Roofing in King's Lynn

Lynn runs from a historic quayside centre with listed and conservation area property out to large modern estates at Gaywood and South Wootton, and the two need completely different answers. In the old town the constraint is usually what you are permitted to put back rather than what the roof needs.

We cover PE30, PE31 and PE34, including the villages out towards Sandringham and the coast, where exposure starts to matter again.

Tile, pantile and slate in the old town

The borough council's appraisal of the St Margaret's area describes handmade clay tile as the main roof covering in the old town before the nineteenth century, made alongside a local brick industry that goes back to the fifteenth. Curved clay pantiles survive on buildings such as Thoresby College and on a good many of the lesser outbuildings. From the mid nineteenth century Welsh slate became easier to get, and roofs built for it were pitched lower, which you can still see along the High Street and Tower Street.

That mix matters on a repair. Plain tile, pantile and a shallow slate roof each fail in their own way and each needs the right material and the right lap put back. A lot of the Georgian refronted houses also have a brick parapet hiding the roof, with a gutter behind it that nobody sees until it overflows into the room below.

The King's Lynn Conservation Area

The King's Lynn Conservation Area was first designated in 1969 and is managed by the Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk. It is made up of five character areas: St Margaret's, St Nicholas, Norfolk Street, The Walks and The Friars. The council's appraisal also records an Article 4 direction across the whole conservation area, which brings some minor changes to unlisted houses under planning control. Changing a roof covering, adding a rooflight or altering a chimney may need consent here, and a listed building usually needs listed building consent for anything beyond like for like repair. We check the status of the property at survey and tell you before we price.

The estates, and the carrstone villages

Lynn was named an overspill town for London in the 1960s, and the housing built then and since is mostly concrete interlocking tile. The usual fault on those roofs is perished felt under tiles that still look sound. Out towards Castle Rising, Wolferton and Sandringham the walls change to carrstone, the brown local sandstone, and the open land running up to the Wash gives the wind a clear run at a ridge or a verge. We fix for that exposure rather than for a sheltered town street.

Where to go next in King's Lynn

For a full replacement or re-cover, see new roofs in King's Lynn. For leaks, slipped tiles and failed lead, see roof repairs in King's Lynn. Garages, dormers and extensions are on flat roofing in King's Lynn, and if a mortgage survey has flagged foam in the loft, start with spray foam removal in King's Lynn. For the older slated houses in the centre, our general slate roofing page is the place to start.