Fencing in Nettlebed
A village built on its own clay, which tells you what the digging is like.
Nettlebed made bricks for centuries because of what is under it. The kiln is still standing on the common, and the clay that fed it runs under most of the village and the hamlets scattered round it.
That clay decides two things for anyone fencing here: what the digging is like, and when in the year you want us doing it.
The same job is easier in October
Heavy Chilterns clay has about two months a year when it is pleasant to dig. In February it is saturated, a post hole fills as fast as you empty it, and the spoil comes out as a slurry you cannot backfill with. In August the same ground sets hard enough to blunt a bar, and every hole takes twice as long as it should.
Autumn and late spring are the sweet spots — damp enough to cut, dry enough to hold a hole open. We work all year and the quote does not change with the season, so this is not us charging more in winter. It is a genuine reason to book a February enquiry for April if the fence is standing well enough to wait.
Pick Clay unless you know you are on one of the gravel pockets. It is the honest answer for most of this parish and the multiplier reflects real hours rather than a guess. If your garden sits on the old workings, add that in the notes.
Price it now →What is buried, and what it does to the price
Centuries of brick and tile making leaves marks. Old pits get backfilled, yards get hardstanding laid over them, and hedges get planted along lines that used to be tramways. Made ground digs unpredictably: a metre of soft fill, then a slab of something nobody remembers putting there.
This is exactly the thing your quote cannot see from a form. The range we email you is about fifteen per cent wide — a 40m closeboard run prices at £5,920 to £6,880 — and that spread is there to absorb the ordinary surprises. Something genuinely unexpected, like a buried yard or a services run, we show you and cost before we touch it. You will not find it added to an invoice at the end.
What we build in Nettlebed
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 Nettlebed
All of these are a short run for us, and priced exactly the same as the town itself.
- Highmoor
- Bix
- Crocker End
- Catslip
- Russell’s Water
- Pishill
- Stonor
- Nuffield
- Huntercombe
- Sonning Common
Nettlebed questions
When is the best time of year to have fencing done?
On clay like this, autumn or late spring. Winter ground is waterlogged and a post hole will not stay open long enough to set a post true. High summer bakes it hard and slows every hole down. We work through the year and the price is the same whenever you book, so this is advice rather than a sales pitch — if your fence is standing well enough to wait until the ground turns, wait.
Our garden is on the old brickworks. Does that matter?
It might. Made ground and backfilled pits dig very differently from undisturbed clay, and there is no way to know what is down there until a bar goes in. Put it in the notes and we will look properly at the survey rather than finding out on the first morning. It is not automatically dearer — plenty of old fill digs easily — but it is worth flagging.
What could change between the quote and the final price?
Only something we could not have seen. The emailed range is about fifteen per cent wide and that covers the normal variation in ground and access. What sits outside it is a buried wall, an old slab, a services run, or ground materially harder than you described. In every one of those we stop, show you the cost, and let you decide before any of it goes on your bill.
Do you come out to the smaller hamlets?
Yes — Highmoor, Bix, Russell’s Water, Pishill, Stonor and the rest are all a short run and none of them cost extra. Single-track lanes and long farm drives are worth a line in the notes so we plan one delivery rather than three, but they do not change the price.
More of the general ones on the FAQ page.