Lenham · 24.6 road miles north-west
Roofers in Lenham
A Kent village with a Grade I church, a Grade I tithe barn and a conservation area of its own, and the Kent Downs close by. Send a photograph of the roof that worries you: each fault comes back with a stamped verdict and a reason in plain words, and the survey ends in one written total price.
- Grade I church
- St Mary's is in Church of England use, so roof works there go through a faculty
- Grade I barn
- The Tithe Barn carries Historic England list entry 1116543
- Scheduled monument
- Lock-Up, Lenham is a monument on the national list, entry 1005138
- Highway licence for scaffolding
- Kent County Council, £52 per week for 2026 to 2027
Three Lenham roof faults, each with its own verdict
What we found
Cracked mortar under a chimney flashing
What it fairly needs
Rework that joint; the covering stays.
What we found
Gutter sagging between rusted brackets
What it fairly needs
New brackets and a gutter laid to a fall.
What we found
A ceiling stain beneath a valley
What it fairly needs
Trace the entry point before any price.
The fair ledger
A church, a tithe barn and a Downs edge: three roof questions
Lenham has a Grade I church in Church of England use, a Grade I tithe barn and a conservation area, with the Kent Downs close by. Each entry separates a consent question from plain workmanship and ends in a stamp.
Entry 01Parish church
St Mary's church: the Church of England decides, not the council
St Mary's carries a Grade I listing and is a Church of England church in worship use, so a roof job there is steered through the faculty system and never through a council application.
Where the paperwork goes
A church in Church of England use sits outside listed building consent. Its route is the faculty system, which belongs to that church's own jurisdiction, and Maidstone Borough Council is not the body that grants one. Historic England list entry 1086103 records St Mary's at Grade I, and it is a Church of England parish church in the Diocese of Canterbury, so the faculty route is the one that applies to its roofs.
Our part is narrow and practical. When the people responsible for the building ask for a survey, we climb, photograph each slope and write down what every fault is and what it fairly needs. Whoever applies for a faculty then holds a clear, dated account to attach, in place of a vague worry about the gutters. We do not choose the route, and no work begins until it has been settled.
A tall roof also raises the question of access. Where reaching a slope safely needs a scaffold or a tower, that is stated when the survey is written up, so nobody is surprised by it later, and any highway licence is arranged on our side.
Houses beside the churchyard are a separate matter. Each is looked at against its own listing and its position on the conservation area map, never against the church's. If neither applies, a re-roof follows the general rules, and the planning permission guide is where to read them before you commit to anything.
Myth: Grade I means nobody may touch the roof.
Fact: Listing changes the consent route, not whether a leak gets mended; a church in use goes through its faculty, and the repair is specified before anyone climbs.
Grade I
Historic England's grade for St Mary's, Lenham
list entry 1086103
Entry 02Tithe Barn
A Grade I barn and a scheduled lock-up: two consent rules
The Tithe Barn is listed Grade I and Lock-Up, Lenham is a scheduled monument. Each has a consent rule of its own, and an ordinary house roof meets neither.
Listed, scheduled or neither
On Historic England's list the Tithe Barn stands at Grade I (entry 1116543) and Forge House at Grade II* (entry 1060992). Work that would affect the special character of a listed building needs listed building consent. The roof-work permissions a house already holds under permitted development survive listing, with consent added on top. A scheduled monument is a different regime altogether. Lock-Up, Lenham (entry 1005138) has protection from the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979, and nobody may carry out works to a monument without authorisation.
Standing near a listed or scheduled neighbour does not make a house either. Its own record decides, so before a survey we search the Historic England list for the address. If the house is listed, the written quote says consent comes first and sets out the like-for-like repair that would go to the council. If it is not, the job follows the usual route and nothing waits on a form.
On a listed roof the survey notes the covering, its fixings, the ridge bed and the timbers underneath, each with a photograph, so a repair can be specified to suit what is already there. A mismatched repair is easy to spot from the lane, and it is also the kind of thing a council officer reads in a minute, which is why we describe the work in terms of what is being kept. Our roof inspection page describes the survey, and pitched roofing covers the repairs that come out of it.
What a listing changes
Listed house, ridge tile loose
Consent, then like for like
Unlisted house beside the barn
The ordinary route
Covering worn out on any house
Full re-cover
Does the Tithe Barn's listing cover my house next door?
No. A listing covers the building it names, and your house answers to its own status. The Historic England list shows what is listed, and Maidstone Borough Council can confirm anything unclear. Send the address and that check is made before we price the job.
Three labels, one council
The Kent Downs National Landscape (formerly AONB) touches the ground around Lenham, although the village core sits clear of its boundary. That label describes the land and gives the Kent Downs team a voice as adviser; applications are still decided by Maidstone Borough Council. A repair or a like-for-like re-cover takes the standard route, and anything bigger begins with our planning guide.
The Lenham Village conservation area has its boundary held by Maidstone Borough Council. Whether your house sits inside it is settled from the council's list, not from the name of a street. Maidstone Borough Council also lists part of Lenham among its conservation areas with an Article 4 direction. A direction under Article 4 can take away further rights, so ask Maidstone Borough Council about your own address before any work is planned.
A leak is never made to wait for this. Slipped tiles and a split gutter are dealt with straight away while the council's reply is awaited, and the reply goes into your quote file so anyone opening the file later finds the question was asked. Where exactly the Downs boundary runs against a particular address is settled on the map, and we open the map before saying anything about it.
The same habit applies to every reply we receive. The survey notes, the photographs and any answer from the council sit together in a single file, so whoever picks the job up next can read why the work was shaped the way it was.
Entry 03Downs edge
Downs edge, village conservation area and an Article 4 check
The Kent Downs National Landscape touches the ground around Lenham, Lenham has a conservation area, Lenham Village, and part of it carries an Article 4 direction. One council decides.
Myth: The Kent Downs team can refuse a roof job.
Fact: The team advises. Maidstone Borough Council decides applications, and like-for-like re-covering takes the standard route.
Is my Lenham house inside the Kent Downs boundary?
The Kent Downs map answers that for each address. The designation reaches land around Lenham but not the core of it, so streets on the edge are the ones that need looking up one by one. Give us the address and the Kent Downs boundary is checked ahead of the survey, then what it shows is copied onto the quote.
Which of Lenham's labels, if any, sits over your roof?
Give us the street and a photograph, and the verdicts come first with the figure after them.
Out to Lenham
From Folkestone it is 24.6 road miles north-west to Lenham, around 32 minutes at the wheel, so a survey and a return visit are planned as a single trip wherever the roof allows, with the photographs and the verdicts sent to you straight afterwards.
Lenham roofs: the church, the barn and the village boundary
Plain answers on consent, boundaries and the survey for roofs in and around the village.
What does a roof survey in Lenham look at before a price is given?
Slopes first, then the details. We look along each slope for slipped or cracked covering, then at the ridge, the chimney flashings and the valleys, and last at the gutters and eaves. From inside the loft, where it is safe to go in, we check the underside for daylight and damp. Every fault gets photographs and a stamp, and the quote that follows is a single total. Any part that cannot be reached safely is flagged, together with the access it would take to inspect it.
Who holds the licence if scaffolding stands on a Lenham road?
Only scaffolding that occupies the highway needs one, so a scaffold on your drive or in the garden does not. Where it has to stand on the public highway, Kent County Council issues the licence at £52 per week for 2026 to 2027. Kent County Council advises that the skip or scaffolding company should submit the application for you; for our jobs, we arrange it with our scaffolder, and the quote covers the scaffold. The licence is sorted ahead of the day the scaffold goes up.
Does re-roofing a Lenham house need Building Regulations approval?
Planning Portal guidance says a Lenham re-roof does not normally need an application where under 25 per cent of the building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof is touched. Choosing a covering 15 per cent or more heavier than what is on the roof now also calls for approval, and a structural check before ordering makes sense. Maidstone Borough Council's own Building Control team, on 01622 602701, can say how that applies to a given house, and we raise it before work starts.
Is my Lenham street inside the village conservation area?
Lenham's designated conservation area is named Lenham Village, and Maidstone Borough Council holds the boundary, so the council's list settles it for your street. Part of the village also has an Article 4 direction on the council's list, and a direction can take rights away, so ask Maidstone Borough Council before any work is planned. We copy the council's reply onto the quote next to the figure, where you can read it.
Who decides on roof work at St Mary's church in Lenham?
St Mary's is listed Grade I and is a Church of England church in worship use, which puts works under the Church of England's faculty system, not listed building consent. A district council does not grant a faculty. For anyone responsible for the building, our survey gives a photographed account of each fault that can go with whatever is submitted, so the application describes real findings.
What does the scheduled Lock-Up mean for a roof near it?
The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 makes consent a rule for works to the monument itself, and for nothing else nearby. A house nearby is a different property with a different record, and its roof follows whatever applies to it. When you cannot tell whether your own address is affected, ask Maidstone Borough Council and pass us the reply, so the quote can allow for it from the start.
Lenham roof worrying you? Tell us.
You will get one written total price.