The Manor House is a large, detached dwelling, originally constructed in the 1600’s and later extended and re-fronted in the 1700’s. It is of stone construction with sash windows set in coved reveals. The roof is a complex layout with many slopes of varying pitches. The original roof coverings varied from Welsh slate, random width, diminishing course Westmorland slate and handmade clay peg tiles with lead and asphalt on the flat roof areas. It carries a Grade II* listing by Historic England and was first listed on 22 February 1955. Unfortunately, the existing roof tiles and slates were in poor condition and not suitable for re-use.

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With the building being listed it was extremely important to maintain the appearance and character of the building. It was therefore decided that Glendyne 20x10 slates would be used on the slated slopes and Keymer handmade clay tiles would replace the existing laminated tiles. The random width diminishing course Westmorland slate was carefully stripped and set aside for re-use but there were a number of damaged and unusable slates. Through our network of suppliers we were able to source a quantity of good matching slate which was then integrated with the salvaged slate and graded into height order ready to be re-laid.

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The building is of stone construction with various flat and pitched roof areas, some of which are behind large stone parapets so therefore fall into lead and asphalt parapet gutters. The pitched roofs are hand cut and pitched with oak rafters and traditional details such as tongue and fork ridge joints. As such, each slope undulates and the pitch varies making it challenging to intersect battening and also to lay the roof coverings giving an even appearance. Rotten rafters also had to be replaced whilst maintaining the character and authenticity of the building. Using various different roof coverings all on the same building meant that careful consideration had to be given to the detailing between each roof type to ensure weather tightness without affecting the appearance of the listed building. The random width diminishing course Westmorland slate required careful planning. Each slate had to be graded by hand and placed into batches of equal height. The meterage then had to be calculated to ensure we had enough of each size to complete a course on a particular roof slope. The building had bats roosting within the roof space, therefore an ecologist had to be in attendance at all times whilst stripping the original roof coverings. These had to be removed extremely carefully and slowly so as not to injure any bats. Provision had to be made within the new roof coverings to accommodate the bats such as using BS747 1F felt and creating access points within the roof tiling and also under the ridge tiles in certain places.

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The quality of workmanship was maintained by our Heritage Craftsman and Sussex Heritage Trust award winner who acted as our working foreman on the project. Regular inspections were also undertaken by our contracts manager and the surveyor.