Replacement windows in Cowfold

Cowfold stands where the A272 crosses the A281, about eight and a half miles south-south-east of Horsham. The village had 1,904 residents at the 2011 census. At its centre is St Peter's Church, an almost wholly medieval building listed at Grade I in 1959. Inside lies the brass of Thomas Nelond, Prior of Lewes, over ten feet long and the largest brass in Sussex. The 17th-century cottages along the north and east sides of the churchyard screen the church from the traffic; the critic Ian Nairn called the group incredibly picturesque. South of the village is St Hugh's Charterhouse at Parkminster, the only post-Reformation Carthusian monastery in the United Kingdom.

The village centre is a conservation area. Horsham District Council approved a new draft appraisal and management plan for Cowfold, with proposed boundary changes, for public consultation in November 2024. Modern housing lies to the south and west of the churchyard and beyond.

What gets fitted here

For the cottages and older houses in the conservation area, talk to the council before choosing. Listed cottages need listed building consent for any window change, and timber is usually expected. Flush casements, in timber where required or in uPVC elsewhere, suit the cottage scale.

The crossroads brings a lot of traffic through the village. Nitrogen dioxide from it led the council to declare an Air Quality Management Area in Cowfold in December 2011; levels fell back below the national objective and it was revoked in February 2026. Traffic noise remains, and for houses on the A272 or A281, acoustic glazing is worth asking about. It uses a thicker or laminated pane on one side of the sealed unit and costs a little more than a standard unit.

The newer houses away from the main roads are like the post-war estates of Horsham itself: plain openings, first or second generation double glazing, and a chamfered or flush uPVC casement as the usual replacement.

More background on Cowfold on Wikipedia.