Chartham · 18.3 road miles north-west
Roofers in Chartham
A Grade I parish church, a listed cottage, a scheduled dovecote and a conservation area, with the Kent Downs National Landscape touching the ground around the village. Chartham roofs are read with the map open beside them. We check the covering, then the route to consent, then give one written total price.
- Church on the list
- St Mary, Grade I, in use for Church of England worship
- Scheduled dovecote
- The Dovecote at Burnt House Farm, a scheduled monument close to the village centre
- Edge of the Downs
- The Kent Downs National Landscape touches the surrounding ground; Canterbury City Council decides planning
- By road from Folkestone
- 18.3 road miles, about 27 minutes, heading north-west
What a Chartham roof needs: three verdicts, in the order we weigh them
What we found
A house close to the Downs boundary line
What it fairly needs
Check the map, then the council, before pricing.
What we found
Gutter holding water between outlets
What it fairly needs
Re-lay the run so it falls to the outlet.
What we found
Battens rotted beneath a worn covering
What it fairly needs
Strip the slope, re-batten and re-cover.
The fair ledger
A parish church, the Downs edge and a gutter run in Chartham
Three entries for Chartham roofs: how a church, a cottage and a dovecote each reach consent differently, where the National Landscape stops short of the village, and how a gutter is laid to fall.
Entry 01Church and cottage
Church, cottage and dovecote: each with its own route to consent
Grade I status and continuing worship make the Church of St Mary a case of its own. A cottage and a dovecote near it follow other rules.
Faculty, listed consent, scheduled consent
The Church of St Mary is listed at Grade I (entry 1100352, first listed on 30 January 1967). Because Church of England worship continues there, the building sits outside listed building consent altogether, and repairs to it are authorised by faculty instead. That is a church matter, and no roofer's paperwork changes it. We mention it so you can see why a church roof and a cottage roof, standing close together, are never handled as one job.
Riverview Cottage (entry 1085691) was listed at Grade II on 14 March 1980. A home gets different treatment: listed building consent under section 7 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 applies to anything that would alter its character, though its roof work keeps the usual permitted development rights.
The Dovecote at Burnt House Farm (entry 1018874) is a scheduled monument, a different system again. Works to it are controlled by section 2 of the 1979 Act on Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas.
Your own house comes into this only if the list names it. For a Chartham address we search the national list before anything else, and the report says plainly which route, if any, applies. Only then does a price get written, so the number you receive already allows for the right paperwork.
Which route applies
Church of England church in use
Faculty system
Listed Grade II cottage
Listed building consent
Scheduled dovecote
Scheduled monument consent
Does the church's Grade I listing reach my Chartham house?
No. A listing attaches to the one building that the entry describes, and to nothing beside it. A neighbouring house is caught only if the list describes it too, which is why we check Historic England's list against your address, and put what we find into the report, even when that is nothing at all.
Entry 02Kent Downs edge
Where the Kent Downs touch Chartham: who decides, and what stays ordinary
Part of the ground around Chartham touches the Kent Downs National Landscape, though the centre of the village lies outside it.
A designation, not a planning authority
The Kent Downs is a National Landscape, the name that replaced Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Its own team says it acts in an advisory role to the local planning authorities, and that it is not one itself. For Chartham the deciding body is Canterbury City Council, which determines the applications.
Inside a National Landscape, plain re-roofing is still judged by the normal rules. Dormer windows are the exception, and our planning guide sets those out so that this page does not have to.
Whether one particular house is inside the boundary cannot be read from the village name, and a boundary can cut straight across a garden. Look at the Kent Downs map for your address, and if the house is near the line, ask Canterbury City Council. At the survey we put the address on the map ourselves and write the result into the report, so there is a record you can keep and show to anyone who asks.
A roof beside the boundary gets the same survey as any other: eaves to ridge, battens, flashings, then the roof space. The boundary changes what paperwork may be needed. It does not change what the roof itself has to be, so the fair verdict is reached identically across the boundary. A repair is still preferred where it is sound, and a re-roof is recommended only where the slope has truly worn out.
Myth: The Kent Downs team decides roof applications.
Fact: It advises. The district council decides planning applications, and plain re-roofing keeps to the normal rules. The label describes landscape, and carries no planning power of its own.
4,753
usual residents in Chartham parish at the 2021 Census
ONS, whole parish
One millimetre in every 600
Brett Martin advises that guttering be fitted with a fall of 1 mm for every 600 mm towards the outlet. Over a run of 6 m that comes to 10 mm, a gentle slope that is easy to lose when a bracket loosens or a fascia board shifts a little. A pool of standing water is the visible sign that the slope has gone.
The survey follows the water. We look at each bracket, at every joint where one length meets the next, and at the outlet, because a dropped joint and a blocked outlet both leave a pool and look alike from the ground. Where the brackets are sound and the run is whole, re-laying to the right fall is a repair. Where lengths are cracked or the fascia behind them has failed, the verdict moves to replacement.
The board the gutter hangs from gets the same look in the same visit, because a gutter cannot hold its fall on a weak fixing. Our gutters, soffits and fascias page covers that work, and the roof inspections page describes the survey itself, including what you receive afterwards. A gutter fault found at that visit is written up with the rest, so nothing is left to a separate call-out.
Entry 03Gutters and falls
A gutter that holds water: re-laying the fall before replacing the run
A gutter that keeps a pool between its brackets has lost its fall, and that is where the repair starts.
Can a sagging Chartham gutter simply be topped up with sealant?
Sealant stops one weeping joint, but it does nothing for a gutter whose slope has gone. We trace the pool to its cause, say whether a reset or new lengths are the fairer verdict, and photograph the finding so the evidence is in your hands before you decide.
Where a pool begins
- Bracket
- Dropped joint
- Outlet
A pool is traced to the bracket, the joint or the outlet before anything at all is replaced.
Which Chartham roof needs a second pair of eyes?
Describe what you can see, or send a photograph taken from the ground or a window. Our reply names the verdict first, and the price waits until the consent question, if any, is settled.
Chartham sits 18.3 road miles north-west
Allow about 27 minutes by road from Folkestone, since Chartham is 18.3 road miles to the north-west of Folkestone. Before a visit we look at the map for the house, so the survey starts with the boundary and the listings already marked. Where a scaffold will stand on the highway, its position is agreed at the survey, with the gutter line and the access to the slope in mind, and you hear the permit dates well before the poles arrive. Afterwards the site is left clean, and the report is sent to you in writing so it can be kept with the house papers.
What a Chartham householder should settle first
Straight answers for Chartham, each with its reason attached, so the answer can be checked rather than taken on trust, and so you know what to ask the council yourself.
What is checked on a Chartham roof before the price is written?
The survey begins at the gutter line and climbs the slope: covering, battens, underlay, then flashings and the ridge. Indoors we check the roof space for stained timber and gaps of daylight. A search of the national list for your address comes before the price, because a Grade I church and a scheduled dovecote show that Chartham holds buildings with their own consent routes. The report carries photographs and a plain verdict, so nothing in it has to be taken on trust.
Is Chartham inside the Kent Downs National Landscape?
Part of the ground around the village touches it, though the mapped centre lies outside. The label is a designation, formerly Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and not a planning authority: Canterbury City Council decides applications and the Kent Downs team advises. Whether your address is inside is a question for the Kent Downs map, which anyone can open and search, and we will check it with you. Normal rules still govern plain re-roofing, and the planning guide covers dormers, so that detail is not repeated here.
Does a Chartham re-roof need building control approval?
According to the Planning Portal's guide, building regulations approval is not normally required while under 25 per cent of the building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof is affected. Approval is needed where the replacement covering ends up 15 per cent or more heavier. In Chartham the building control body is the STG Building Control Partnership, on 01634 331133, or a registered building control approver.
Who applies for the highway scaffold licence on a Chartham job?
Kent County Council issues licences for scaffolding that stands on the highway, at £52 per week for 2026 to 2027. The company erecting it applies, in the council's words: the skip or scaffolding company should submit the application for you, says Kent County Council. We arrange it with our scaffolder, and the permit dates are passed to you in advance, so the neighbours know what is coming and for how long it will stand.
Does Chartham's conservation area limit what can be done to a roof?
The Chartham conservation area is the designation to look at, and Canterbury City Council holds its details among the 97 it counts across the whole district. Ordinary re-roofing is normally permitted development even inside a conservation area. Ask Canterbury City Council about your address first, since an Article 4 direction can remove further rights. We put that question at the survey and hand you the reply in writing, and no work is booked until it has arrived and you have read it.
What does the flood map say about the middle of Chartham?
On the Environment Agency's flood map the mapped centre of Chartham falls in Flood Zone 3. Treat that as a fact about the map and nothing more, one that you may well meet in other paperwork: it is no roofing rule, and it leaves the method of repair untouched. The map can be searched by address. At the survey, every house gets the same checks of gutters, covering and roof space, whichever zone it sits in.
Tell us about the Chartham roof that worries you.
One written total price follows the survey, and the report is yours to keep whatever you decide.