Replacement windows in Broadbridge Heath

Broadbridge Heath lies on the western edge of Horsham. The A264 by-pass, opened in the 1970s, took through traffic out of the village. Until the 1850s it was scattered houses around an open common, with about twelve houses and an inn in 1844. It became a separate parish in 1987, carved out of the old Horsham Rural parish.

Three periods of building make up most of the village. Between the late 1880s and 1901, semi-detached houses went up along the main road towards Five Oaks. After the Second World War, large estates were built south of the old village, and the Royal Engineers' Bomb Disposal headquarters arrived on Wickhurst Lane in 1950. The Victoria County History notes houses built here in red and brown brick with some tile-hanging. Then, between 2013 and 2016, about 1,500 homes were built south of the by-pass as Wickhurst Green. The Office for National Statistics recorded the population rising by 79 per cent between 2013 and 2019.

What gets fitted here

The Victorian semis on Five Oaks Road were built with sashes, and most have had at least one replacement since. A uPVC vertical sliding sash brings back the original look without the upkeep of timber. The post-war estates south of the old village have plain openings that suit chamfered uPVC casements. If your house has tile-hanging on the upper floor, the surveyor will check how the new frames meet it, as the tiles often need careful work around the openings.

The Wickhurst Green homes are too new to need windows, except where something has gone wrong. Broadbridge Heath is not on the council's list of conservation areas. Field Place, the Grade I listed house about a mile north where Percy Bysshe Shelley was born in 1792, falls within Warnham parish.

The village has The Bridge Leisure Centre, with its running track, on the former military land, and the 1960s St John's Church.

More background on Broadbridge Heath on Wikipedia.