Highway Cottage, Grade II
Highway Cottage carries a Grade II listing, dated 29 April 1987, entry 1312959 on the National Heritage List.
Roofers in Three Mile Cross
Roofs along the Reading road, from Mitford's village to listed cottages
Three Mile Cross grew along the Reading road and appears in Miss Mitford's Our Village. We survey its listed cottages and newer homes alike and give one written price.
Three Mile Cross roofs on the Reading road
The Mitford and Mitford's house
The Mitford is listed Grade II; the Victoria County History says Miss Mitford lived in the village for thirty years.
The Swan Inn, Grade II
The Swan Inn is listed Grade II, one of seven listed buildings within about 500 metres of the village centre.
Map of Three Mile Cross with Spencers Wood, Shinfield, Swallowfield, Lower Earley marked around it.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Loads only when you ask for it.
Three Mile Cross, just south of the M4
Spencers Wood sits just south, with Shinfield beyond it to the east, Swallowfield further south, Lower Earley and Earley to the north-east and Arborfield to the east.
About 18.6 road miles north-west of Farnborough · Wokingham Borough Council (unitary).
Three Mile Cross: the jobs we take on
Three Mile Cross, VAT and listings
Three Mile Cross roofs: VAT, listing and party walls
What a Three Mile Cross roofing quote should say about VAT, what the village's published records tell us about its buildings, and how its three listed buildings and any chimney work are handled.
| No. | Chapter | The figure it turns on |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Reading a roofing quote: VAT and scaffold | Standard VAT rate: 20 per cent |
| 02 | Miss Mitford's village on the Reading road | 17,560 residents in Shinfield parish |
| 03 | Three listed buildings and chimney breasts | Three Grade II listings, seven nearby |
Chapter 01 of 03
Reading a roofing quote: VAT and scaffold
VAT and scaffold figures worth checking on a quote
- 20%the standard VAT rate
- 0%on installing energy-saving materials until 31 March 2027
- 5%reduced rate for those installations from 1 April 2027
- 10 working daysWokingham's minimum between applying for scaffold and starting
The A325 Farnborough Road is where we start measuring, and from there Three Mile Cross is 18.6 road miles away. The village lies on the Reading to Basingstoke road in the west of Shinfield parish, just south of the M4, and its council is Wokingham, a unitary authority. A quote for roof work there should be easy to read, and two things in it are worth checking: whether VAT is included, and whether the scaffold is.
VAT in plain terms
On GOV.UK the standard VAT rate is listed as 20 per cent. A lower rate applies only to installing certain energy-saving materials: zero until 31 March 2027, then the reduced rate of 5 per cent from 1 April 2027. That is not a general discount for roof work, so the question to put to any roofer is simple: does the price include VAT, and at which rate?
The domestic reverse charge, a rule that moves VAT between businesses in the Construction Industry Scheme, never applies when a homeowner pays a roofer. If a quote mentions it for your house, ask why.
The figure20%per cent: the standard VAT rate, so ask whether a roofing price includes it5% reduced rate20% standard rateSource: GOV.UK, VAT rates
Scaffold on the Reading road
Scaffold on a public road or footway needs a Wokingham licence, and the council expects the application to come from the scaffolding company and not from you. The licence takes at least 10 working days to arrange, costs £263 for the first four weeks and £163 for each four-week period after that, and requires the footway beside the scaffold to stay at least 1.2 metres wide. Scaffold on private roads needs no licence.
A busy through road changes the plan. Where the footway is narrow, the scaffold may need to go up the side or the rear, and where a house fronts the road directly the survey is where we settle the layout with the scaffolding firm.
Who is in charge on site. Under CDM 2015, a domestic client is anyone who has construction work done on their home outside any business. Where a project has a single contractor, that contractor writes the construction phase plan. Bring in a second contractor and the duties grow, since two key roles, principal designer and principal contractor, must then be filled, and it is the headcount that triggers this, never notification. If a separate electrician or glazier is brought in for a roof window, we tell you who leads.
The one total price we give you states whether VAT and scaffold are included, and the survey photographs sit alongside it. A price you cannot read is not a price you can compare.
Chapter 02 of 03
Miss Mitford's village on the Reading road
| Topic | Record |
|---|---|
| Location | On the Reading road, west side of Shinfield parish |
| Literary link | Figures in Miss Mitford's Our Village (1923 history) |
| Mitford's house | Lived in for thirty years; used as a club-house in 1923 |
| Chapel | A Wesleyan chapel is recorded at Three-Mile-Cross |
| Population | 17,560 usual residents in Shinfield parish, Census 2021 |
The Victoria County History of Berkshire, published in 1923, describes Three-Mile-Cross on the Reading road as a village that figures in Miss Mitford's Our Village. The house where she lived for thirty years was then used as a club-house. The history also records a Wesleyan chapel, and places the village on a spread of valley gravel on the west side of Shinfield parish. The 2021 Census counted 17,560 usual residents in Shinfield civil parish as a whole.
It is a short record, and a literary one. What your roof is made of, and how it is holding up, is a question only a survey can answer, so every visit starts without assumptions about the house.
What a survey day looks like
We arrive, walk the outside of the house and look at the roof from the ground first. Next we climb, by ladder where the roof allows or from a tower or scaffold where it does not, photographing every slope, the ridge, the verges, the valleys, the flashings and the stacks. If it is safe to lift a few tiles, we look at the underlay and battens beneath.
Inside, we look at the loft where there is one: for daylight at the eaves, damp timber, stained underlay and signs of condensation. A leak in a ceiling and the hole in the roof that causes it are often some way apart, and the loft shows how water travels.
You see the results that day or soon after: photographs, measurements and a straightforward account of what turned up. The written price follows. Where a repair is all that is needed, a repair is what the price covers. Where the roof is near the end of its useful life, the photographs make that case.
Roof sites stay tidy and safe: access is set up properly, waste leaves with us and you hear what happens each day, so the front garden and drive never turn into a skip yard. If the Reading road is busy outside, deliveries are timed so lorries do not block it.
Working sites follow the same rule from the first day to the last. Our pitched roofing page lists the repairs that follow a survey.
Chapter 03 of 03
Three listed buildings and chimney breasts
Three Mile Cross listings
- Grade IIHighway Cottage (NHLE 1312959)
- Grade IIThe Mitford (NHLE 1118130)
- Grade IIThe Swan Inn (NHLE 1312956)
- 7listed buildings within about 500 m of the village
Three Grade II listings stand in the village: Highway Cottage, The Mitford and The Swan Inn. The National Heritage List shows seven listed buildings within about 500 metres of the village centre. Permitted development rights survive on a listed house, yet listed building consent is also needed for any work that changes its character. For a roof that can include a different covering, a new ridge, a change to a chimney stack or even replacement of flashings in a different metal.
Conservation areas, a question for Wokingham. Whether your own address falls inside a conservation area is a question for Wokingham Borough Council's planning team, which we ask on your behalf, so the answer is on file before any alteration to the roof is drawn up or priced. Wokingham counts 16 conservation areas, among them Swallowfield and Arborfield Cross, and the council's online map shows whether a certain house falls inside one.
Chimney breasts and party walls
Cottage chimneys raise a question a roof survey cannot ignore: what happens to the breast inside the house. The Planning Portal states that Building Regulations approval will always apply to removing a chimney breast, which counts as part of the building's structure. With a chimney shared by neighbours, the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 lets a projecting breast be cut away after notice served 2 months or longer before the work starts.
A party wall question goes to a party wall surveyor, not to building control or to us. What we can do is photograph the stack from the roof, report its condition, and tell you where an engineer or surveyor should be involved before anyone cuts anything.
For a listed cottage or the inn, the sequence is steady and the same each time, whether the job is a single slipped tile or a full re-cover. The survey records the covering, ridge and stacks in photographs. We describe the fault and the like-for-like fix in writing. Wokingham's planning team is asked whether consent is needed, and its answer goes into the file. Only then is scaffold ordered and a start date fixed, so nothing is left to be discovered halfway up a ladder.
Our chimney repairs page explains repointing, flashings and rebuilds, and what the survey records before a stack is touched.
Three Mile Cross roof questions, from VAT to listed cottages
My Three Mile Cross cottage is listed: can the roof be repaired with modern tiles?
Probably not without consent. Listed building consent is needed for work affecting a listed building's character, and a change of covering is exactly that. We photograph the existing tiles, ridge and flashings, and take that record to Wokingham's planning team before any repair material is chosen, so the choice is agreed first.
Does the standard VAT rate apply to a roof repair here?
The standard rate is 20 per cent, and a lower rate applies only to installing certain energy-saving materials: zero until 31 March 2027, then 5 per cent. The written price states whether VAT is included and at which rate, so you know the full total before you agree to anything.
Is a Three Mile Cross house inside a conservation area?
Only the council's map can settle that for a given address. Wokingham lists 16 conservation areas, including Swallowfield and Arborfield Cross, and its planning team can confirm the position for your house. We ask before any change to how the roof looks is priced, and the answer is kept in your file.
Who applies for scaffold beside the Reading road?
On Wokingham Borough Council's rules the scaffolding firm files for its customers, with at least 10 working days between application and start. Roads differ, so at survey we agree which side of the house the scaffold goes on, who applies and the dates, and write them down for you.
Roofs we survey around Three Mile Cross and Shinfield
Get your free roof quote
Book a Three Mile Cross roof survey
Name your Three Mile Cross road and the problem, and we will choose a survey day and photograph each slope.
10-year workmanship guarantee, in writing.