Replacement windows in Warnham

Warnham lies north-west of Horsham, with 2,068 residents at the 2011 census. St Margaret's Church, Grade I listed, dates from the 14th century and holds monuments to the Shelley family. Field Place, where Percy Bysshe Shelley was born in 1792, is also Grade I. Warnham Court was built in 1828 and its park laid out from the early 1830s. The parish also takes in Kingsfold, Rowhook, Strood Green and Goosegreen, where most houses are or were owned by the Warnham Park Estate.

The Warnham conservation area was designated in November 1976 and covers Church Street, Friday Street, Bell Road, School Hill and part of Knob Hill. The council's appraisal lists 31 entries in its gazetteer of listed buildings, most of them Grade II. It describes timber-framed buildings, Georgian houses such as Lavender Cottage on School Hill, dated 1752, Victorian gabled houses, and Arts and Crafts houses at 3 to 7 Bell Road from the 1900s.

Materials and windows

The appraisal picks out Horsham stone, a flaggy sandstone from the Weald clay, for roofs, along with handmade clay tiles. Local bricks are warm orange, and those from the Warnham brickworks have a purple hue. Windows are mainly wooden casements, or sashes with glazing bars. The appraisal names the replacement of sash and casement windows with plastic as a cumulative harm and asks for historic windows to be kept and repaired where possible.

What gets fitted here

Inside the conservation area, start with the council. Listed buildings need consent and usually timber. For unlisted houses in the area, a timber flush casement is often the safest choice on the front, and a uPVC flush casement may be acceptable at the back; ask first. Timber flush casements cost about twice the uPVC version, and in a Warnham garden or street the paint will want a first refresh after around three years and regular attention afterwards.

Outside the conservation area, the 20th-century houses on the edges of the village suit uPVC flush or chamfered casements, chosen to match the house.

More background on Warnham on Wikipedia.