Roofers In Masham: Roof Costs, Stone Roofs And Planning On The Edge Of The Dales

If you are looking for roofers in Masham, the first thing to understand is that most of the town’s older roofs are stone. Masham’s houses and shops are built of local stone, and the roofs are mostly graduated stone slate, with Welsh slate on the buildings that went up or were re-roofed after the railway arrived in 1875. The parish has about 1,260 people. It got its first market charter in 1251, and it sits on the west bank of the River Ure just north of where the Burn joins it. That background decides what a roof job costs, who has to approve it and how the scaffold gets there. So rather than a tour of the town, here are the questions Masham owners actually ask us, in roughly the order they ask them.

What are Masham’s roofs actually made of?

The council’s appraisal of the conservation area sums it up in one line: most roofs are graduated stone slate or Welsh slate, there are very few clay pantiles and even fewer modern interlocking tiles. Graduated means the stone slates are laid biggest at the eaves and get smaller towards the ridge. Each course is a different size, so the stone has to be sorted before any of it goes back on. Gables are often finished with shaped stone kneelers and copings, and most chimney stacks are stone, with brick only on the humbler buildings.

Then there are the breweries. Theakston built its brewery and maltings on Red Lane in 1870, and Black Sheep has been brewing since 1992 in the old Lightfoot maltings, whose painted sign you see as you come over the bridge. Industrial buildings like these have long spans, odd roof shapes and big areas of slate. Outside the old core, streets built from the mid-20th century onwards are mostly concrete tile. Those are the cheapest roofs to work on in Masham.

So a quote that just says “re-roof” tells you very little. If you want to know what a roof repair in Masham will actually involve, the first thing to establish is which of these coverings you have, and whether it is the original.

Is Masham in the Yorkshire Dales National Park or Nidderdale National Landscape?

Neither. Plenty of people assume otherwise, and we get asked this more than almost anything else about the town. We checked the official boundary maps against the Market Place. The nearest edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park is about eight kilometres away to the west and north-west. The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority’s planning service only deals with land inside the park, so it has no say over a roof in Masham.

Nidderdale National Landscape, which was called an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty until 2023, is much closer. Its eastern edge is roughly 1.3 kilometres west of the Market Place, and Healey, Fearby, Swinton and the whole of Colsterdale are inside it. The Nidderdale National Landscape planning FAQ is blunt about it: the team there gives advice, and North Yorkshire Council makes the decision.

That leaves one authority for the town and its villages. Harrogate Borough Council was abolished on 1 April 2023, and North Yorkshire Council took over planning, conservation and building control. The villages inside the National Landscape do have a few extra limits, though. National Landscapes count as protected land under the permitted development rules, so a dormer that would be allowed in Ripon or Bedale might need planning permission in Healey.

What can roofers in Masham change around the Market Place?

The Masham conservation area was designated on 15 October 1975. Its current character appraisal, published by North Yorkshire Council, was approved in December 2008 and is still the document the council uses when it decides applications. Two things in it matter most for a roof.

The first is that it records every building around the Market Place as listed. If yours is one of them, re-roofing, rebuilding a chimney or adding a rooflight usually needs listed building consent, and starting without it is a criminal offence, not just a planning dispute. The second is the appraisal’s guidance that intrusive dormers, poor materials and unsuitable roof windows will not be accepted anywhere in the conservation area, listed or not.

Repairs that match what is already there need no permission. Putting back slipped stone slates, rebedding a ridge in lime or relaying a valley in lead with the same details is maintenance. Swapping stone for concrete, adding a dormer to the street side, taking down a stack or fitting solar panels on a slope that faces the road all need to go to the council first. The 2008 document also said Article 4 directions could be brought in to control smaller changes, so check with the council whether one now covers your street before you take anyone’s word for it.

How much do roofers in Masham charge in 2026?

Our day rate in Masham is the same as in Harrogate. The covering, the condition of the timbers and the access are what make one job cost more than another. These are the ranges we are quoting this year. They are a guide, not a quote.

• Refixing a few slipped Welsh slates from a ladder or tower: £150 to £400.
• Resetting slipped stone slates on a small area, with new pegs or nails: £400 to £1,200, more if the scaffold has to go on the street.
• New lead to a chimney or valley: £600 to £1,800, depending on the length and how much stone has to come up to reach it.
• Re-slating a terrace or semi in Welsh slate, reusing sound slates: £8,000 to £14,000.
• Stripping and relaying one slope of a stone slate cottage: £7,000 to £13,000.
• Full strip and relay of a stone slate roof, with sorting, new battens and membrane: £18,000 to £35,000.
• Re-covering a later concrete tile roof on the edge of town: £5,500 to £9,000.

Stone is the expensive part because it is heavy, slow to sort and costly to replace. We have covered the details in our guide to stone slate roofs in Harrogate and Nidderdale. For a Masham owner, the short version is that a quote which assumes all new stone, or doesn’t say how many slates will be saved, needs a second look.

Why is exposure a bigger issue on the Dales side of town?

Masham sits where lower Wensleydale opens out into the Vale of York, and the open ground to the west lets the weather come straight in. Most of the time the houses in the centre shelter each other. The farmhouses and barns up towards Healey, Fearby and Colsterdale don’t, and nor do the houses on the western edge of town that face the moor. Gables on that side take the full force of a westerly, and that is where we see verges, copings and ridges fail first.

Stone slates cope with wind better than most coverings because of their weight. They fail when the fixings go. Old oak pegs rot, iron nails rust through, and a slate slides down a course and leaves a gap that you can’t see from the street. Driven rain then gets in under the slate above. The first sign inside is usually a damp patch on a bedroom ceiling a long way from where the water actually got in.

Snow and frost add to it. Mortar torching under old stone roofs gets saturated in a wet winter, freezes, and drops out. It is worth having the roof looked at each autumn if you live on the higher ground, ideally before the clocks change.

How do scaffold and materials get into Masham?

From our base in Harrogate it is about 20 miles, up the A61 to Ripon and then along the A6108. If you have already read our piece on roofers in Ripon and the Market Place there, Masham is a smaller version of the same problem. Many of the buildings here are built right up to the back of the pavement, so the scaffold has to stand on the highway. That needs a licence from North Yorkshire Council, which takes time to arrange and should be a separate line on your quote.

The Market Place doubles as the town car park, so stone deliveries and skip swaps have to be booked for early mornings, when the square is quiet. Anything that needs room on the square stays well clear of the September sheep fair.

Out in the villages, the lanes are often too narrow for a full-size wagon. Stone slates go up to Colsterdale and Healey on smaller loads, and on some farm jobs they are carried the last stretch by hand. That costs labour, and it is one of the main reasons a barn roof in the hills is dearer than a house roof of the same size in town.

If you want someone to come and look, we will survey the roof, check the loft, tell you whether the building is listed or in the conservation area, and give you a written quote that sets out the scaffold, the licence and how much of your stone goes back on. Arrange a free roof survey in Masham and we will book a visit.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority’s permission for roof work in Masham?

No. Masham is outside the National Park, whose nearest boundary is roughly eight kilometres away. It is also just outside Nidderdale National Landscape. North Yorkshire Council is the planning authority for the town and for the villages around it, including Healey and Fearby, which sit inside the National Landscape. The National Landscape team can comment on applications, but the council makes the decision.

Can I put rooflights in a house on Masham Market Place?

Probably not on the front. The appraisal for the Masham conservation area says intrusive dormers and inappropriate roof windows harm the historic roofscape and will not be acceptable. It also records that every building around the Market Place is listed, so almost any change to the roof needs listed building consent before work starts. A conservation-style rooflight on a hidden rear slope has a better chance, but ask North Yorkshire Council before you buy one.

Is it worth keeping the stone slates when a Masham roof is re-covered?

Nearly always. Graduated stone slate is the covering the conservation area wants kept, reclaimed stone is expensive to buy back, and a careful strip usually saves most of what is already up there. The slates that cannot go back are the ones that have split, flaked or lost their fixing holes. Make sure your quote says who keeps the slates that come off and how many are expected to go back on.

How far do you travel to reach Masham from Harrogate?

It is about 20 miles, up the A61 to Ripon and then out along the A6108, which takes around 40 minutes in normal traffic. We cover Masham and the villages up the Burn and Ure valleys as a regular part of our area, and for urgent leaks we carry sheeting and battens to make a roof watertight on the first visit.