Roofers in Bapchild
30 road miles from Margate. Repairs, chimney work and re-roofs for Bapchild houses, listed farmhouses included, with photos of the roof in your hands before any price is written.
- Swale planningPlanning and listed buildings: Swale Borough Council.
- Tonge conservation areaTonge conservation area, within about 0.75 km.
- STG inspectsBuilding control through the STG partnership, Rochester.
A Grade I church, a post office and a farmhouse
St Lawrence
St Lawrence church has been Grade I listed since 24 January 1967, so roof work on it begins with a consent question.
The Tonge line
The Tonge conservation area lies within about 0.75 km of the centre, so we check your address against it first.
Two Grade II houses
The Post Office (listed 1985) and Morris Court Farmhouse (listed 1952) show that listing in Bapchild is not only for the church.
1,154 usual residents
What the heritage list says about Bapchild
| Council | Swale Borough Council |
|---|---|
| Building control | STG Building Control Partnership |
| Scaffold and skip licences | Kent County Council |
| Conservation area | Tonge |
| Population, 2021 | 1,154 (Bapchild parish) |
| From Margate | 30 road miles, about 42 min |
| Grade I, first listed 24 January 1967 | Church of St Lawrence |
| Grade II, first listed 21 March 1985 | The Post Office |
| Grade II, first listed 27 August 1952 | Morris Court Farmhouse |
| Listed entries within 500 m | 5, National Heritage List |
Bapchild is a Swale village with a Grade I church, two Grade II buildings nearby and the Tonge conservation area within about 0.75 km, so a roof job here can start with a consent question.
Sources: ONS Census 2021, Swale Borough Council, Kent County Council, OSRM road routing.
Bapchild, listing to frost
Bapchild roofs, from a Grade I church to the Swale paperwork and the weather that tests them
Three chapters on the listed buildings and the Tonge conservation area, the Swale, STG and Kent paperwork, and the order a Bapchild survey follows.
Chapter 01 of 03
Listed roofs around St Lawrence and the Tonge line
Bapchild is a village of 1,154 usual residents at the 2021 Census, 30 road miles and about 42 minutes west of Margate, and roof work here begins with a question about status. Historic England's National Heritage List gives the Church of St Lawrence a Grade I listing, first listed on 24 January 1967. The Post Office is listed Grade II from 21 March 1985, and Morris Court Farmhouse is Grade II from 27 August 1952. Within 500 metres of the village centre the list holds five entries in all, so a ladder should never go up on a Bapchild roof before someone has looked the address up.
A listing takes in every part of the building, the roof included. Under section 7 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, a listed building cannot have its character changed by works unless consent has been given first, and that can mean a new covering, a rebuilt chimney or relaid ridge tiles just as much as a new window. A listed house keeps its permitted development rights for roof alterations, but the consent is a separate step with its own decision-maker, which here is Swale Borough Council. Our roof window planning guide shows how the two systems sit side by side.
The church is a different case again. Where the Church of England uses a church for worship, repairs go through the faculty system. Churches of the Roman Catholic, Baptist, URC and Methodist traditions run their own systems, while Unitarian and Quaker buildings, and churches held by the Churches Conservation Trust, need listed building consent. Which of those routes applies to St Lawrence is not something a roofer should guess, so anyone responsible for a building of that kind should ask the church's governing body and Swale Borough Council before a repair is priced.
The Tonge conservation area lies within about 0.75 km of the centre of the village. Swale Borough Council lists 51 conservation areas across the borough, and a conservation area is article 2(3) land, which narrows what can be done to a roof without an application. Whether your own house is inside the line, and whether an Article 4 direction applies to it, are questions for Swale Borough Council, and we put them to the council before the survey so that the answer is on the table before the price is.
Chapter 02 of 03
Which body answers which part of a Bapchild re-roof
Three bodies touch a roof job in this village, and each answers a different question. Planning and listed building consent for a Bapchild address both go through Swale Borough Council. Building control comes through the STG Building Control Partnership, the Canterbury, Gravesham, Medway and Swale partnership, which works from Foord Annexe, Eastgate House, High Street, Rochester ME1 1EW and can be reached on 01634 331133. The highway outside the house belongs to Kent County Council.
For the building control question we start from the Planning Portal's test for a re-roof. Its wording is that an application is not normally needed if less than 25 per cent of the total building envelope is affected, and less than 50 per cent of the roof is affected. The test also catches a heavier covering: approval is needed if a new material increases the weight by 15 per cent or more, or if its fire performance would be significantly different from the existing covering's. A change in weight is the moment to ask a structural engineer or surveyor, which is why a full re-roof gets that conversation early.
| The question | Who answers it |
|---|---|
| Planning, listed building consent | Swale Borough Council |
| Building Regulations approval | STG Building Control Partnership |
| Scaffold licence, skip permit | Kent County Council |
| Notice before a scaffold stands | 5 working days |
Source: Swale Borough Council; STG Building Control Partnership; Kent County Council, highways licences
Scaffold that obstructs a Bapchild road or footway needs a licence under section 169 of the Highways Act 1980, issued by Kent County Council, and it is the scaffolding company that applies. Kent's fee for 2026 to 2027 is £52 per week. The application goes in 5 working days before the licence is meant to start, and whoever applies must hold public liability cover. A skip on the highway has its own permit at £45 per week for 2026 to 2027, with the same 5 working days' notice and a limit of 5 metres by 2 metres. Questions before applying go to Kent County Council highways on 03000 41 81 81.
A scaffold ordered on a Monday cannot stand on the highway that week if nobody has applied, so on the first visit we ask who is applying and plan how to keep the roof dry in the meantime where that can be done without the scaffold. Owners of a listed house should also expect the consent step to come before the scaffold does, because there is little point erecting access to a roof whose works are not yet approved.
Chapter 03 of 03
Frost days, rain days and the order of a survey
The Met Office's Manston station gives these averages for 1991 to 2020: about 613 mm of rain a year, 110.05 days with 1 mm or more of rain, a mean wind of 9.86 knots (11.21 in January) and 21.43 days of air frost. Those are Manston averages, not a Bapchild reading, so they describe one Thanet station rather than predict what your roof meets.
Rain days and frost days are where small faults turn into leaks. Water that gets into a hairline crack in the flaunching, the sloping mortar bed that holds a chimney's pots, can freeze and widen it. A slipped tile lets rain reach the underlay, the waterproof layer under the tiles, and the battens, the narrow timbers that carry them. Damp that reaches those timbers shows up later as a stain on a ceiling, well away from the tile that let it in, which is why the stain is a clue, not a location. Small faults get many wet days a year to grow, and frost then works on whatever water got in.
Wind is a separate load. Under BS 5534 fixings are calculated for the site's exposure, which is why ridge tiles and verges, the sloping edge of the roof beside a gable wall, are fixed with that exposure in mind and not bedded in mortar alone. Mortar is not banned; it is simply no longer relied on as the only fixing. Chimney stacks and valleys deserve a look from the roof, not only from the road. A roof inspection covers the flashings, the lead strips where a roof meets a stack or a wall, and the ridge. A stack that is letting water in belongs under chimney repairs, where the listed building or conservation area question comes before any scaffold is ordered.
A repair is the better buy when the covering is sound across the slope and a handful of tiles have moved, and we tell you when that is the case. A re-roof makes sense when the covering has failed across the slope, when battens have gone soft, or when the same leak keeps coming back after repairs. The survey is how we tell those situations apart, and the order below is the one it follows.
A Bapchild survey, in order
Photos of your roof
You send photos, or we look from the road first.
The roof itself
Covering, ridge, verges, valleys, flashings and stack, photographed.
The consent route
Listing, the Tonge line and Article 4 go to Swale Borough Council.
One written total
Photos and a single price follow the survey.
Each day on site
You are told the day's work, and the site is left tidy.
10-Year workmanship guarantee. In writing
Around Bapchild
Bapchild among Swale's villages
Bapchild shares Swale Borough Council, the STG partnership and Kent County Council's highway licences with other villages and towns in the borough, so a job here follows the same paperwork route as one near Faversham or Sittingbourne.
Bapchild questions on listed roofs, STG and scaffold notice
Does the Grade I listing of St Lawrence's church reach the roofs of nearby Bapchild houses?
A listing protects the listed building itself, so St Lawrence's own roof is the one that needs consent. A neighbouring house is not listed because of the church, but it may be listed in its own right or sit inside a conservation area. Five listed entries lie within 500 metres of the centre, so we check the National Heritage List against your address first.
How do I find out whether my Bapchild house is inside the Tonge conservation area?
The Tonge conservation area lies within about 0.75 km of the village centre, and the boundary itself belongs to Swale Borough Council. Ask the council about your address, and ask whether an Article 4 direction applies as well. If the house is inside, article 2(3) land rules apply, and we plan the work around the answer before pricing it.
Do I contact Swale Borough Council or STG about a re-roof?
Both, for different things. Planning and listed building consent sit with Swale Borough Council. Building Regulations approval is handled by STG Building Control Partnership in Rochester, or by a private registered building control approver; registration for those began on 6 April 2024, and private building control existed before that date. The Planning Portal test tells you whether approval is needed at all.
Is a skip on the road outside my Bapchild house allowed?
Only with a permit from Kent County Council, which costs £45 per week for 2026 to 2027 and needs 5 working days' notice. The skip must not exceed 5 metres by 2 metres, and the skip company applies for you. A skip kept on your own drive is not on the highway, so the permit does not arise, though waste still has to be carried by a registered carrier.
Which weather figures matter for a Bapchild roof?
The Met Office's Manston averages for 1991 to 2020 give the figures: about 613 mm of rain a year, 110.05 rain days and 21.43 air-frost days. They are averages for a Thanet station, not a Bapchild measurement. For fixings, BS 5534 calculates them for each site's exposure, so the survey looks at your house, not a table.
Show us the Bapchild roof
Send photos of the roof, or arrange a visit, and we will say which consent route your Bapchild address needs.