Shaldon Wildlife Trust
Shaldon Wildlife Trust became a charity for small endangered species in 1985. It specialises in small primates and relies largely on volunteers.
Learn more about Shaldon Wildlife Trust on Google MapsTimber Windows & Doors In Shaldon
Does your Shaldon house have a bow front that needs more than a coat of paint?
Bow windows, sliding sashes and panelled doors for the cottages, captains' houses and small shops of Shaldon's conservation area
Shaldon's houses are modest compared with Teignmouth across the water, but they have one feature in abundance: the bow front. Teignbridge District Council's appraisal describes classically detailed two and three-storey houses, many with small front gardens, and bow-fronted shops built out over some of them. Curved joinery like that cannot be bought off a shelf. Each bow has its own radius, and its sashes, cill and fascia all have to follow it. We make and repair bow windows, sashes and panelled front doors for Shaldon from templates taken on site. The village has been a conservation area since 1974 and has close to eighty listed buildings, so we draw everything to match and help with consent.
Book A Shaldon Window Visit
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
Bow fronts and sliding sashes
Shaldon's houses are modest, but many have bow fronts, and a curved window is a real test for any joiner.
Luke started joinery as a boy, and the trade runs in his family. Shaping a bow sash so it slides sweetly is one of those jobs where experience matters far more than a qualification. Luke and the team make bow windows, sashes and panelled doors for the village.
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Shaldon
Bow fronts, the Green and the old core
The oldest part of Shaldon, around Middle Street, Crown Square and Dagmar Street, dates from the late 1600s and keeps its tight, crooked layout. After the first bridge and the Torquay turnpike opened in 1827, the sandbank in front of the village was walled off and filled, and Fore Street, the Strand and Marine Parade became the main streets. The Green, given by Lord Clifford for drying nets, is ringed by cottages that sea captains and tradesmen built or enlarged. Each of those areas has its own window patterns.
Many houses facing the Strand and the estuary sit low behind the 2011 flood wall, so their doors and ground-floor cills spend a lot of time damp. Inside, rooms are small and storage is always short, which we tackle on our page about fitted wardrobes in Shaldon.
The Case For It
Window and door work suited to Shaldon
Bows made from a template
We take a template of the curve on site, so new sashes, cills and heads follow the bow exactly.
Curved glass where needed
Where a bow has curved panes, we source curved glass to suit, or keep and reuse the old glass if it is sound.
Shop bows on the front
The bow-fronted shops built out over front gardens get the same careful copying as the houses.
Doors for low ground
Front doors near the river get durable bottom rails, weatherboards and sills that shed water.
Patterns by street
Middle Street, the Green and the Strand each have their own windows, and we copy whichever your house has.
Drawings for consent
For listed cottages and shops, we prepare the drawings Teignbridge will want with an application.
Before You Choose
What to ask about bow windows in Shaldon
Ask how the maker will take the curve. A bow should be templated on site, not estimated from a photo. A small error in the radius shows as a gap at the cill or a sash that binds.
Ask whether the bow can be repaired. Often the frame is sound and only the cill, bottom rails or fascia have rotted. Splicing those keeps the original curve, which a new bow has to reproduce from scratch.
For a door near the Strand or the river, ask what the bottom of the door and the sill are made of. On low ground, those parts stay wet longest.
Compared
Fixing a tired Shaldon bow window
Owners of bow-fronted houses and shops in Shaldon usually weigh up these four routes.
| Repair cill and rails | New sashes in the old frame | New bow to a template | uPVC bow | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Original curve kept | Yes | Yes | Reproduced | Approximated |
| Original fabric kept | Most | Frame | None | None |
| Conservation area outlook | Welcomed | Welcomed | Generally fine | Seen as a threat |
| Glass | Existing | New or reused | New | New sealed units |
| Disruption | Low | Low | Higher | Higher |
| Relative cost | Lowest | Middle | Highest | Middle |
Our Process
Bow windows and doors in Shaldon, step by step
These seven steps are how we handle window and door work in Shaldon, with templating added at the start for any bow.
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Survey and template
We inspect each opening and take a full-size template of any bow, along with its cill and head.
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Pattern recorded
Glazing bars, horns and mouldings are drawn from your windows or a matching neighbour.
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Consent checked
We confirm whether the house is listed and prepare drawings for Teignbridge if needed.
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Timber and glass
Durable timber for low or exposed openings, and curved glass sourced where the bow needs it.
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Curved work at Barton
Bow frames are laminated or cut from wide stock, then jointed and test-fitted against the template.
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Painted off site
Every face primed and painted before it crosses the bridge.
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Fitted and checked
Installed and sealed, avoiding busy summer weekends. After a winter by the estuary we come back to check.
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
Window and door costs in Shaldon
£1,400 – £9,000
per opening, made and fitted
A straight sash in a Shaldon cottage sits in the middle of our per-opening range. Bow windows cost more, because curved frames and glass take longer to make, and repairs to a bow cost far less than a new one. Front doors near the river fall in between. Our timber windows and doors page explains timber and glazing options.
Guide range only, VAT included. Your figure comes from the measured visit and the drawing you sign off.
What moves the priceLanes behind the Strand
Parking near the Strand and Fore Street is limited, especially in summer, so we plan deliveries for quieter days.
Curved work
Bows need templates, curved frames and sometimes curved glass, all of which add to the price.
Listed cottages
With nearly eighty listed buildings in the village, consent drawings are a common extra.
Questions
Shaldon window and door questions
- Who approves new windows in Shaldon?
- Teignbridge District Council. Shaldon's conservation area dates from 1974 and holds close to eighty listed buildings, which need listed building consent for most joinery changes. Unlisted houses in the conservation area have fewer permitted development rights than elsewhere, and flats and shops have none. The council's appraisal names plastic windows with fake glazing bars as a threat. See the Shaldon appraisal on Teignbridge's website.
- Can you repair a bow window on a Shaldon house?
- Usually. We splice new timber into the cill and bottom rails, re-cord the sashes and keep the original curve.
- Do you make curved sashes for a Shaldon shop?
- Yes. We template the bow and make the frame and sashes to it, using curved glass if the original had it.
- My house is near the flood wall. Does that affect the front door?
- The ground there stays damp, so we use a durable bottom rail, seal every face and slope the sill to shed water quickly.
- Can you match the windows on a cottage round the Green?
- Yes. We copy a surviving original from your house or a neighbour's, so the row around the Green stays consistent.
- When is the best time to have windows done in Shaldon?
- Spring or autumn, outside the busiest summer weeks, when the lanes are quieter and the weather is kinder.
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 Shaldon
Shaldon is small but packed with things to see. Three nearby:
Ness Cove And The Smugglers Tunnel
Lord Clifford had the tunnel through the Ness cut in the nineteenth century to reach his private beach. Ness Cove has red sand under red cliffs.
Learn more about Ness Cove And The Smugglers Tunnel on Google Maps
Homeyards Botanical Gardens
Maria Homeyard's garden on Torquay Road has a small castle folly and grottoes. Teignbridge owns it now, and you can visit for free.
Learn more about Homeyards Botanical Gardens on Google MapsShaldon On The Map
Coverage
Areas We Cover
Shaldon is just over the bridge from Teignmouth. We cover both, along with every place listed here.
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
Get your bow front looked at
Send a photo of the bow or front door and a close-up of any rot. We will template it, tell you what can be saved and price the work.