Roofers in Hernhill
20.9 road miles from Margate. Hernhill roof repairs, re-roofs, lead and chimney jobs begin with a look at the roof and its photographs for you, with the paperwork route settled before dates.
- Swale planningSwale Borough Council decides planning here.
- Three conservation areasThree conservation areas near the village centre.
- STG inspectsSTG handles building control for Swale.
A Grade I church, a Grade II* manor house and three conservation areas
St Michael's
St Michael's church was listed Grade I on 24 January 1967 and, as an Anglican church in use, follows the faculty system.
Manor House
Manor House is Grade II* and Walnut Tree House Grade II, so roof work on either needs the list entry first.
Three areas
Hernhill - Fostall, Hernhill and Staplestreet are all conservation areas within about 0.75 km of the village centre.
Hernhill, Swale borough
Hernhill's record, read before a roof survey
| Council | Swale Borough Council |
|---|---|
| Building control | STG Building Control Partnership |
| Scaffold and skip licences | Kent County Council |
| Conservation area | Hernhill - Fostall; Hernhill; Staplestreet |
| Population, 2021 | 724 (Hernhill parish) |
| From Margate | 20.9 road miles, about 27 min |
| Usual residents, 2021 Census | 724 |
| Listed entries within 500 m | 10, National Heritage List |
| Grade II*, first listed 1967 | Manor House |
| Grade II, first listed 1986 | Walnut Tree House |
Hernhill parish had 724 usual residents at the 2021 Census. Swale Borough Council is the planning authority, STG Building Control Partnership handles approvals from its Rochester office, and ten listed entries lie within 500 metres.
Sources: ONS Census 2021, Swale Borough Council, Kent County Council, OSRM road routing.
Hernhill in three parts
Hernhill roofs, from the Manor House and the church to the permits on the lane
Listed buildings first, then three conservation areas and how approvals work through STG, then the scaffold, skip and weather facts behind a job in Hernhill.
Chapter 01 of 03
Manor House, Walnut Tree House and a Grade I church
Hernhill lies 20.9 road miles west of Margate, about 27 minutes by road, and its listed buildings set the tone for how a survey begins. The Church of St Michael is Grade I, first listed on 24 January 1967 under entry 1069116. Manor House carries the Grade II* label and the very same listing date, 24 January 1967, under entry 1323023. Walnut Tree House is Grade II and came later, on 21 May 1986, under entry 1344028. Ten listed entries stand within 500 metres of the village centre in all, in a parish of 724 residents.
For a house with a listing, section 7 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 requires listed building consent for works that touch how a building is made and looks, and the roof is a big part of what any building looks like from the lane. A change of covering, a rebuilt chimney stack or a different ridge line can each fall inside that. The ridge is the capping along the apex of the roof, and the stack is the brick chimney that rises through it. Swale Borough Council would be the body to decide an application, and we write up the job in plain terms so the application reads the way the work will go.
The church follows a separate path. A parish church still holding Anglican services sits outside listed building consent altogether, thanks to the ecclesiastical exemption in section 60 of the same Act, so a faculty, not the borough council, authorises repairs to its roof. Our part, if the parish asks, is to survey, photograph and price the roof work it has had approved.
Between those two cases stands the ordinary village house, and its own address decides which way it falls. An ordinary house may stand near a listed building without being one, or it may be listed itself, and the only way to know is to check the address, which takes minutes. Our pitched roofing and chimney repair pages show the work we price. The steps below set out how we run a roof where a listing is involved, from the list entry to the final repair, and none of them skips ahead of the one before.
A listed Hernhill roof, in order
Read the entry
Check the list entry for the address and what it names.
Survey and photos
Every slope, the stack and the flashings, with pictures sent to you.
Consent route
Describe the work for Swale Borough Council where consent is needed.
Match and repair
Keep the covering and details as they are wherever the roof allows.
Chapter 02 of 03
Three conservation areas and how STG handles approvals
The national planning dataset places three conservation areas within about 0.75 km of the centre of Hernhill, named Hernhill - Fostall, Hernhill and Staplestreet. Swale Borough Council reports 51 designated conservation areas across the borough, so Hernhill's three are a small share of a long list, though they sit close together around the centre and are easy to confuse on a street name alone. A conservation area counts as article 2(3) land under the General Permitted Development Order, and our roof window planning guide explains the effect on dormers and roof windows. Which of the three your street sits in, if any, is the first thing to look up on the map.
Whether an Article 4 direction applies to a Hernhill address is a question for Swale Borough Council. A direction is a power to withdraw named permitted development rights across a mapped area, and the council holds the maps. We do not assume that one applies, or that none does. The council gets your full address, and its answer comes back before a specification goes out to you.
Myth
Swale and Canterbury each run a separate building control office.FactSTG Building Control Partnership serves Canterbury, Gravesham, Medway and Swale together, from Rochester.
Myth
A like-for-like re-roof never needs a building control check.FactRe-covering the whole roof goes past the Planning Portal limits (under 25 per cent of the building envelope, under 50 per cent of the roof), so we ask STG first.
Source: STG Building Control Partnership; Planning Portal
Approval under the Building Regulations runs through a partnership rather than through Swale itself. STG Building Control Partnership delivers local authority building control throughout Kent for Canterbury City Council, Gravesham Borough Council, Medway Council and Swale Borough Council, and its number is 01634 331133. STG's pages publish no percentage for re-roofing, so on a Hernhill roof the Planning Portal test steers us: approval is normally not needed while under 25 per cent of the building envelope is affected and under 50 per cent of the roof is touched, but a new covering 15 per cent or more heavier does need it.
Two mistaken ideas about roof approvals, both about how Swale and its partner councils divide the work, are worth clearing up here. Neither is a reason to skip the check with STG or with Swale, and neither survives a look at the plain wording of the Planning Portal and the partnership's own description of itself. We would rather give you the wording than a rule of thumb, because the wording is what an inspector works from, and a neighbour's roof is never quite the same job.
Chapter 03 of 03
Permits, rain and wind for a Hernhill roof
Scaffold over a Hernhill road or verge needs a licence from Kent County Council, the highway authority, under section 169 of the Highways Act 1980. Kent County Council names the scaffolding firm as applicant on its own page, so the firm lodges the application with the council, and dates are fixed with it after the survey has set out the extent of the job. The permit costs £52 per week for 2026 to 2027, with 5 working days' notice before the start. Kent's highways team take questions before an application on 03000 41 81 81.
Those licence terms call for public liability cover of £5 million, and the council can add a charge of £78 where it judges that an inspection of the site is called for. The scaffold must keep a distance of at least 1.2 metre from the carriageway, and the upright tubes are painted white for the lowest 2.5 metres. Where a lane is tight, that is a good reason to settle where the scaffold stands during the survey, with the owner present, instead of on the morning it arrives.
A skip in the road is covered by a different permit from Kent County Council: £45 per week for 2026 to 2027, 5 working days' notice, and a skip of 5 metres by 2 metres at most. We stage the clearance of old slates, battens, the thin timbers a covering is nailed to, and underlay, so the skip is filled in order and then taken away.
The weather we plan around is the Met Office record for Manston, 1991 to 2020: annual rainfall of about 613 mm, 110.05 days with 1 mm or more of rain, 21.43 days of air frost, and wind averaging 9.86 knots at 10 metres. They come from a climate station away from the village and describe the long run, not next week in Hernhill. Fixings on each roof are worked out for that site under BS 5534, and the start date moves when a week looks unsuitable, with a message to you. A slope still wet from overnight rain is left until it has dried off, because footing on damp slates or clay tiles is poor, and the crew's safety on the roof comes before any date in the programme.
10-Year workmanship guarantee. In writing
Around Hernhill
West of Margate, around Hernhill
Hernhill sits in Swale Borough, so planning goes to Swale and approvals to STG, while villages in other districts follow their own councils' wording and are written up on their own pages.
Listings, conservation areas and approvals around Hernhill
Is Manor House the only listed house in Hernhill whose roof needs consent?
No. Manor House is Grade II* and Walnut Tree House Grade II, and ten listed entries lie within 500 metres of the village centre. Each listed building needs consent for work affecting its character, so the National Heritage List is the first thing we consult for every address. A house that is not listed may still sit in one of the three conservation areas.
Who checks Building Regulations for a Hernhill re-roof?
STG Building Control Partnership, which serves Swale with Canterbury, Gravesham and Medway, on 01634 331133. STG's pages give no re-roofing percentage, so we use the Planning Portal's test: no application is normally expected below 25 per cent of the building envelope and 50 per cent of the roof, though approval follows once a new covering adds 15 per cent or more to the weight.
Do I need Swale Borough Council's permission to re-roof in a Hernhill conservation area?
The council is the place to ask, since three conservation areas are mapped near the middle of the village. A conservation area is article 2(3) land, which takes dormers out of permitted development. Replacing a covering is a narrower question, and your address goes to Swale first. The planning guide linked in the chapters covers the dormer side.
Does the Church of England faculty system apply to a house near St Michael's?
No. The faculty system governs the church itself while it is in use, under the ecclesiastical exemption. A neighbouring house is judged on its own listing and its own conservation area position. If you are unsure which applies, give us the address and the list entry is checked before anyone offers a view on consent.
Who applies to Kent County Council for scaffold on a Hernhill lane?
The scaffolding company. Kent County Council issues the licence for scaffold on the highway, at £52 per week in 2026 to 2027, and wants the application 5 working days ahead. Swale Borough Council does not issue it. We settle the dates with the scaffolders after the survey and tell you well before anything goes up.
A Hernhill roof, looked at before priced
Send pictures or arrange a visit; the survey comes first, then one written total, and your yes sets the dates.