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Many thanks buildersmate. It is on the sloping part of the roof. I've just had a look at a few pictures of roof construction on the internet and most show what they call a barge board covering the gap between the tiles and brickwork.
In my property, there are no bargeboards, just this grey stuff filling the gap. The house was built around 1972.
The stuff seems to have been trowelled into the gap somehow and it doesn;t look like any sort of sheet or board as it's not proud of the brickwork.