Replacement windows in Ashurst, north of Steyning on the B2135

Ashurst is a small, scattered parish on the west bank of the Adur, about two miles west of Henfield on the road from Steyning to Partridge Green.

It has never been a compact village. The Victoria County History describes medieval settlement spread across farmsteads, a small nucleus along what is now School Lane by the sixteenth century, and ribbon building along the Horsham to Steyning road by 1621. The parish church of St James dates from the twelfth century, and the Fountain Inn has a passage wall of sixteenth-century character.

The houses are what make Ashurst unusual. Many are old farmhouses, several of them listed: Sweethill Farm, a late medieval house enlarged in the seventeenth century; Blocques and Gratwicks, both sixteenth century; Kings Barn Farm, timber framed at its north end with a stone rubble range dated 1647; and Old Lock, a red and blue brick front of 1702 on a sandstone plinth. Horsebridge House has a symmetrical early eighteenth-century front.

For a listed farmhouse, any change to the windows needs listed building consent, and the right window is the one the house already has, repaired where possible or copied in timber. For an unlisted older cottage, flush casements with the original pane pattern work well.

School Lane and later homes

Council houses and other nineteenth and twentieth century cottages line School Lane, and a group of small houses was built on the Lock estate west of Old Lock. These are straightforward replacements in uPVC or aluminium.

Damp and the floodplain

The north and north-east of the parish are on the Adur floodplain, and seasonal flooding is recorded back to 1730. Ground-floor frames and sills in low-lying houses often suffer first. Tell the surveyor if water has ever reached the house.

Planning

Ashurst does not appear in Horsham District Council's list of conservation areas, so for an unlisted house the usual permitted development rules apply. Horsham District Council is the council for the parish.

For an Ashurst survey, call 01903 948046, or send your details.

Background: Ashurst on Wikipedia.