New Romney · 19.8 road miles south-west
Roofers in New Romney
A town with 7,250 residents in its parish, a Grade I church and conservation areas near its centre. A photo of the roof is the first step: what is wrong and what it needs come back to you before any price.
- Church
- St Nicholas, Grade I, a Church of England church in use
- Conservation areas
- New Romney, High Street and New Romney, Cannon Street
- Flood zoning
- Environment Agency Flood Zone 3, close to the town centre
- Scaffold on the highway
- Licensed by Kent County Council, £52 per week for 2026 to 2027
Three fault-and-verdict pairs from the Romney roofs
What we found
Listed house, tiles lifting near the eaves
What it fairly needs
Ask the council before any price.
What we found
Gutter run dipping near the downpipe
What it fairly needs
Reset the fall and brackets.
What we found
Soffit panels cracked and broken away
What it fairly needs
Identify the board, then renew.
The fair ledger
A Grade I church, conservation maps and a Romney house's eaves
New Romney has a listed church, a ruined priory and listed houses, all within reach of its conservation areas. Three entries follow. Each arrives at a roof verdict, with the consent route spelled out beforehand.
Entry 01Church
St Nicholas, Grade I: its roof follows the faculty route
St Nicholas, a Grade I church where the Church of England still worships, has a roof that runs on a different consent track from a house roof.
Why a church and a house take different routes
On the National Heritage List the Church of St Nicholas appears as Grade I (entry 1344057), first listed in August 1951. Because services are still held there by the Church of England, it falls under the ecclesiastical exemption, so the faculty system, not listed building consent, governs work on it. That route concerns the church building alone. It has no bearing on what your own roof needs.
Houses stand on a different footing. St John's Priory, including the ruins of the priory, is Grade II*, and Mittell House is Grade II. A listed home keeps permitted development for roof work, with listed building consent added whenever the work would alter the special interest it was listed for. The order of events matters more than the size of the job: survey, photographs, a question to Folkestone & Hythe District Council about consent, and only then a price.
Where it is unclear whether your house shares a listing with the house next door, Folkestone & Hythe District Council can confirm it. We would rather you knew before the scaffold is booked than after.
Myth: A church roof is handled like any other listed roof.
Fact: Anglican worship in a listed church brings the faculty system into play. A listed house needs listed building consent when work alters its character.
What the photographs are for
On a listed or neighbouring roof the pictures serve two readers, you and the council. Eight to ten clear images, each labelled with the part of the roof it shows, say more than a paragraph can.
- The eaves, where a failed gutter can soak the rafter feet and the first courses.
- The battens, tested by hand, because their soundness decides whether a slipped tile can simply be refixed.
- The lead at the chimney, checked along every edge and joint.
- The valleys and the underlay, as far as the loft allows us to look.
None of these needs any work to start. A survey visit changes nothing on the roof, and it leaves you with a record you can show anyone who has a say.
The roof inspection page explains what a survey visit covers from start to finish.
Entry 1344057
the list entry that records St Nicholas as Grade I
Historic England's National Heritage List
Entry 02Boundaries
High Street and Cannon Street: conservation boundaries, one map check
Folkestone & Hythe District Council's conservation areas near the town centre include High Street and Cannon Street. Whether your address sits inside one is for its map to show.
Look up the address before the scaffold goes up
New Romney, High Street and New Romney, Cannon Street are both designated conservation areas, and Folkestone & Hythe District Council keeps the map that draws them. Living in the town settles nothing, because one side of a street can be inside a boundary while the other is out. Look the address up before work is planned, or give it to us or leave it with us, and the council is asked on your behalf.
Re-covering a house is normally permitted development, while dormers and extensions are dealt with in the planning guide for roof work. Article 4 directions can withdraw rights, so the council has to be asked about your address. If it turns out to lie inside a boundary, the survey photographs matter even more, as they are what the council will actually look at.
None of this holds up a leak repair. Keeping the weather out with a temporary fix comes first, and the permanent decision can wait for the council's reply.
Tiles slipped, battens still sound
Refix, then test
Listed house, covering worn at eaves
Ask Folkestone & Hythe District Council first
Whole slope worn through
Re-cover the slope
Is my New Romney house inside a conservation area?
Look your address up on Folkestone & Hythe District Council's map, because the boundary lines for High Street and Cannon Street decide it and the town name does not. Send us the address and we will ask the council, then tell you what it said before we price anything.
Building Regulations, separately
The Planning Portal's interactive guide treats a re-roof as two tests passed together: under 25 per cent of the building envelope, and under 50 per cent of the roof. Beyond those two tests, approval is needed if the new covering weighs 15 per cent or more beyond what is there now. Folkestone & Hythe District Council's own Building Control team can be reached on 01303 853538, which is the right call if your job is close to either limit.
Our pitched roofing page describes how a full re-cover is weighed against a repair.
Four parts, one edge
Brett Martin, which makes guttering, advises a fall of 1 mm for every 600 mm towards the outlet. Where a run has dipped between its brackets, a pool stands in the gutter, rots the fascia and soaks the rafter feet behind it. The remedy is to reset the brackets and the fall. A whole new run is only needed when the joints have failed as well.
The soffit deserves a careful look too. HSE tells owners to assume asbestos in a building built or refurbished before 2000, and its list of locations includes soffit panels made of asbestos insulating board beneath the eaves. Work on insulating board is mostly licensed, so a cracked soffit on an older house is identified before anyone drills or breaks it. The gutters, soffits and fascias page sets out the survey and the options.
None of this is guesswork from the pavement. We look at the eaves from a ladder, and from inside the loft where possible, before we give a verdict.
Entry 03Eaves
Where roof meets gutter: underlay, fascia and the first course
The eaves carry the fascia, the gutter, the soffit and the first courses of the covering, and a fault in any one of them damages the others.
What sets the price
- Length of the gutter run
- Soundness of the fascia behind
- Whether the soffit board is asbestos
One written total price
- Fascia board
- Gutter on brackets
- Underlay into the gutter
- Soffit and vent
Underlay into the gutter
The underlay should run down into the gutter rather than stop short of it. Where it has slipped or perished, rain runs behind the first course and soaks the batten ends. We lift the first tiles or slates at one spot, look, and photograph what is there.
Access matters here too. A pavement scaffold here needs a Kent County Council licence, which we arrange with our scaffolder.
Where the fascia board has rotted, the repair is a new board and a reset gutter, not a patch of filler. We show you the soft section in a photograph so that the verdict is plain: a repair where the board is sound, a renewal where it is not.
Out along the road to New Romney
New Romney sits 19.8 road miles south-west of Folkestone, with a drive of some 27 minutes. New Romney parish had 7,250 usual residents at the 2021 Census. Flood Zone 3 land lies close to the town centre, as the Environment Agency's flood map shows it. A phone picture of the fault and another of the whole roof give us what we need to ask what the loft and the downpipes are doing. The parish figure reflects the town as a whole, whereas the survey looks at one roof at a time.
New Romney roofs near St Nicholas, the priory and the conservation areas
Does a roof near the Church of St Nicholas in New Romney need extra checks?
That depends on whether your own house is listed or shares a listing. The church is Grade I and, because the Church of England holds services in it, the faculty system governs it. A listed house needs listed building consent for any work affecting its character. First we survey, photograph the faults, then ask Folkestone & Hythe District Council about the plan before the price is set.
Where are the conservation areas in New Romney, and how do I check my address?
Folkestone & Hythe District Council's conservation areas close to the town centre include New Romney, High Street and New Romney, Cannon Street. The council's online map lets you hold an address up against a boundary line, and that is the quickest way to find out. Check for an Article 4 direction with Folkestone & Hythe District Council too, since one can remove further rights, or pass the address to us and we will ask.
Who arranges the scaffold licence on a New Romney street?
The licence for scaffolding on a New Romney street comes from Kent County Council, the highway authority, at £52 per week for 2026 to 2027. Kent County Council's licence page asks the scaffolding company, not the householder, to make the application. For this job, we arrange it with our scaffolder. A permit lasts 7 calendar days, and renewing one means applying 5 working days ahead, so a long job is planned around that.
How do I tell whether re-covering a New Romney house needs a building regulations application?
Run the Planning Portal's two tests: less than 25 per cent of the building envelope and less than 50 per cent of the roof affected. On top of those, any covering whose weight is 15 per cent or more higher needs approval. Folkestone & Hythe District Council's own Building Control team is on 01303 853538 if your job sits near a limit, and the survey shows where it falls.
Is there anything to know about roof work near the priory remains in New Romney?
St John's Priory, including the ruins, is listed Grade II*, and part of a Cistercian grange north of the High Street, also known as Romney Priory, is a scheduled monument. Works to a scheduled monument need scheduled monument consent. A house roof nearby is not automatically affected, so ask Folkestone & Hythe District Council whether your address falls inside a listing or a schedule.
What do I receive after the survey of a New Romney roof?
You get the pictures, and each fault comes with a repair or replace verdict and the reasoning behind it. Where your house is listed or sits near a conservation boundary, the council's reply to our question is included too. One written total price follows. The write-up is yours to keep and to show anyone you like, a family member or a second roofer, before you decide anything.
Roof trouble in New Romney? Tell us.
You'll get one written total price.