Rodmell sits on the west bank of the Ouse about three miles south-east of Lewes, on the road to Newhaven, inside the South Downs National Park. The planning authority is the South Downs National Park Authority.
The village
St Peter's Church dates from the twelfth century, is listed at Grade I and is among the earliest surviving examples of Norman architecture in the country. Monk's House, the sixteenth-century weatherboarded cottage where Virginia and Leonard Woolf lived, stands on the eastern edge next to the Lewes Brooks and belongs to the National Trust. Northease Manor dates mainly from the seventeenth century. Listed houses in the village show the local mix of materials: Mill House on Mill Lane is red brick with a tile-hung top floor and keeps its glazing bars, with a flint-faced outbuilding with brick dressings beside it, and Rodmell House is red brick with a flint side wall.
Conservation area and the Article 4 direction
The Rodmell conservation area was designated on 10 August 1973 and is now the Authority's. Rodmell also appears on the Authority's Article 4 register, with a direction issued on 25 May 1973 for The Drove, The Brooks. Its title points to land at The Brooks rather than the village street, but its full terms are in a scanned document we have not been able to read, so if your house is at The Drove or on the Brooks side, read it on the Authority's Article 4 page or ask before replacing anything. Elsewhere in the village, an unlisted house usually keeps its permitted development rights for windows of similar appearance, and a listed one needs listed building consent.
Exposure
The Brooks are part of the Ouse floodplain, and houses on the eastern side look out over open, wet ground. Painted timber on those elevations should get its first repaint at about the three-year mark and then be kept up regularly, watching these sides most closely.
What usually suits
For listed flint and brick cottages, painted timber casements or sashes made to the existing pattern. For unlisted cottages, flush casements with slim bars. Wikipedia has more on Rodmell.
An example from Rodmell
Illustrative example of a typical job
Four timber casements and a timber door for a listed flint cottage in Rodmell
House: A Grade II listed flint and brick cottage in the Rodmell conservation area, inside the National Park.
Spec: Four timber flush casements, 1000 by 1200, made to the pattern of the old frames, painted, two on each floor, and a new painted timber boarded front door. Scaffold for the upper pair.
Typically £11,450 to £21,600, supplied and fitted, including VAT.
Listed building consent comes first. The price assumes the Authority has agreed the design, and the installer will follow the consented drawings.
