Fencing in Amersham
Metro-land gardens, and more boundary than most people count.
Amersham is two towns a mile and a hundred feet apart: the old market town down in the Misbourne valley, and Amersham-on-the-Hill, which the Metropolitan line built from the 1890s onwards.
The hill is where most of our work is. Those between-the-wars plots run long and narrow, and the fencing bill on one usually lands higher than the owner expected — not because the rate is steep, but because there is more boundary there than anyone counts.
You have more fence than you think
A typical Metro-land semi off Chestnut Lane or Woodside Road sits on a garden eight metres wide and thirty deep. That is two long sides and a back: close to seventy metres of boundary on a plot most people would call average. Quote that in closeboard and it is a different order of job from the twenty metres they had in mind.
The price runs linear, so a long boundary buys you nothing per metre. What it does buy is one visit, one set-up and one straight line instead of three. Ten minutes with a tape before you open the form is worth more here than anywhere else we work.
Pace it rather than guess — a normal stride is about three quarters of a metre. Count only the sides you actually want doing. If the far boundary belongs to next door and is staying put, leave it out and watch the number come down.
Price it now →What it has to look like
Amersham sits inside the Chilterns National Landscape, and the old High Street is a conservation area with a long list of listed buildings down it. None of that stops you fencing a back garden. It does shape what looks right: closeboard and slatted sit far better against these houses than a bright orange lap panel fresh off the lorry.
Staining both sides is on the form as an option. On a long run it works out around £13 a metre including VAT, which on seventy metres is real money — and it is the difference between a boundary that looks finished and one that looks delivered.
What we build in Amersham
All services →Closeboard / featheredge
The workhorse. Built on site, board by board. 20+ year life.
from £140/mPrice thisPanel (lap / waney)
Fast, tidy and kind to the wallet. Great for garden boundaries.
from £112/mPrice thisPicket
Cottage-front charm. Low, friendly, painted if you like.
from £116/mPrice thisSlatted / contemporary
Clean horizontal lines. The one architects ask for.
from £183/mPrice thisPost & rail (agricultural)
Paddocks, drives and field boundaries. Stock-proof options.
from £65/mPrice thisRepairs & replacement bays
Snapped posts, blown panels, storm damage. Sorted.
from £108/mPrice this
In and around Amersham
All of these are a short run for us, and priced exactly the same as the town itself.
- Amersham-on-the-Hill
- Old Amersham
- Chesham Bois
- Little Chalfont
- Coleshill
- Winchmore Hill
- Penn Street
- Hyde Heath
- Holmer Green
- Chalfont St Giles
Amersham questions
Is staining actually worth paying for?
It depends what you want from it. The timber we use is pressure-treated, so it will not rot whether you stain it or not — this is about colour and sunlight, not survival. Stain slows the silvering, keeps the boards an even shade instead of patchy, and needs redoing every few years. We do both sides, two coats, your choice of colour, and the form prices it at around £13 a metre including VAT so you can see the figure before you decide.
We only want one side of the garden done.
That is most jobs, and the form handles it. Put in the length of the run you actually want rather than the whole perimeter. If you are doing one side now and think you will do the rest next year, say so in the notes — we will keep the spec and the colour on file so the second half matches the first rather than turning up two shades out.
Does the Chilterns National Landscape change what we can build?
Not for a garden fence. The usual permitted development limits still apply — 2m between gardens, 1m where it meets a road or footpath — and the National Landscape designation does not tighten them. What can tighten them is a listed building, where consent covers the curtilage as well as the house, or an Article 4 direction in a conservation area. Old Amersham has plenty of the former. We will flag it if your job looks like one to check with Buckinghamshire Council.
Old Amersham or on the Hill — does it change the job?
A bit. Down in the valley you are on the Misbourne with the water table closer to the surface, the High Street is narrow and largely permit parking, and we work small and carry in. Up on the hill the access is easy, the drives are wide, and the ground is chalk with flint in it, which digs slower than it looks. Pick Chalk in the form if you are on the top.
More of the general ones on the FAQ page.