5 and 7, the Square
Listed Grade II* on 26 March 1984, with 1, the Square and 10, Silver Street both listed Grade II.
Roofers in Wiveliscombe
A medieval borough, a brewery past and a 1975 conservation area
Wiveliscombe is a small town with a conservation area, 52 list entries within 900 metres and a Grade II* church. We read each Wiveliscombe roof before pricing it.
From the Square to St Andrew's
St Andrew's church, Grade II*
First listed on 25 January 1956; the parish, not the council, handles consent for its roof.
Stone-walled town streets
A trust survey of older buildings seen from roads put Pickwell Down Sandstone at 82% of the stone recorded.
Street map of Wiveliscombe with Milverton, Leigh, Houndsmoor, Preston Bowyer marked around it, and Taunton.
Milverton, Halse and the road east
Milverton lies south-east of Wiveliscombe, with Langford Budville and Houndsmoor also south-east, Preston Bowyer and Halse east, and Leigh north-east.
About 9 miles west of Taunton, Somerset Council (unitary).
The Wiveliscombe roof work we cover
Wiveliscombe roof notes
Reading a Wiveliscombe roof, from the Square to the works roofs
A conservation area, shop and works roofs, a Grade II* church and the stone walls beneath the eaves: four checks for a market town.
Check 1 of 4The Square and the 2008 revision
Where the map decides the paperwork
Somerset Council's table of conservation areas gives Wiveliscombe a designation date of 5 February 1975, revised on 25 September 2008. Historic England's list has 52 entries inside a 900-metre radius of the town centre. Two on the Square stand out: 5 and 7, the Square, listed Grade II* on 26 March 1984, and 1, the Square, listed Grade II, with 10, Silver Street also Grade II. Together they mean a roofer in Wiveliscombe asks two questions before pricing: is the house inside the conservation area, and is it listed?
The town centre is compact, so a roof here rarely stands alone. Neighbouring gables and a pavement below shape how the work is done. Photographs of the street elevation help a council officer see what is proposed in context, so we take them from the pavement as well as from the roof. Those pictures also record the condition of the eaves and gutters seen from below, which is often where a problem first shows.
Look for
- Patches in mismatched tile
- Ridge capped in a new style
- Plastic fittings on a historic front
- Roof windows on a street slope
Does a conservation area stop a like-for-like re-roof?
Not in itself. Restoring what was there seldom changes the appearance planners care about. The difference lies in work that would change how the street looks: a dormer, a new material, roof windows on the front slope. Those are questions for the council before they are questions for a roofer. Our guide to planning permission for roof work explains the routes. Put your address to Somerset Council's planners before settling on a different covering.
What does the survey record for an application?
The covering found on each slope, the pitch, the ridge and verge details, the state of lead and the timbers visible from the loft, all with photographs. Those notes show the council what exists today, which is where any application has to start. Matching a slate or tile in size, colour and texture then keeps the street looking as it did, and on a listed house that care is a legal matter as well as a visual one.
Check 2 of 4Shop and works roofs
A town's wealth came from cloth and beer
Wiveliscombe grew around a market. The Somerset Extensive Urban Survey notes a papal bull of 1179 as the first reference to a town, a weekly market and annual fair granted to the Bishops of Wells in 1284 or 1285, and a borough by 1301. When the woollen trade declined in the first half of the 19th century, Hancock's Brewery, the biggest in the west of England by the 1860s according to Kelly's Directory, and quarrying cushioned the blow. Not every roof here is a house roof, and shops, workshops and storage units need different handling.
Look for
- Brown stains on shop ceilings
- Loose or rusting sheet fixings
- Valley gutters full of debris
- Cracks along the ridge joints
What decides the price
- Size of roof and how to reach it
- Whether the shop must close
- What the old covering hides
- Guardrails and safe routes
Who is the client on a shop or workshop roof?
An owner who lets or runs the building as a business falls outside the domestic category. HSE keeps that label for an individual commissioning work on their own home, or a relative's, where no business is involved. A business owner carries the client duties under CDM 2015 directly. Where two or more contractors work, or may work, on one project, regulation 5(1) requires the client to appoint a principal designer and a principal contractor in writing.
Why do big roofs need a different plan?
Height drives everything: guardrails at the edge, a route for people and materials that avoids the shop floor, and a clear idea of who works or stores stock underneath. We sequence the job in bays, closing each to the weather before opening the next, so trade can continue. A written construction phase plan comes with every project, large or small. Our commercial roofing page sets out how bigger buildings are surveyed.
Could an old sheet roof contain asbestos?
HSE's rule of thumb is to treat a building completed or refurbished before 2000 as asbestos-bearing until shown otherwise, and its guidance A14 rates asbestos cement roofs as always fragile. They are never walked on, and the material is identified before anyone lifts a sheet.
Check 3 of 4St Andrew's tower and sandstone walls
Roofs meet walls built of local stone
St Andrew's church has been Grade II* since its first listing on 25 January 1956. Because it is a working Anglican church, it falls under the faculty system, which the parish applies for, rather than the council's listed building consent. A tower or nave roof is a specialist job: lead on parapets and in gutters, access that may need a tower or a hoist, and a specification agreed before work starts.
Where a lead flashing meets old stone, the pointing decides the repair.
From the ground
- Look for stains below a wall junction
- Check gutters are not spilling on stone
- Note flashings that have lifted
- Watch for crumbling pointing at the eaves
Leave to a roofer
- Re-setting lead into existing joints
- Re-pointing around a flashing
- Replacing a split lead gutter
- Checking a parapet or coping
What is in the walls beneath the eaves?
A South West Heritage Trust survey (2018) covered older buildings visible from the street or a footpath, all from before the First World War. Pickwell Down Sandstone made up 82% of the building stone recorded in Wiveliscombe, and Permo-Trias sandstone 14%. That is a statement about walls, not roofs. It matters to a roofer because flashings, copings and abutments are fixed into those walls, and stone can be damaged by careless raking out.
Why does a roof leak where it meets a stone wall?
That junction is a joint between two materials that move differently. Lead is tucked into a mortar joint, and when the pointing around it fails, rain gets behind the flashing. A stain on the inside of an outer wall, or a green streak on the stone below the roof edge, points to the junction or to a gutter that has been spilling. We find which before anything is cut, and a spilling gutter gets fixed in the same visit, because water streaming down stone stains it and keeps it wet. A repair that rakes out old pointing and re-sets the lead in the existing joint is gentler than cutting a new chase into the stone itself.
Our lead work page covers the flashing detail. Lead can last for over 80 years according to MyJobQuote, which makes careful re-use of sound lead worth considering on a listed building.
Check 4 of 4Scaffold, the Square and one price
Town streets need a plan
Town-centre roofs mean pavements, parked cars and neighbours close by. Under section 169 of the Highways Act 1980, scaffold standing on the highway needs the highway authority's licence, and in Wiveliscombe that authority is Somerset Council. Only accredited contractors are given permits, and Somerset Council expects the appointed contractor, not the owner, to put in the application. Notice of 10 working days or more is required, and the fee is £124.60 for each 28-day period (April 2026). A job that runs over its dates needs a paid permit extension.
Why did the old district office go?
Wiveliscombe sat in Somerset West and Taunton until 1 April 2023, when that council and the other districts were abolished and Somerset Council became the sole principal authority. The planning team, the highway team and Somerset Building Control now sit under one council. Building control is on 0300 303 7790.
Can scaffold block the pavement?
It need not. Neighbours and nearby shops hear about the plan early, we agree where materials and skips will sit, and the licence is applied for ahead of the start date so the scaffold arrives with its paperwork in place. Weather can still move the dates, and we tell you when it does.
What goes into the price of a town roof?
Area, covering, height and access come first, then scaffold and what stripping out reveals beneath the old covering. Cost guides give national ranges only: Replacing ridge tiles, for example, runs from £225 to £550 in MyJobQuote's typical UK range (Oct 2026). When two quotes look far apart, check first whether both include VAT and scaffold.
Once we have been up, you receive photographs and one total in writing, and our waste leaves with us. Send your Wiveliscombe address and say which building the roof belongs to, and we book the visit.
What decides the price
- Pavement or road in front
- Weeks the scaffold stands
- Share of roof found tired
- Parking suspensions needed
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.
Wiveliscombe roofs, from the Square to the tower
Does the Wiveliscombe conservation area stop a roof being re-covered?
Not by itself. Restoring the same covering seldom changes the look planners care about. A dormer, a new material or roof windows facing the street are different, so check with Somerset Council's planning team before any of them is chosen. Listed buildings need listed building consent for work affecting their character.
Does a Grade II* listing on the Square affect the shop roof next door?
Each list entry describes its own building. 5 and 7, the Square is Grade II*, and 1, the Square and 10, Silver Street are Grade II. A neighbouring roof is only caught if it falls inside an entry or the conservation area. Somerset Council can confirm both for your address before any plan is made.
Do I still deal with the Taunton district office for a Wiveliscombe roof?
No. Somerset West and Taunton was abolished on 1 April 2023, and Somerset Council now handles planning, highways and building control. Somerset Building Control covers the former district area on 0300 303 7790. Exmoor National Park is a different authority altogether, and its planning team has no say over a roof in the town.
Am I a domestic client if I own a shop with a flat above in Wiveliscombe?
Probably not for the shop roof. In HSE's words a domestic client is a private individual having work done to their own home or a relative's, with no business in the picture. Work on business premises makes you a commercial client with duties under CDM 2015. If part of the building is your home, ask your adviser how the work divides between the two.
Milverton, Halse and Leigh close by
Have a Wiveliscombe roof surveyed
Send your Wiveliscombe address and which building the roof belongs to, and we will arrange the visit.