Bay windows in East Grinstead, Forest Row and Dormansland

Bays are a feature of late Victorian and Edwardian houses, and East Grinstead has many of both: its population nearly doubled between 1851 and 1891 after the railways came, and the Chequer Mead estate filled out in the 1890s and 1900s. Dormansland's villas of the early 1880s date from the same railway boom. The older forest cottages, built with small casements, rarely have them.

Types of bay

• Canted bays, with angled sides, are the usual Edwardian shape. They can be done in flush uPVC casements, uPVC sashes, slim aluminium or timber.
• Square bays are more common on Victorian villas and on some interwar houses.
• Curved bays turn up on a few interwar houses and are made to a template.

Why bays need a proper survey

In many older bays the window frame itself carries some of the weight of the roof or the room above. Take it out without support and the bay can sag. The surveyor checks for this, and where needed the new bay is fitted with posts or a steel lintel. Rotten timber bay roofs and cracked brick bases are also found and priced at the survey.

If you live in the East Grinstead conservation area, a bay on the front is part of what the council expects to stay the same. Keep the shape and the pattern of glazing and an unlisted house will usually not need permission.