Replacement windows in Betchworth
Betchworth sits in Mole Valley district, not Reigate and Banstead, beside the River Mole under Box Hill. It is a Domesday village with a conservation area designated in 1970 and a high share of listed buildings.
- Built
- Mostly 17th and 18th-century cottages along The Street, with later detached houses around the village
- Walls
- Red and brown brick, whitewashed brick, roughcast and tile-hung gables; chalk was quarried and burnt for lime at the Pilgrims' Way kilns
- Conservation area
- Betchworth, Mole Valley, with around twenty-two listed buildings plus St Michael's church
- Article 4
- None found. Mole Valley's directions cover parts of Dorking, Brockham and Leatherhead only
The houses
The list entries on The Street describe the windows plainly. The Dolphin pub has 16-pane sashes behind whitewashed brick. The Cottage and The Old House have 12- and 15-pane sashes in red and brown brick. Priests Cottage, a 17th-century timber frame under roughcast, has casements including a leaded three-light. St Michael's church is Grade I, and Betchworth House is Grade II*.
Away from The Street, most houses are detached. In 2011 the parish had 176 detached houses against 71 terraced, and over a third of homes were owned outright. Buyers here tend to replace a whole house at once rather than a window at a time.
What gets fitted
For a listed cottage, the answer is listed building consent and almost always timber: a timber box sash costs £2,650 to £3,800, and secondary glazing is often the better route where the old glass survives. See listed houses.
For an unlisted house, even inside the conservation area, Mole Valley has no Article 4 direction here, so like-for-like replacement keeps normal permitted development rights. Owners of the larger detached houses usually choose slim aluminium at £1,200 to £1,950 a window, or uPVC flush casements at £1,100 to £1,950 where the house has a cottage character.
More background: Wikipedia, Betchworth. To check a conservation area boundary, use the council's own map before relying on any summary.
Live in Betchworth? Send your postcode and the number of windows.