Heritage Roofers in Thaxted

Thaxted is one of north-west Essex's most exceptional small medieval towns, clustered on a hilltop in the Uttlesford district (postcode CM6), and roofing here is genuinely distinct from anywhere else we work. The townscape is crowded beneath the soaring spire of St John the Baptist church – often called the "Cathedral of Essex" – with the late-medieval timber Guildhall on Town Street and John Webb's white weatherboarded tower windmill of 1804 standing on the southern edge. These are ordinary homes and working structures, not a stage set, and what makes Thaxted unusual on a roof is how often thatch and tile sit side by side along the same street.

That mix of thatch and tile is the thread running through our Thaxted work. We are roofers, not master thatchers, so on a thatched cottage our job is everything the thatch leans against – the lead flashings, soakers, ridge junctions and chimney aprons where reed or straw meets brickwork, a gable or a tiled addition. Done badly these junctions are exactly where a thatched roof lets water in; done properly they keep the thatcher's work dry for decades. We are glad to dovetail with a specialist thatcher on a re-thatch so the hard detailing and the thatch line up, and on the tiled, oak-framed properties around the church, the 1714 almshouses and the Guildhall we bring the same care to ridge work, valleys and leadwork.

Much of the historic core – Town Street, Watling Street, Newbiggen Street, Bolford Street and Park Street – sits within a conservation area, and many buildings are individually listed, among them the Grade I Guildhall, Horham Hall and Clarence House. On a listed property in Uttlesford, work that changes a roof's appearance can need listed-building consent before it starts, and we are used to flagging that early, sourcing matching handmade and reclaimed tiles, and forming traditional lead detailing the way these roofs were originally built rather than reaching for the quickest modern substitute.

Thaxted is far from only medieval. Out towards Monk Street and on the town's edges there are later cottages, twentieth-century houses, barn conversions and modern infill, plus the garages, extensions and farm outbuildings that come with a rural town, and we re-roof and repair all of these with modern tiles, membranes and flat-roof systems where they suit. We also cover the surrounding villages – Great Sampford, Debden, Wimbish, Broxted and Henham among them. Allways Roofing is based in Haverhill and travels to Thaxted routinely, offering honest advice on what a roof here actually needs and which consents may apply.