Torre Abbey
Premonstratensian canons founded Torre Abbey in 1196, and it is now Devon and Cornwall's best-preserved medieval monastery. The Carys bought it in 1662.
Learn more about Torre Abbey on Google MapsTimber Windows & Doors In Chelston
Is your Chelston front door under an arch that no off-the-shelf door will fill?
Arched-head doors, double-hung sashes and bay windows for the stucco and red sandstone villas of the Chelston Conservation Area
Chelston still has more of its original timber windows and doors than most of Torquay, and Torbay Council's appraisal says so. The suburb went up quickly in the 1880s and 1890s on the old county showground, in stucco or red sandstone, with large double-hung sashes, bays and front doors set under round or segmental arches. Those arched openings are where catalogue replacements fall down, because the head of the frame has to follow the curve exactly. We make timber windows and doors for Chelston houses that fit the opening you have, copy the mouldings of the original and keep the street looking the way the appraisal hopes it will.
Arrange A Chelston Window Survey
Tell us roughly what you have in mind and we will arrange a time to come and measure. A photo of the space on your phone is usually enough to start with.
The Joiner Behind It
Arched doors and double-hung sashes
Chelston has kept more of its original timber windows and doors than most of Torquay. Matching an arched-head door or a large double-hung sash takes care.
Luke has been a joiner since childhood, in a family where it runs. Reading an old frame and making a new one that belongs beside it is the kind of skill no college course fully covers. He and the team copy what's there.
- Custom Joinery Projects
- 300+ Custom Joinery Projects
- Fitted Wardrobes Built
- 100+ Fitted Wardrobes Built
- Kitchens & Fitted Furniture
- 200+ Kitchens & Fitted Furniture
- Measured Design Visit
- Free Measured Design Visit
Chelston
Late-Victorian fronts that have mostly survived
For centuries Chelston was cottages along Old Mill Road on the Cockington estate. Then, in May 1882, the Mallocks let more than 22 acres for the Devon County Agricultural Association show, and afterwards turned the whole site over to building. Villas, semis and short curving terraces followed within a generation, and they were built with a shared vocabulary: big sashes, bay windows, timber bargeboards in the gables, and arched doorways. St Matthew's Church rose in the middle of it all between 1895 and 1904.
Torbay Council designated the Chelston Conservation Area on 1 October 1978, and its appraisal recommends Article 4 Directions for the front elevations of key unlisted buildings. Whether or not one ever covers your house, the reasoning is clear: replacing a Chelston front door or bay with something of the wrong shape changes the whole terrace. Inside the same houses, bedrooms tend to have original panelled doors worth matching, which we deal with on our page about fitted wardrobes in Chelston.
The Case For It
Timber window and door work suited to Chelston
Frames that follow the arch
Round and segmental heads are set out from a template taken off your opening, so the new frame sits tight to the masonry without packing or filler.
Fanlights shaped to fit
Where an arched door has a fanlight above, we make it as a separate curved frame and glaze it to the original bar pattern.
Bays handled sash by sash
Each sash in a three-sided bay is assessed on its own. Sound ones are kept, failed ones are copied, and the bay keeps its original frame.
Colours tested on your wall
A joinery colour looks different on red sandstone than on white stucco. We paint a sample board for you to hold against the house before finishing.
Large sashes properly hung
Chelston's double-hung sashes are generous. We balance each one with cords and weights so it glides and holds its position.
Ready for an Article 4 future
Like-for-like timber replacements made to the original profiles are what the appraisal points towards, so the work stays right whatever the controls become.
Before You Choose
Finding a window maker for a Chelston villa
Ask how the maker will set out an arched head. The right answer involves a template or careful measurement of the actual curve. An approximate radius from a drawing will leave gaps that end up full of mastic.
Ask whether they will repair as well as replace. The appraisal's point about surviving originals cuts both ways: those windows are part of what makes Chelston special, and a maker who only quotes full replacements is not helping you keep them.
And ask about paint. Late-Victorian joinery on sandstone villas was not always white, and a good maker will be willing to talk about colour as part of the design, then finish it in the workshop so the paint goes on in dry conditions.
Compared
Replacing a Chelston front door: four routes
Front doors under Chelston's arched heads are the commonest door enquiry we get here. These are the routes owners consider, compared for an arched opening.
| Repair the original | Made-to-measure timber copy | Stock timber door, cut to fit | Composite or uPVC door | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fits an arched head | Already does | Made to the curve | Square door with a filled head | Usually needs an infill panel |
| Panel layout and mouldings | Original | Copied | Close at best | Moulded imitation |
| Fanlight | Kept | Made to match | Often lost | Often lost |
| Likely conservation view | Welcomed | Welcomed | Mixed | Usually poor |
| Repaint and repair later | Yes | Yes | Yes | Limited |
| Relative cost | Lowest if sound | Upper | Middle | Middle |
Our Process
Window and door work in Chelston, start to finish
Our seven stages are the same across Torbay. In Chelston, templating arched openings adds a careful step at the start.
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Opening survey
We inspect each window and door, check for rot at the cills and the foot of the frames, and template any arched head.
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Original detail recorded
Panel layouts, glazing bars, mouldings and the fanlight pattern are recorded and drawn full size.
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Planning advice
We tell you what we think the Chelston Conservation Area means for your house, and supply drawings if Torbay Council wants to see them.
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Timber and colour chosen
Engineered softwood or accoya for sashes, hardwood or accoya for doors, and a paint colour tested against your wall.
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Curved work in the workshop
Arched heads are laminated or cut from wide stock, then jointed to the frame and test-fitted with the door or sash.
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Finished before fitting
Primer and top coats on every face, including the curved edges, before anything leaves Barton.
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Hung, adjusted and revisited
Doors and sashes are fitted and adjusted on the day. We call back after a winter to ease anything that has swollen.
Reassurance
What We Stand Behind
- Timber moved before it was cut
- Boards come into the workshop and sit there before anything is machined. Cutting a wide oak panel on the day it arrives is how you end up with a door that has cupped by Easter. In a bay where spring humidity runs high, that waiting period is not optional.
- Scribed to your walls, not shimmed to them
- Older Torquay walls are rarely square and almost never plumb. Every fitted piece is scribed to the actual surface on site. If you can see daylight behind a filler strip, the job was measured once and hoped over.
- Ironmongery rated for the job it is doing
- A drawer in a holiday flat gets pulled open forty times a week in August. We fit runners and hinges specified for that, and we tell you which ones we used, so in eight years you can buy the same part rather than replacing a whole unit.
- If it moves, we come back
- Solid timber is a material that responds to the room it lives in, and occasionally something needs easing in its first year. That visit is part of the job, not a callout. Say so and we will book it.
Budget
Chelston window and door costs
£1,400 – £9,000
per opening, made and fitted
Arched-head doors with matching fanlights sit in the upper half of what we charge per opening, because the curved frame takes longer to make. Sash repairs and re-cording come in well below a new window. Bays are priced sash by sash. Our timber windows and doors page covers timber and glazing in more detail.
Guide range only, VAT included. Your figure comes from the measured visit and the drawing you sign off.
What moves the priceCurved heads
Round and segmental heads take longer to set out and make than square ones, so arched doors and windows cost more.
Bay windows on Walnut Road and nearby
A three-sided bay has more sashes, more joints and often a lead or slate roof above it to protect during the work. Scaffold is rarely needed on a ground-floor bay.
How much survives
Where the original frames and boxes are sound, we only replace sashes or doors, which saves a good deal against full replacement.
Questions
Chelston windows and doors: questions
- Do I need planning permission for new windows or a door in Chelston?
- Possibly. Torbay Council designated the Chelston Conservation Area on 1 October 1978, and its appraisal recommends Article 4 Directions for the front elevations of key unlisted buildings. If one applies to your house, street-facing doors and sashes may need planning permission. Listed buildings, such as Ochiltree House on Greenway Road, need listed building consent, and flats lack householder rights. Check the council's conservation area appraisals and maps before ordering.
- Can you make a new front door for an arched opening in Chelston?
- Yes. We template the arch, make the frame to the curve and build the door and fanlight to fit. The result fills the opening exactly, without a square door and a filled head.
- Is red sandstone harder on timber windows than stucco?
- Not in itself, but sandstone walls can hold moisture, and water running down them gathers at the cill. A good drip under each cill and well-sealed joints between frame and stone matter more on these houses.
- Our bay sashes rattle. Do they need replacing?
- Usually not. Worn beads and parting strips let the sashes move. New beads with brush seals and rebalanced weights stop the rattle and most of the draught.
- Can you match the windows on a neighbouring Chelston house?
- Yes, with your neighbour's permission. Houses built at the same time often share profiles, so an original next door is a good pattern if yours have been changed.
- What timber do you use for Chelston doors?
- Accoya or a durable hardwood for the door and frame, both of which hold paint well. For sashes, engineered softwood is usually enough this far back from the sea front, with accoya for very exposed fronts.
Feedback
What Customers Say
Rated 5 out of 5
“Our bedroom is in one of the old Warberries villas and the back wall bows by about an inch and a half across four metres. Two national firms measured it, quoted, then went quiet. These came, measured, and said it needed scribing rather than filling. The wardrobes go right into the corner and there is no gap anywhere. My husband keeps running his hand down the join.”
Rated 5 out of 5
“We run a bar on the harbourside and needed the counter and back fittings replaced without losing a summer weekend. They built the lot off site, came in on a Sunday night and had us trading by Tuesday lunchtime. Knowing the whole thing was made before they ever shut our doors is what sold it.”
Rated 5 out of 5
“Sash windows on the front elevation, and we are in a conservation area so it had to be timber and it had to match. They took a profile off the original, made new boxes in accoya, and the planning side went through without a query. From the pavement you genuinely cannot tell which is which.”
Rated 5 out of 5
“Two alcoves either side of the chimney, and they turned out to be 40mm different in width, which explains why the flat-pack ones we tried first never sat right. Made as a pair but to two different sets of measurements. Small thing, but it is the difference between looking fitted and looking bought.”
Rated 5 out of 5
“We let our place out over the season so everything gets hammered. I asked them to over-specify the drawer runners and they did, and told me exactly which ones so I can order spares. Three summers in, nothing has sagged. The last kitchen we had did not last two.”
Local
What To Do In Chelston
A few minutes downhill from Chelston, you reach the abbey and the beach. Its own church stands in the middle of the suburb.
Torre Abbey Sands
The main sandy beach in Torquay lies across Torbay Road from the abbey meadows. Toilets are open all year and there is a dog area on the meadows opposite.
Learn more about Torre Abbey Sands on Google Maps
St Matthew's Church
Chelston's red sandstone parish church was an early work of Charles Nicholson. Inside are Arts and Crafts carvings and a painted chancel roof.
Learn more about St Matthew's Church on Google MapsChelston On The Map
Coverage
Areas We Cover
From Chelston we cover the rest of Torquay and the towns around it. The full list is below.
Across Torquay
- Wellswood
- The Warberries
- The Lincombes
- Chelston
- Babbacombe
- St Marychurch
- Cockington
- Shiphay
- Torre
- Ellacombe
- Livermead
- Maidencombe
And across South Devon
Or go straight to a service
Bring back your Chelston front
Send a photo of the front door or bay, and a close-up of any rot you have spotted. We will survey it and tell you honestly whether to repair or replace.