Advice to owners

Here is some advice for local property owners who intend to make alterations:

 A LISTED PROPERTY eg Grade 1 or 2

First discuss your plans with the Heritage Officer at Babergh District Council

A LOCALLY LISTED PROPERTY

A few suggestions if you are thinking about making alterations to your property, particularly if it is included in the current Local List.

These properties appear on the Revised Local List for Sudbury 2018. Many of these buildings date from the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century - built of local brick, roofed in slate and fitted with wooden doors and sash windows. As a rough guide the number of panes in each sash decreased from eight in the 1850s down to two in the early 1900s. The sash windows were always set back about three inches within the brick opening, never flush with the brick surface.

Work on windows

A competent local carpenter or a specialist firm can refurbish old wooden windows and give them a new lease of life. Secondary glazing can also be fitted inside the sash window to reduce draughts and cut out noise.

If the old windows are beyond repair we urge owners to replace like-with-like as far as possible i.e. new wooden sash windows set back within the brick opening. We can suggest the correct number of panes for the original date of construction and the best replacement sash windows can be supplied with sealed units without the need for very thick glazing bars.

Many houses are being fitted with UPVC double glazing which can seriously damage the ‘period’ character of a property. Often the new windows do not open like sashes, take no heed of traditional glazing patterns and are fitted flush with the brick opening. However, there are firms which produce quite a reasonable approximation to original wooden sashes.

Work on walls

Many older houses are built of local Ballingdon white bricks. These acquire a patina over the years but some owners like their building to look as clean as possible. Using high pressure water should not be to much of a problem but using sand blasting or chemicals are liable to take off the top surface of the bricks. Overenthusiastic cleaning can also have an unfortunate impact, for example in a terrace, with the cleaned building sticking out like the proverbial sore thumb!

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