the end of the survey you hold photographs of each slope and one price, in writing, for everything; waste leaves the site with us. Where a whole new roof is the honest answer, our roof replacement page explains what that involves. Tell us your Misterton address and we will book the 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.
Misterton roofs, slates and the old road
Do Misterton's slate depots mean my house has a slate roof?
No. The record shows slate was sold near the station in the 1890s, which tells you nothing about your roof. Slate, clay and concrete are all possible coverings on village houses, and we identify yours at the survey. The covering decides what a repair involves, how long it lasts and which pieces we try to keep.
Can I use a different tile on a house in the conservation area?
A new covering alters how the house looks, so ask Somerset Council's planning team before you order anything. Matching what is there is the easier case to put forward. If the house is also listed, a change of covering may need listed building consent, so the council check comes first and the tile order second.
How do I look after gutters on an older house?
Clear them before winter and watch them in heavy rain. Brett Martin advises 1mm of fall for every 600mm, so one slipped bracket can leave water standing and soak the fascia behind. Green staining under a joint, or a sag between brackets, tells you where to look. We check the fascia and soffit timber whenever we replace a run.
Is a damp loft always a roof leak?
No. Condensation on cold timber looks very like a leak. Under non-breathable HR underlay, Marley advises 25mm of eaves ventilation on pitches of 15 degrees or less and 10mm on steeper ones, and many lofts lose that gap to packed insulation. Streaks that appear in dry winter weather are the clue to look for.
Dorchester road villages
Misterton, Crewkerne side: book a survey
Send your Misterton address and say which slope or building concerns you, and a visit follows.