Brick fronts round the green
The green is still ringed by 19th-century or earlier houses with red-brick fronts, says the county history.
Roofers in Stanwell
Houses round the green, 1930s smallholdings and wartime prefabs
Stanwell's roofs span a village green lined with older brick-fronted houses, steep-roofed 1930s smallholdings and the estates that followed 1919. We survey the roof you actually have.
Stanwell's roofs, from thatch to prefab estates
Steep-roofed 1930s smallholdings
The smallholdings off Spout Lane have small two-storey houses with steeply pitched roofs and eaves at first-floor level.
1940s prefabricated estates
Over 300 prefabricated houses were built between Town Lane and Long Lane in 1945 to 1948.
Map of Stanwell with Stanwell Moor, Ashford, Staines-upon-Thames, Poyle marked around it.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Loads only when you ask for it.
Stanwell, a village round its green north of Staines
Ashford lies south-east of the village, Staines-upon-Thames south-west, Feltham east, and Stanwell Moor, Poyle and Colnbrook further out to the north-west.
About 20.6 road miles north-east of Farnborough · Spelthorne Borough Council and Surrey County Council.
Where we can help in Stanwell
Stanwell, green, smallholding and estate
Stanwell's roofs, from the green to the wartime estates
Which councils answer for a Stanwell roof, how the county history describes Stanwell's older houses, interwar smallholdings and 1940s estates, and what its conservation area and Grade I church mean for repairs.
| No. | Chapter | The figure it turns on |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Spelthorne and Surrey behind a Stanwell roof | Spelthorne plans, Surrey licenses scaffold |
| 02 | Smallholdings, a green and 300 prefabs | 300 prefabricated houses, 1945 to 1948 |
| 03 | Stanwell's conservation area and its Grade I church | St Mary's, Grade I, faculty route |
Chapter 01 of 03
Spelthorne and Surrey behind a Stanwell roof
| Role | Body for Stanwell addresses |
|---|---|
| District council and planning authority | Spelthorne Borough Council |
| Building control | Spelthorne Borough Council's own Building Control team |
| County council and highway authority | Surrey County Council (until 31 March 2027) |
| Scaffold licence | Surrey County Council, applied for ahead of the start |
| From 1 April 2027 | West Surrey Council replaces Spelthorne's current councils |
Stanwell belongs to Spelthorne, a Surrey borough on the Thames. Spelthorne Borough Council decides planning applications there and operates its own Building Control team, and Surrey County Council looks after the highway. Stanwell is 20.6 road miles away on a north-easterly bearing, counted from Farnborough's A325, which sets the length of a survey day, and we plan visits around that and around where the scaffold would go.
The re-roof test in practice
Before a Stanwell re-roof is priced, we work out where it sits against the Planning Portal's limits. With under 25 per cent of the building envelope and under 50 per cent of the roof involved, no application is normally needed. Beyond either figure, building control is likely to be involved. The weight of the covering is a separate trigger: one at least 15 per cent heavier than its predecessor requires approval and a structural check. That matters on a steeply pitched house of the 1930s kind, where a long slope is a large share of the roof, so even a single-slope re-cover is worth measuring before anyone assumes it is small. Our pitched roofing page explains how a repair-or-re-cover decision is reached.
For any application you can use Spelthorne's team or a registered building control approver, which is a private firm listed on the register that came into force on 6 April 2024. The survey report states the measured areas, so whichever body you pick has the numbers to hand, and nobody needs to guess at what the work touches.
Scaffold on a Stanwell road
Scaffold that stands over a pavement, on a verge or in the carriageway is licensed by Surrey County Council, at £208 for each 28 days, with applications wanted at least 10 working days ahead of the start. A start date promised to you has that fortnight built in. For an unsafe structure the council takes a phone call about an emergency licence. We settle the scaffold's position at the survey and have the licence arranged through the scaffolder. A scaffold wholly inside your garden leaves the highway untouched, and the council's page does not apply to it.
From 1 April 2027 West Surrey Council takes in Spelthorne, replacing the present Surrey councils. Until that date the arrangements above hold, and the paperwork we give you records which authority was named when the licence or application was made.
Chapter 02 of 03
Smallholdings, a green and 300 prefabs
What the county history records for Stanwell
- 1919year a council housing estate was built
- 1945 to 1948years of the prefabricated house-building
- 11,723residents, ONS Census 2021, Stanwell built-up area
- 20.6 road milesnorth-east of Farnborough, from the A325
The county history of Middlesex, published in 1962 and describing Stanwell as it stood in the 1950s, gives a clear picture of how the village was built. The history says that in 1796 many cottages and farmhouses there had timber frames and plaster, with thatch on some roofs. By 1956 the older buildings that survived included red brick houses under red tile, and timber ones that had been given later brick or plaster facings. The village green was still largely surrounded by houses of the 19th century or earlier, among them the 18th-century Vicarage, Brook Cottage and Dunmore House, all with red-brick fronts.
The twentieth-century estates
Newer building arrived in waves. A council housing estate went up in 1919. In the early 1930s the county council laid out smallholdings off Spout Lane, the Burrows Hill Close and Bedfont Court estates, whose small two-storey houses have steeply pitched roofs with eaves at first-floor level. Between 1945 and 1948 over 300 prefabricated houses were put up between Town Lane and Long Lane, and by 1956 the British Airways Staff Housing Society estate held nearly 700 houses.
The figure300housesprefabricated houses built between Town Lane and Long Lane in the late 1940s300 prefabs, 1945 to 1948
Each of those eras asks a roofer different questions. A steep roof that comes down to first-floor level has its gutters and fascia within a ladder's reach from the ground, while the long slope above needs proper roof access and edge protection. A roof laid on a 1919 or 1930s house could have been renewed since, perhaps more than once. A prefabricated house of the 1940s is a different construction from the brick houses beside it, and we survey it on that basis, not by comparison with its neighbours.
We cannot tell you from the street what any of these roofs is made of today, and the 1962 history does not try to. The survey does: it records the covering on each slope, the state of the eaves and verges, and the gutters. Our gutters, soffits and fascias page covers renewing those parts where the eaves are low.
Extensions and outbuildings add a second layer to the picture. A flat-roofed kitchen at the back of a green-side house, or a garage beside a 1930s smallholding home, has its own falls, upstands and outlets, and its own lifespan. Our flat roofing page explains how those are inspected, and when a membrane repair is the right-sized answer and when a replacement is.
Chapter 03 of 03
Stanwell's conservation area and its Grade I church
| Designation | In Stanwell | For roof work |
|---|---|---|
| Conservation area | Stanwell Conservation Area | Changes to the look checked with Spelthorne |
| Grade I listed church in use | Church of St Mary (list entry 1187042) | Church of England faculty, not listed building consent |
| Grade II* listed | Dunmore House (list entry 1204875) | Listed building consent for works affecting character |
| Grade II* listed | Lord Knyvett's Adult Education Centre (list entry 1204896) | Listed building consent for works affecting character |
| Grade II listed | 13 High Street (list entry 1187039) | Listed building consent for works affecting character |
The national planning dataset records a Stanwell Conservation Area, and the county history describes the green as still largely surrounded by houses of the 19th century or earlier. Roof repairs remain possible inside it, though how the roof looks turns into a planning question. Under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (section 55(2)(a)), a repair that returns the roof to its existing look is not development. A different covering, a raised stack or a new roof light on the front slope would alter the look, so Spelthorne's planners see such ideas before any price is given. That is why a front-slope change is raised early, and why we would rather wait for the council's answer than start work on an assumption.
St Mary's and the faculty route
St Mary's church holds Grade I listing, and mapping shows it as an Anglican church in use. That brings the ecclesiastical exemption into play, so its roof work follows the church's own faculty system and does not need listed building consent from Spelthorne. Any work there waits on the parish's own approvals, which we would help with by supplying photographs and measured areas on request, and the church, not us, leads the faculty route.
Dunmore House and the other listings
Dunmore House and Lord Knyvett's Adult Education Centre are listed Grade II*, and 13 High Street is listed Grade II. For each of those, works affecting character need listed building consent, and a listed building keeps its permitted development rights while needing that consent as well. Our planning permission guide shows how the consent routes relate.
Whether an Article 4 direction applies at your address is a question for Spelthorne Borough Council, and we raise it with the council before pricing any change that would alter the look of the roof, so the answer is on file before the work is planned.
Two listing grades
Grade IChurch of St Mary, the village church
Grade II*Dunmore House, beside the village green
A survey on a listed or conservation-area house takes longer and produces more. It includes close photographs of the ridge, hips, verges and stacks, measured areas for each slope, and a written note of what will stay exactly as it is. That bundle gives Spelthorne's team what it needs to decide quickly, and you hold a copy of the lot.
Stanwell roof questions, from low eaves to church faculties
How are gutters and fascias dealt with on Stanwell's steep, low-eaved smallholding houses?
The county history describes the Spout Lane smallholdings as small two-storey houses with steeply pitched roofs and eaves at first-floor level. The eaves are reachable from a ladder, but the slope above is not. We photograph the gutter line and fascia, then access the upper slope safely, and report on both.
Does a prefabricated-era house in Stanwell need a different survey from a brick one?
The survey follows the construction in front of us. The county history records over 300 prefabricated houses built between Town Lane and Long Lane in 1945 to 1948, and a house of that kind is not built like a neighbouring brick one. We record what covers each slope and what supports it before recommending anything.
Who gives consent for roof work on Stanwell's St Mary's Church?
St Mary's holds Grade I listing and is recorded as a working Anglican church, which means its roof work follows the Church of England faculty system under the ecclesiastical exemption instead of Spelthorne's consent. Dunmore House and other listed buildings in the village follow the council route instead.
What changes for a Stanwell roof job when Surrey's councils merge in April 2027?
On 1 April 2027 Spelthorne moves into West Surrey Council, replacing Surrey's present county and district councils. Until then, Spelthorne decides planning and Surrey County Council licenses scaffold. We note the date on your paperwork, so any licence or application names the right authority at the time it is made.
Roofs we survey around Stanwell and Ashford
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