Roofing in Sheringham

Sheringham has flint and brick frontages, a lot of Victorian building, and the same coastal exposure as its neighbours along the north Norfolk cliffs. Wind driven rain is the thing that finds a weakness here, and it finds it at the verge and the abutment rather than in the middle of a slope.

Across NR26 we spend as much time on leadwork and detail as we do on coverings, because that is where these roofs actually let go.

A fishing town that became a resort in a hurry

Until the middle of the 19th century Sheringham was a fishing station on the shore, a mile and a half from the older village of Upper Sheringham inland. The railway opened on 16 June 1887, the farmland around the town was sold for building, and hotels, boarding houses and terraces went up quickly. That is why so much of the town is late Victorian, and why so much of it was built the same way. Streets of houses of the same age and construction tend to need the same work at about the same time, so what we find on one roof is usually a fair guide to the rest of the terrace.

Brick, cobble and pantile

The traditional Sheringham house has walls of red brick and flint cobbles from the beach, and North Norfolk District Council's appraisal of the conservation area notes that most roofs in the older streets are red clay pantile or triple Roman tile. Many have since been re-covered, and on Beeston Road the appraisal records a mix of pantile, concrete tile and a thin diamond shaped tile that appears to be bitumen based. The larger late Victorian and Edwardian houses on and around The Boulevard are different again, in red brick with plain tile roofs and tall chimneys.

Each of those coverings fails differently. Pantile relies on its lap and its pitch and lets wind driven rain in at a verge or a poorly bedded ridge. Plain tile is nailed at every course and tends to go when the nails do. Cobble walls are uneven, so where a roof meets one the flashing has to be cut and dressed to the flint rather than chased into a straight mortar line.

Chimneys and consent

The appraisal notes that a good number of chimneys in the town have already been removed or altered. Sheringham has been a conservation area since 1976, extended in 1995, and Upper Sheringham has its own. Both are managed by North Norfolk District Council. Taking down a stack can need permission here, so we check before we price, and we will price the repair as well as the removal. For stack work see chimney repairs, and if you have a damp patch on the breast, read what a damp patch on a chimney breast means. For everything else, start with roof repairs or tiled roofing. We also cover neighbouring Cromer.