Replacement windows in Mannings Heath

Mannings Heath is the largest settlement in Nuthurst parish, on the A281 about two miles south-east of Horsham. It began as a hamlet built around two roads, with 20 houses in 1794 and 40 by 1841. The Church of the Good Shepherd was built in 1881. Mannings Heath Golf Club lies partly in the parish and partly in neighbouring Lower Beeding.

After 1945 the village filled in with council and private house building, and by 1979 the West Sussex Gazette counted 350 to 400 houses. The Victoria County History described the new roads and houses as built with a variety of design that largely preserved the character of the old hamlet. Two buildings that may date from the 17th century, and a few from the 18th, survive among them.

What gets fitted here

Because most of the houses date from the decades after the war, the usual job here is replacing tired double glazing on a house of the 1950s, 1960s or 1970s. The variety of design matters: houses on the same road may have quite different windows, so it pays to fit what suits your own house rather than copying next door. Plain casement openings suit chamfered uPVC. Houses with wide windows or a more modern look suit slimline aluminium. The older cottages are a different job and may suit flush casements, in timber if they are listed.

Mannings Heath itself is not on Horsham District Council's list of conservation areas. The separate Nuthurst conservation area covers the older village of Nuthurst to the south. For most houses in Mannings Heath, like-for-like replacement is permitted development.

Being on the A281, houses on the main road may want to ask about acoustic glazing, which uses thicker or laminated glass on one side of the unit to cut traffic noise. The surveyor can price it alongside standard units.

More background on Mannings Heath on Wikipedia.