Sash windows in Seal, along the High Street and Church Street

Seal sits in the valley between the North Downs and the Greensand ridge, north-east of Sevenoaks, and has now merged with the town's built-up area. The A25 runs through it as the High Street. The church of St Peter and St Paul, with parts from the 13th century, is Grade I listed, and the parish also takes in Underriver, Stone Street, Godden Green and Bitchet Green.

The council revised the Seal appraisal in 2019 and extended the conservation area by eleven properties. It describes a village with at least four medieval hall-houses, Forge Cottage of the 15th century, Georgian houses from the second half of the 18th century such as The Croft of 1767 to 1773 and the Grey House of about 1760, a run of late 19th-century buildings in an Old English style including the Coffee Tavern of the early 1880s, and 1930s houses on Jubilee Rise and School Lane.

Materials change with the dates. Before about 1850 the appraisal lists local red brick in Flemish bond, tile hanging on upper floors and painted timber weatherboarding. After 1850 red brick returns, with tile hanging again on the upper storeys. Kentish ragstone walls, sometimes with brick dressings, line the streets.

The detail that matters in Seal

The appraisal describes the historic windows as timber sash or casement windows, mostly small-paned, with square or segmental heads. Small panes are the point. A Georgian house in Seal with six-over-six sashes looks wrong with one-over-one replacements, however good the frames. The appraisal also names uPVC replacement windows on the High Street as harmful to the conservation area.

For a listed house, that means timber. For an unlisted Georgian or Victorian house, a sash with the correct number of panes and bars that sit on both faces of the glass, in uPVC or aluminium, keeps the street right. Segmental heads need frames made to the curve, which the survey measures opening by opening.

Georgian red brick house typical of Seal, with small-paned white sash windows, segmental arches and tile hanging on the side wall

Background: Seal on Wikipedia.

Planning a frontage in Seal? Ask for a survey or call 01732 900157.