Cottage and farmhouse windows in Coolham
And the lanes of Shipley parish, east of Billingshurst
The village
Coolham is a crossroads village on the A272 east of Billingshurst, in Shipley parish and Horsham District. The Shipley Neighbourhood Plan was made on 23 June 2021, the same day as Billingshurst's.
The Horsham Museum walking trail dates the Selsey Arms to the seventeenth century, extended in 1830, and notes that a road nearby was laid out by Sir Charles Burrell of the Knepp estate in the late 1820s. The pub was popular with the airmen of the advanced landing ground built in 1943 to support D-Day. The airfield was in use from 1 April to 4 July 1944, with about 700 people based there flying Mustangs. Fifteen oak trees remember the fifteen servicemen who died: eight Polish, six British and one Canadian.
Shipley Parish Council looks after a walking route round the old airfield, now farmland, with signs telling the airmen's stories. Close by, on Old House Lane, is the Blue Idol, a timber-framed farmhouse of about 1580 turned into a Quaker meeting house in the 1690s and associated with William Penn. It is listed Grade II*, with weatherboarding and roofs of Horsham slab and clay tile.
Book a home visit in Coolham
Forty free minutes at your house in Coolham, on any weekday you choose from the diary.
Windows in Coolham
Coolham is not a conservation area; the nearest in the parish is Shipley village itself. Most houses here are cottages, farmhouses and twentieth-century homes along the A272 and the lanes, and the usual choice is a flush casement, often with cottage bars, or aluminium for newer houses and garden rooms.
The listed buildings are the exception. Any listed farmhouse on these lanes must have consent from Horsham before its windows change, and the council will usually look for timber. Depending on the building (listed, conservation area, Article 4), there can be rules on the glass you're allowed and on the exact glazing-bar layout. Check with the council; Billingshurst Windows can help with that process.
Houses on the A272 hear the traffic. Thicker laminated acoustic glass in the windows facing the road makes a real difference indoors.