Double Glazing in Sittingbourne

Sittingbourne was a stopping point on the road to Canterbury long before it was an industrial town, but it was the railway, arriving in 1858, that transformed it. The local clay made it one of the country’s great brickmaking centres, with over 2,600 men working in the brick and tile trade by 1870, and paper making grew alongside it. It was a port too: barges built on Milton Creek carried Kentish produce to the London markets, and in 1904 the Lloyd paper mill built its own wharf there, served by the line that is now the Sittingbourne and Kemsley Light Railway. Many of the town’s older terraces date from that period, and on those, windows in keeping with the original pattern make the front look settled rather than patched.

Milton Regis is older than Sittingbourne itself and was once a Roman centre on Milton Creek, and it keeps its historic High Street. On the town’s more modern houses, uPVC casements, composite front doors and bi-folds are the usual upgrades, while on the older streets sliding sash or flush sash windows are worth considering where the front calls for them.

Swale Borough Council handles planning in Sittingbourne and has 51 conservation areas across the borough. Two are in the town, Sittingbourne itself, first designated in 1969, and Milton Regis High Street, designated in 1970, and the council currently lists both as at risk. Permitted development rights are narrower inside a conservation area, so check with the council before changing the windows or door on a house in either.

About seven miles east, most Victorian and Edwardian houses in the Faversham conservation area are covered by an Article 4 direction, the largest in the borough, so replacing their front windows or doors needs planning permission.

Check the rules with Swale Borough Council