Fencing in Chalfont St Giles
A village where a fence has to answer to the building behind it.
Chalfont St Giles keeps more of its old centre than most villages this close to London. Milton’s Cottage, the pond, the High Street — a great deal of it is listed, and most of the rest sits in the conservation area.
That does not stop you fencing a garden. It does mean two conversations happen here that rarely come up elsewhere: whether your job needs consent, and whether what you have chosen belongs against the building behind it.
Fencing next to a listed building
Listing does not stop at the front door. Consent covers the curtilage — the ground and structures that go with the building — so a boundary in the garden of a listed cottage can need permission even though an identical fence next door does not. It is not usually a refusal. It is a form, a wait, and a reason not to start on a Monday because someone fancied getting on with it.
Conservation area status works differently and catches fewer people. A fence in a back garden inside a conservation area is normally fine within the usual limits. What can change that is an Article 4 direction, which withdraws permitted development rights in a specific area. We check rather than assume, and we will tell you which of the three situations you are in before we quote a start date.
Fill the form in as normal — the price does not change because a building is listed. Put the listing in the notes box and we will look into consent before we take a deposit or book you a week, rather than discovering it halfway through.
Price it now →What the ten year guarantee actually covers
We guarantee our workmanship for ten years. That means the things we control: posts that stay plumb and stay put, rails and boards that stay fixed where we fixed them, gates that still shut in January the way they did in June. If any of that fails because of how we built it, we come back and put it right.
What it does not cover is the weather and the timber’s own life. Silvering, seasonal movement, a board that cups in a hot summer, or a run flattened by a gale are not workmanship. Nor is a neighbour’s tree coming down on it. We would rather set that out here than have the argument on a doorstep in five years.
What we build in Chalfont St Giles
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 Chalfont St Giles
All of these are a short run for us, and priced exactly the same as the town itself.
- Jordans
- Seer Green
- Chalfont St Peter
- Little Chalfont
- Coleshill
- Winchmore Hill
- Amersham
- Beaconsfield
- Chalfont Common
- Three Households
Chalfont St Giles questions
Our cottage is listed. Can we just put a fence up?
Not without checking first. Listed building consent covers the curtilage, so a boundary within the grounds of a listed property can need permission even though the same fence next door would not. Applications are usually granted for something sympathetic. Doing the work without consent is a different matter entirely, and it is your liability rather than ours, so we will not start until it is settled.
Does being in the conservation area restrict us?
Less than most people fear. A back garden fence inside a conservation area is normally fine within the usual permitted development limits — 2m, or 1m where it meets a road. The exception is an Article 4 direction, which removes those rights for a defined area. If your job looks like one to check, we will point you at Buckinghamshire Council before we book you in.
What suits an old house?
Closeboard and post and rail sit well against period brick and flint, because they are essentially what has always been there. Contemporary slatted screens look wrong in front of a seventeenth-century cottage and right behind a new build a mile away. A dark stain settles new timber into an old setting faster than anything else, and we can do that as part of the job — it is on the form.
What is not covered by the guarantee?
Weather and time. Timber silvers, moves with the seasons and the odd board cups — none of that is a workmanship failure. Storm damage is not covered either, nor is anything a third party does to the fence, including a neighbour’s tree. What is covered is our building of it: posts, fixings, alignment and gates. If a post we set moves inside ten years, that is ours to fix.
More of the general ones on the FAQ page.