St James' brick church
The nave and tower were rebuilt in 1638 almost entirely of brick, on a church listed Grade I.
Roofers in Ruscombe
Roofs in a brick village: a 1638 church and a half-timber manor
Ruscombe's church nave and tower were rebuilt in brick in 1638, and its old manor house is half-timber and brick with a tiled roof. We survey every slope.
Ruscombe's roofs, from brick-works to Northbury Farm
Northbury Farm manor house
The old manor house is an early 17th-century half-timber and brick building with a tiled roof.
Cottages along the Twyford road
In 1923 the county history noted a few modern cottages from the church toward Twyford.
Map of Ruscombe with Twyford, Wargrave, Hurst, Waltham St Lawrence marked around it.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Loads only when you ask for it.
Ruscombe, low-lying and east of Twyford
Twyford lies just to the south-west, Wargrave to the north, Hurst to the south, Waltham St Lawrence to the east and Sonning to the west, while Farnborough is further south.
About 17.3 road miles north of Farnborough · Wokingham Borough Council (unitary).
From ridge to gutter in Ruscombe
Ruscombe, brick and council record
Ruscombe's brick, its council and its Grade I church
How Wokingham, Building Control Solutions and a 1.2 metre footway shape a Ruscombe roof job, what the 1923 history says about the brick-works and the 1638 church, and which listed barns and cottages need consent.
| No. | Chapter | The figure it turns on |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Building Control Solutions and a footway rule | 1.2 m footway in the scaffold rules |
| 02 | A brick church of 1638 and the brick-works | Nave and tower rebuilt in 1638 |
| 03 | Grade I church, listed barns, Wokingham list | 14 listed buildings within 500 m |
Chapter 01 of 03
Building Control Solutions and a footway rule
| Matter | Office for Ruscombe addresses |
|---|---|
| Planning | Wokingham Borough Council (unitary) |
| Roads and pavements | Wokingham Borough Council |
| Building control | Building Control Solutions (BCS), West Berkshire and Wokingham |
| Scaffold licence on the highway | Wokingham Borough Council; the scaffold firm applies |
| County council tier | None: Berkshire councils are unitary |
Ruscombe is a Berkshire village 17.3 road miles north of Farnborough, a low-lying place just east of Twyford. Berkshire's councils are unitary, so for a Ruscombe roof one body, Wokingham Borough Council, handles planning, highways and scaffold, while Building Control Solutions, or BCS, a partnership with West Berkshire, handles building control. There is no county council in between, and that shortens the list of people to ask.
A narrow footway and a scaffold plan
At Wokingham Borough Council the scaffold firm lodges the licence application in the customer's name. Ten working days or more must separate the application from the start, and the fee is £263 for the first 4 weeks and £163 for each 4-week period afterwards. The same licence page refers to a footway of at least 1.2 metres, a point that matters wherever a house stands close to a narrow pavement. The survey measures how much footway would remain beside the poles.
Where a Ruscombe house stands back behind its own drive, or fronts a private road, the highway licence may not come into it, since private roads fall outside the council's licensing. The survey establishes which case your house is, and the plan then names the date by which the scaffold firm is to apply to Wokingham Borough Council.
The figure1.2mmetres: the footway width mentioned on Wokingham's scaffold licence page1.2 metres of footwaySource: Wokingham Borough Council scaffold and hoarding licences page (last updated 7 April 2026)
BCS and the weight of a covering
The Planning Portal's limits guide the building control question: 25 per cent of the building envelope and 50 per cent of the roof, with no percentage added by Wokingham. In an old brick house, weight often matters more. A covering that raises the load on the roof by 15 per cent or more needs approval, because old timbers were sized for whatever they first carried. We weigh what is on the roof and what is proposed before the price is written. Once that check is done, our roof replacement page follows a full re-cover from the strip to the final ridge tile.
A re-cover is not always the answer. If the survey shows a handful of failed tiles, a lifted ridge or a worn valley, then the honest price is for those, and the photographs are there so you can see why.
Chapter 02 of 03
A brick church of 1638 and the brick-works
Ruscombe in figures from the record
- 17.3 road milesnorth of Farnborough, from the A325
- 1,116residents, ONS Census 2021, Ruscombe parish
- 1638year the nave and tower of St James' were rebuilt
- 14listed buildings within 500 m of the village point
Berkshire's 1923 volume of the Victoria County History says St James' Church has a late 12th-century chancel, with the nave and tower rebuilt in 1638 almost entirely of brick, including moulded brick door and window jambs, mullions and tracery. It calls the old manor house of Northbury Farm a much modernised early 17th-century half-timber and brick building with a tiled roof. The 2021 Census counted 1,116 usual residents in the parish.
Brick-works and brick chimneys
The same volume described the village as a few modern cottages along the road from the church to Twyford, and noted that some inhabitants worked in the brick-works. On a brick house the parts most exposed are chimney stacks, gable verges and brick parapets. Each is a mortared structure rising from the roof, and mortar weathers with time. We begin at the stack, which has a flaunching on top (the mortar bed holding the pots) and a flashing at its foot.
Each stack is photographed from two positions. On the roof we look at the joints, the pots and the lead; in the loft we check the chimney breast for damp staining that shows where water has been entering at the base. A leaking stack can be a small repair, and the pictures make the case either way.
A half-timber and brick manor
A building that is half-timber and brick under a tiled roof combines materials that move differently. Timber shrinks and swells, brick does not, and the line where a tiled slope meets a timber frame has to tolerate both. We photograph that line close up and report whether the flashing has kept pace with the movement or has opened.
Where a ridge or a valley has failed on a house like this, our chimney repairs page and our pitched roofing page cover the usual repairs, and the survey tells you which of them your house needs. A written plan names each item, with the photograph that shows it. If a repair would only buy a few more years, the plan says so, and sets that against the cost and disruption of a full re-cover, so the choice is yours, made on the evidence.
Chapter 03 of 03
Grade I church, listed barns, Wokingham list
| Designation | In Ruscombe | For roof work |
|---|---|---|
| Conservation area | Ruscombe, on the Wokingham list | Changes to the look checked with Wokingham |
| Grade I listed church in use | St James' Church (NHLE 1154605) | Church of England faculty, not listed building consent |
| Grade II listed barn | Barn at Northbury Farmhouse (NHLE 1154601) | Listed building consent for works affecting its character |
| Grade II listed granary | Granary at Northbury Farmhouse (NHLE 1319075) | Listed building consent for works affecting its character |
| Grade II listed | Church Cottage (NHLE 1118199) | Listed building consent for works affecting its character |
Wokingham's published list of sixteen conservation areas names Ruscombe, so a Ruscombe address may well sit inside one, and the council's map shows whether yours does. Inside a conservation area, section 55 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 puts repairs that leave the look unchanged outside planning control. A changed covering, a rebuilt stack or a new ridge does alter the look, and for those we write to Wokingham's planners before a price is set. Wokingham is also asked whether an Article 4 direction covers a Ruscombe address.
St James' Church is listed Grade I and was first listed on 26 January 1967. It is a Church of England building still used for worship, so roof work there is channelled through the faculty system. Historic England's list shows 14 listed buildings within about 500 m of the village point. Church Cottage is Grade II listed, as are the barn and the granary at Northbury Farmhouse.
Consent before work
Works that alter a listed building's character need listed building consent first, with planning permission too where that applies. A barn or granary with a tiled roof is covered by the same rule as a house, so a re-roof there that would affect its character begins with an application. No start date is agreed until the consent has been shown to us, because work carried out without it can be ordered undone.
Where none of this applies, a Ruscombe job is the plain version: a visit, photographs, a plan on paper and a single price. In every case the photographs are taken before work and kept, so a repair can be compared with what was there, and the comparison is available to you, to the council or to a buyer's surveyor years later. That is worth having in a village where the same house may change hands more than once during the life of a covering.
For an outbuilding such as a barn, we also record the state of the roof timbers from inside, because an old barn roof has few of the layers a house roof has, and any gap, light or damp is easy to see from below. We note the bays between the rafters, the condition of the tiling battens, the state of the verge and the eaves, and we mark each on a sketch so that the roof can be discussed without anyone climbing up.
Ruscombe questions, from brick stacks to listed barns
Why would the chimney on an old Ruscombe brick house leak at the base?
Often the flashing has lifted or the mortar joints have weathered where the stack meets the slope. Brick and tile move differently, so the junction opens over time. Our photographs cover the junction twice, from the slope and from the loft, and where lead flashing has failed it is renewed to match the fault and nothing more, so a small repair stays small.
Is Ruscombe in a conservation area?
Wokingham's own list of conservation areas names Ruscombe, so check your address on the council's map. A repair that keeps the existing look sits outside planning control under section 55 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. Swapping the covering or altering a stack changes the look, and Wokingham is asked first.
Does a Ruscombe barn or granary need consent for a new roof?
If it is listed, yes. The barn and granary at Northbury Farmhouse are both Grade II listed, and a re-roof that changes their character needs listed building consent from Wokingham. An unlisted outbuilding is judged differently, and we establish which yours is before any price is written down, then tell you the answer and what follows from it in plain words.
Do I apply myself for scaffold on a Ruscombe road?
No. Wokingham Borough Council has the scaffold firm apply for its customer, with ten working days or more from application to start, and a fee of £263 for the first 4 weeks. Its page mentions a footway at least 1.2 metres wide, and private roads fall outside the licence, which is why we check your frontage first.
Around Ruscombe: Twyford, Wargrave and Sonning
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