Walnut Tree Cottage
The cottage in the garden of No 9 is listed Grade II, so roof repairs there begin with consent.
Roofers in Spencers Wood
Roofs on a Reading-road village beside 899 new Croft Road homes
By 1923 Spencers Wood had become its own church district, and it now sits beside the South of the M4 development. We survey old cottages and new houses alike.
Spencers Wood roofs, cottage to new estate
South of the M4 homes
Wokingham says the development will deliver about 3,000 homes across Shinfield, Three Mile Cross and Spencers Wood.
Croft Road estate roofs
The largest site, north and south of Croft Road, is listed by Wokingham with 899 new homes completed.
Map of Spencers Wood with Three Mile Cross, Swallowfield, Shinfield, Riseley marked around it.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Loads only when you ask for it.
Spencers Wood, on the Basingstoke to Reading road
Three Mile Cross lies to the north, Shinfield to the north-east, Arborfield to the east, Swallowfield to the south-east and Riseley to the south, with Farnborough further south-east.
About 16.7 road miles north-west of Farnborough · Wokingham Borough Council (unitary).
Services for roofs in Spencers Wood
Spencers Wood, new and old
Spencers Wood: from clay parish to new streets
Who regulates roof work in Spencers Wood, how a village carved from three parishes met the South of the M4 development, and what its Grade II cottage and the council's conservation-area list mean for repairs.
| No. | Chapter | The figure it turns on |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Wokingham, BCS and scaffold on estate roads | 4 weeks covered by the first fee |
| 02 | A church district carved from three parishes | 899 new homes completed at Croft Road |
| 03 | Walnut Tree Cottage and the Wokingham list | Grade II, first listed 29 April 1987 |
Chapter 01 of 03
Wokingham, BCS and scaffold on estate roads
| Matter | Office for Spencers Wood addresses |
|---|---|
| Planning | Wokingham Borough Council (unitary) |
| Roads and pavements | Wokingham Borough Council |
| Building control | Building Control Solutions (BCS), West Berkshire and Wokingham |
| Scaffold licence | Wokingham Borough Council; the scaffold firm applies |
| County council tier | None: Berkshire councils are unitary |
Spencers Wood sits in the west of Shinfield parish, 16.7 road miles from Farnborough toward the north-west, with the distance taken from the A325 Farnborough Road. Berkshire's councils are unitary, so in Spencers Wood a single body, Wokingham Borough Council, answers for planning, highways and scaffold, while Building Control Solutions, a partnership with West Berkshire, answers for building control. That leaves one set of rules to read.
Newer roofs, different questions
Most of the homes added in recent years are new, so the building control question rarely turns on a re-roof. It turns on repairs and additions. The Planning Portal's test is that an application is normally not needed for work affecting under 25 per cent of the building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof. No percentage comes from Wokingham itself. A porch roof, a replaced valley or a refixed ridge stays inside both limits, while a roof window or an extension is a separate matter that we raise when we survey. Where a new estate house has had a loft converted or a rear extension added, the added roof is surveyed as its own slope, with its own junctions to the main roof.
The figure4weeksweeks: what the first scaffold licence fee covers before the next charge starts4 first licence periodSource: Wokingham Borough Council scaffold and hoarding licences page
We measure what a job touches before the price is written. The measurement goes down as a number on paper, which is what building control or a registered building control approver will ask for if the work does reach them. It also lets you compare our written price with any other on the same area, as long as each says whether VAT and scaffold form part of its total.
Scaffold, and whose road it is
Wokingham Borough Council has the scaffold firm file the application for its customer, with at least 10 working days to pass before the start. Its fee is £263 for the first 4 weeks and £163 for each 4-week period afterwards. The council exempts private roads from the licence. On a new estate the road outside may be public or private, which decides whether a licence applies at all, so the question is put on the survey visit and the answer goes into the plan.
Where scaffold does stand on the highway, a roof job of a few days fits well inside the first 4-week period. A longer project, a re-cover with gutter work for instance, may spill into the next period, and the dates you are given show it. Our gutters, soffits and fascias work often shares the same scaffold as the roof, so planning both together saves a second set-up.
Chapter 02 of 03
A church district carved from three parishes
What the records give for Spencers Wood
- 16.7 road milesnorth-west of Farnborough, from the A325
- 7,607residents, ONS Census 2021, Spencers Wood built-up area
- About 3,000new homes across Shinfield, Three Mile Cross, Spencers Wood
- 899new homes completed north and south of Croft Road
The 1923 county history for Berkshire notes that a new ecclesiastical district had recently been formed at Spencer's Wood from parts of Shinfield, Grazeley and Swallowfield, and that a Congregational chapel stood there. It also records patches of plateau gravel on the hill-tops near the village, in a parish that is otherwise almost wholly London Clay. We note that for completeness; a roof does not care what it stands on, but the loft does tell us how the walls have settled, and that shows in the junctions. The 2021 Census counted 7,607 usual residents in the Spencers Wood built-up area.
The South of the M4 homes
Wokingham Borough Council says the South of the M4 development will deliver about 3,000 new homes across Shinfield, Three Mile Cross and Spencers Wood. The largest site, east of Three Mile Cross and Spencers Wood either side of Croft Road, is listed by the council with 899 new homes completed, and across the whole development 2,663 homes were completed as of March 2023. That is a very large number of recent roofs in a small area, and it changes what a survey is for. A recent roof comes with makers' fixing instructions, and part of our check is whether what we see follows them, because a fixing fault shows up as a lifted tile long before it shows up as a leak.
On a house only a few years old, the issue is seldom a covering that has worn out. The question is whether a single detail has failed, such as a lifted ridge tile, a verge fixing, a valley line, the flashing at a wall or a gutter joint. Each of those is small and local, and each is photographed and named so that the repair matches the fault.
Older houses among the new
A village that grew from a parish carved out of three keeps older houses among the new streets, and those need the other kind of survey. The covering may have been replaced once or twice, battens may be tired, and the lead at a chimney may be thin. We open a few tiles on each slope, check what we find and photograph it.
Where a roof of either age needs more than patching, our roof replacement page lays out a full re-cover and the evidence the survey photographs must supply before it is proposed.
Chapter 03 of 03
Walnut Tree Cottage and the Wokingham list
| Designation | Near Spencers Wood | For roof work |
|---|---|---|
| Grade II listed | Cottage in Garden of No 9 (Walnut Tree Cottage) (NHLE 1312936) | Listed building consent for works affecting its character |
| Grade II listed | Library the School House (NHLE 1312952) | Listed building consent for works affecting its character |
| Grade II listed | The Homestead (NHLE 1118137) | Listed building consent for works affecting its character |
| Conservation area | Check your address on the council map | Changes to the look checked with Wokingham |
The cottage in the garden of No 9, known as Walnut Tree Cottage, is listed Grade II and was first listed on 29 April 1987. Library the School House and The Homestead are also Grade II. Historic England's list counts 4 listed buildings within about 500 m of the village point. For any of them the owner applies for listed building consent before altering the building, and a roofer should ask to see the consent reference before a price is agreed.
A listed cottage deserves a slower survey than a new house. Tiles at the eaves are lifted to expose the battens and underlay, and the ridge, verge and chimney junction are photographed close up. The aim is to repair to match, and to know what is sound enough to keep. A cottage of this kind may have a loft that is partly boarded or low, so the survey allows extra time to reach the corners where an old leak leaves its mark.
What Wokingham lists
Among the sixteen conservation areas on Wokingham's list is Swallowfield, south-east of Spencers Wood, and the council's map settles the position for any one address. Where a house is inside an area, section 55 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 puts a like-for-like repair outside the definition of development, which covers a good many repairs.
A change of covering, a different ridge or a changed chimney is a change of look. Wokingham is asked about those before any pricing, and about whether an Article 4 direction covers the address. The answers go into the survey notes with the photographs.
If you live on one of the new streets, none of this is likely to bite, and the survey says so plainly, in writing, on its first page. If you live beside a listed building, a scaffold plan that keeps clear of it is part of the job, and the plan is agreed with you before anything is erected. On an older cottage we also check the loft for signs of past repairs, such as new battens beside old ones or a patch of fresh underlay, because they show where water has already found a way in and where the next leak is most likely to start.
Spencers Wood roof questions, from new builds to listed cottages
What roof faults show up on a Spencers Wood house built in the last few years?
Usually local ones. A lifted ridge tile, a loose verge fixing, a failed flashing where roof meets wall or a leaking gutter joint can each cause damp without the covering being worn. We photograph the fault, name it, and price the repair rather than a larger job the evidence does not support.
Who inspects a roof extension or porch roof in Spencers Wood?
Building Control Solutions covers building control for Wokingham, or the private route through a registered building control approver. A small porch roof usually falls inside the Planning Portal's limits of 25 per cent of the envelope and 50 per cent of the roof, but an extension needs a proper check, and we say which applies.
Does Wokingham say a Spencers Wood scaffold needs a licence?
Wokingham Borough Council requires a licence for scaffold on the highway, applied for by the scaffold firm, with 10 working days between application and start. Private roads are exempt from it. On a new estate we find out whether your road is public or private before we plan the access.
Does Walnut Tree Cottage being listed affect nearby roofs?
Only the listed building itself needs listed building consent. A house next door is judged on its own status. We still plan scaffold and access so that nothing touches the cottage, and we photograph any shared boundary first. If your own house is listed, tell us before the survey and we will ask Wokingham first.
Around Spencers Wood: Three Mile Cross, Swallowfield and Shinfield
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