Winklestone cottage windows in Kirdford
In the lanes north-west of Billingshurst, near the Surrey border
The village
Kirdford lies north-west of Wisborough Green, near the Surrey border, in Chichester District. The parish council timeline records it in a Saxon charter of 898 as Cynered's Ford, and lists glass working among the medieval trades. The diamond of glass on the 1937 village sign recalls the glass and iron industries.
The conservation area was designated on 14 November 1984. Its appraisal, written for Chichester District Council in 2010, counts 20 listed buildings. St John the Baptist's church, listed Grade I, has a twelfth-century nave, a fifteenth-century tower and walls of ironstone and greensand under Horsham stone. Church House is a late medieval timber frame, and Chestnut House is a symmetrical late eighteenth-century house.
The village kept building in the twentieth century: council houses at Mackeral's Common in the 1920s, Herons Close in the 1960s and Bramley Close in 2008. The Kirdford neighbourhood plan was made in 2014; its outlying farmland reaches into the South Downs National Park, whose authority adopted the plan for that part.
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Windows in Kirdford
The appraisal finds small casements on most listed buildings, and sashes on later houses of the 1700s and early 1800s, such as Chestnut House, Yew Tree Cottage and the Old Post Office. Walls are greensand known locally as winklestone, red and blue brick, sometimes laid in a chequer pattern, and clay tile hanging on upper floors. It notes that joinery is usually painted white or a pastel colour.
That gives a clear lead for colour: white or a soft pastel suits Kirdford far better than dark grey. For the 1960s and later houses, flush casements in white or cream sit well beside the older cottages.
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.