Cockermouth, where the roof is the town's first defence.
A Georgian market town where the Cocker meets the Derwent, largely conservation area, and a place that knows about water getting in. A family firm of 20 years. Free quotes, 24 hour call-outs.
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Written prices
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Free quotes
no call-out charge, and a written price before anyone starts
24 hours
someone answers the phone, storm or shine
Fully insured
every job covered, from a single slate to a full re-roof
01/
Roofing in Cockermouth.
Cockermouth is a Georgian market town built where the Cocker runs into the Derwent, and most of the centre is a conservation area. Main Street and the streets off it are lined with tall rendered and painted frontages, many of them listed, with natural slate above and a great deal more going on up there than you can see from the pavement.
That is the defining thing about roofs in this town: they are complicated. These buildings have been extended, subdivided, re-fronted and knocked through for two hundred years, and every alteration left a junction behind. Valleys between ranges of different heights, secret gutters running behind parapets, lead flats over back additions, and roof planes that meet at angles nobody would design today. The leaks here are almost never in the middle of a slope — they are at a junction where someone once put cement instead of lead.
The town has good reason to care. It flooded badly in 2009 and again in 2015, and while that water came from the rivers rather than the sky, it left the place with a sharp appreciation of what happens when water gets into a building. A blocked secret gutter that overflows into a ceiling is a smaller version of the same misery, and it is entirely preventable with a look and a clear-out.
You also start to see different materials here. Cockermouth is the gateway to the Lake District proper, and as you move east the Welsh slate of the coast gives way to Lakeland green slate — thicker, heavier and laid in diminishing courses. We work in both, and we will tell you honestly which your roof wants.
02/
What the weather does here.
Cockermouth is inland, so there is no salt to speak of, but it is a good deal wetter than the coast. It sits at the foot of the fells where two rivers meet, and it gets the rain that has come off high ground all the way down the valley.
Volume of water is the issue, not force of wind. Gutters, hoppers, valleys and secret gutters here are handling far more than the same detail would on the coast, and when one silts up it does not trickle — it overflows. The commonest emergency we get in this town is water coming through a ceiling from a blocked valley, on a roof whose slates are perfectly sound.
Which is why maintenance genuinely pays here. Clearing a valley costs very little next to replacing a ceiling and drying out a room.
03/
What we do most of in Cockermouth.
Every town on this coast wears its roofs out differently. These are the jobs that come up here — but we do the lot, so if yours is not on the list, ring and describe it.
Repairs and leaks
Valleys, parapets and flashings — where this town's leaks actually are.
Repairs and leaks in Cockermouth
Roof maintenance
The wettest place we work. Clearing gutters here prevents ceilings.
Roof maintenance in Cockermouth
Heritage roofing
Listed and conservation-area property on and around Main Street.
Heritage roofing in Cockermouth
Chimneys and leadwork
Two hundred years of alterations left a lot of junctions to get right.
Chimneys and leadwork in Cockermouth
04/
What people round here say.
“Bryan and his team fitted a new slate roof on my house and did a fantastic job. Brian explained fully what the work entailed and answered all of my questions. They are professionals and I would highly recommend them.”
Amanda Wright
New slate roof — , 30 November 2020
“I contacted Riverside roofing with an emergency issue at my holiday let. He ( Bryan) returned my call immediately, offered to go to the property in less than an hour to assess the problem, without any charges for looking at the problem. Absolutely fantastic service, with customer service to match, reliable with a positive attitude. I thoroughly recommend Riverside Roofing.”
lisa McAleavey
Emergency call-out to a holiday let — Google, 24 August 2024
“Excellent service. I phoned on Monday & they were able to start work on my badly leaking roof on the Friday. Job finished on the Saturday. Thank you to Brian & the lads. Highly recommend this company.”
Joanne Whitehead
Badly leaking roof — Google, 21 November 2022
“Fantastic service. Prompt, friendly and 100% professional. Explained everything clearly and got job started and finished with remarkable quality. ( a visiting friend is a roofer and ‘remarkable quality’ are his words) left yard clean and tidy. Team singing and happy on job- really cheered us up. CWould recommend to anyone. Thanks guys!!!”
Lucy Wills
Roof damage repair and installation — Google, 28 November 2022
“Great job done on guttering, quick and efficient, very friendly”
malcolm cavanagh
Guttering — Google, 22 November 2019
“Top service! Came out after some storm damage to my roof by storm Eowyn. They were there within the hour from me making contact and carried out a temp fix and make the roof watertight whilst i logged a claim with my insurers. Once my insurance claim was authorised they came straight back out to do the permanent repairs and even waited for the insurance payout to hit my bank before I paid them. All done in good faith and nothing was too much trouble. Would definitely recommend.”
Wayne McCarron
Storm damage and insurance repair — Google, 10 February 2025
“Bryan and his team did an excellent job replacing my roof, facias and guttering, leaving everything clean and tidy when they finished. I would have no hesitation in recommending Riverside Roofing.”
diane harrison
New roof, fascias and guttering — Google, 6 July 2024
“Great response, only a small job but done within 24 hours of the initial enquiry.”
Kevin Howland
Small repair — Google, 12 February 2025
“Would highly recommend, very professional and all work completed on the agreed time. Exceptional work!”
Mark Gillgrass
Roofing work — Google, 25 June 2025
100%
of the 15 reviews on our page recommend us, and Google has us at 4.7 out of 5. Every word of them is somebody else's, so go and read them there rather than here.
Get the Cockermouth roof looked at.
Coming out to look costs nothing and there's no call-out charge. You get a written price before anyone lifts a slate.