Fencing and gates in Coventry

Coventry's housing was built in waves tied to its factories. The watchmaking and ribbon-weaving streets of Chapelfields, Earlsdon and Spon End came first, narrow-fronted and terraced. The cycle and car works then drove the 1920s and 1930s semis of Coundon, Radford, Cheylesmore and Styvechale, most with a garage down the side and a front garden long enough for a car. After the Blitz came the planned estates of Tile Hill, Canley, Willenhall and Bell Green, with wide verges and shared parking courts. Each wave needs something different from a fence or drive.

CV1 to CV6 is almost entirely Coventry City Council, which is both planning and highway authority. The outer postcodes are another matter. Balsall Common, Berkswell and Meriden (CV7) are Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council. Kenilworth (CV8) is Warwick District for planning and Warwickshire County Council for highways, as are the Rugby Borough villages of Ryton, Wolston and Binley Woods, while Keresley and Ash Green on the northern edge fall under Nuneaton and Bedworth.

Ground and Gate is an introduction service. We send your enquiry to one local specialist for Coventry, and the work and the price are agreed between you and them.

Conservation areas and Article 4 in the older suburbs

Coventry's conservation areas include Earlsdon, Chapel Fields, Spon End, Kenilworth Road, Stoke Green, Allesley Village, Brownshill Green, London Road, Greyfriars Green and Hawkesbury Junction, among others. Article 4 directions cover several, including Spon End and Brownshill Green, and the council consulted on one for Earlsdon. Where they apply, replacing front boundary walls, gates or railings and paving front gardens can need planning permission.

The Kenilworth Road conservation area matters for gates and walls: large houses set well back behind mature planting and low walls, where the planners want that character kept. The city-wide HMO direction does not affect front gardens.

Plots and house types

Earlsdon and Chapelfields: Victorian terraces with small front yards behind low brick walls, no parking, and long thin gardens reached only through the house.

Coundon, Radford, Cheylesmore, Styvechale and Finham: 1930s semis with side garages, shared or single drives, and front gardens deep enough for two cars. Much of the city's driveway work is here.

Tile Hill, Canley, Willenhall and Wood End: post-war council estates with open fronts, grass verges owned by the council, and parking courts at the back.

Walsgrave, Wyken and Eastern Green: later private estates, block-paved drives from the 1980s onwards now due for relaying or cleaning.

Balsall Common and Kenilworth: larger detached houses on generous plots, with gravel drives and electric gates more common.

Red sandstone, mudstone and old pits

Coventry sits on red Carboniferous and Permian sandstones and mudstones, the same rock that built the old cathedral and much of the medieval city. Where sandstone is near the surface drainage is reasonable; where it weathers to red marly clay, as it does across much of the south of the city, water sits and sub-bases need a membrane. In the north, Keresley and Exhall are on the edge of the Warwickshire coalfield, and a mining search is sensible before deep digging there.

Boundaries, brick and sandstone walls

Front walls in Earlsdon and Chapelfields are red brick with blue or terracotta copings, and matching them usually means a reclaimed brick. Allesley, Kenilworth and the older villages have red sandstone walls, often weathered and leaning, that are better repaired than replaced. On the post-war estates boundaries are usually open or marked with low post-and-rail.

A new brick wall under 1m runs at about £150–£250 per metre; see garden walls. The 1m limit next to a road applies to walls, fences and gates alike. Shared brick walls between terraces are covered by the Party Wall etc. Act 1996.

Fencing and gates in Coventry

The long, narrow Earlsdon and Chapelfields gardens mean fence runs of 25 metres or more on each side, with every panel carried through the house. Featheredge at £95–£135 a metre at 1.8m is the usual choice, and removing the old fence adds £8–£15 a metre. Carrying materials through adds to the price, so say so on the form. See new fence and the fence cost per metre.

On the 1930s semis, a timber side gate between house and garage at £250–£450 is a common small job, and a fence repair after the winter storms runs at £90–£140 a panel. In Balsall Common and Kenilworth, pairs of metal driveway gates at £1,500–£3,500 are more common; automation is always priced after a visit.

On the Tile Hill and Canley estates, check who owns the verge before extending a front fence; much of it is council land. See who owns the fence and the Coventry fencing page.