Windows and doors in Glynde, east of Lewes

Glynde is a small village two miles east of Lewes, under Mount Caburn and inside the South Downs National Park. It grew around a great house and is built largely in Sussex flint, and that shapes what windows suit it.

The estate and its buildings

Glynde Place was built by William Morley in 1569 of Sussex flint and stone from Caen, and is listed at Grade I. The parish church of St Mary the Virgin, built by Richard Trevor to a design by Sir Thomas Robinson and dedicated in 1765, is Palladian and faced in Sussex flints. Trevor also used knapped flint for walls he added. Glyndebourne, home of the opera festival since 1934, is at the north end of the parish. The station, opened in 1846, is just over the boundary in Beddingham parish, as are the cottages of Trevor Gardens near it.

Conservation area and listing

The Glynde conservation area was designated on 13 March 1996 and is now the Authority's responsibility. It covers about 22 hectares and contains 31 listed buildings, from Glynde Place and its stables at Grade I to Grade II cottages such as Forge Cottage, Malthouse Cottages, Daffodil Cottage and Home Farm Cottages, and Glynde Mill. With so many listed buildings in so small a place, the first thing to check here is the National Heritage List.

The Authority's Article 4 register lists no direction for Glynde. An unlisted house keeps its permitted development rights for windows of similar appearance; a listed one needs listed building consent from the Authority. If you rent, window work is a matter for your landlord.

What usually suits

Painted timber casements for listed flint cottages, made to the pattern of the old frames. For an unlisted cottage, a flush casement with slim bars in uPVC or aluminium keeps the look without the painting. Doors on listed cottages are timber; elsewhere a composite door in a plain cottage pattern works. Wikipedia has more on Glynde.