Replacement windows in Colemans Hatch: timber or flush uPVC

Colemans Hatch is a scattered hamlet south-west of Hartfield, built round a handful of road junctions on the edge of Ashdown Forest. The name suggests it grew at one of the gates, or hatches, into the forest. It is part of Hartfield parish in Wealden District, East Sussex, though it was historically linked to Forest Row.

Big houses after the railway

The hamlet stayed small until the railway made daily travel to London practical. From the middle of the nineteenth century people built large houses here for the clean air and the forest views, and that is still the character: detached houses in big gardens, a few cottages, the Hatch Inn, and Holy Trinity church, built of local sandstone in 1913 to designs by the Blomfield practice. Marsh Green, close to Poohsticks Bridge, has been a separate cluster since at least the 1841 census.

The older houses here follow the forest-edge pattern of brick or sandstone below and clay tile-hanging above, with side-hung casements rather than sashes.

Planning in Colemans Hatch

There is no conservation area here, and Wealden's single Article 4 direction is far away in Rotherfield. The hamlet is inside the High Weald National Landscape, but that does not remove a house's right to replace its windows. So for an unlisted house the choice is open, provided the new windows look broadly like the old.

The usual question is timber or uPVC. A flush uPVC casement sits inside its frame like a timber one, comes in cream or a soft green, and needs no painting. Timber looks right on a cottage, costs roughly twice as much and once painted it needs a first repaint about three years in, then a coat at regular intervals for as long as you own it. The example below is the uPVC version of a typical cottage job; a similar cottage done in timber is on the example jobs page.

Colemans Hatch has no Wikipedia page of its own; it is covered on the Hartfield page.

An example job in Colemans Hatch

Illustrative example of a typical job

Four casements in a tile-hung cottage at Colemans Hatch: the uPVC option

A Victorian cottage with clay tile-hanging on the upper floor, not listed and not in a conservation area, close to the edge of Ashdown Forest.

• Four uPVC flush casements, about 1000 by 1200mm each
• Cream outside, white inside, slim flush sashes that sit inside the frame like a timber window
• Two upstairs and two down; access for the upstairs pair is assessed at the survey

Typically £4,400 to £7,800, supplied and fitted, including VAT.

The example jobs page also prices a similar tile-hung cottage in timber, so you can see what the choice costs.

See all eight example jobs.