Service Area
Oak Frames, Bespoke Doors & Timber Windows in Cheshire
Cheshire is the county where the studio’s oak work is anchored — a green oak garden room built onto a period country house — and the county’s own building tradition is a timber-framed one.
We Are Woodland works across Cheshire — Chester, Knutsford, Alderley Edge, Wilmslow, Prestbury, Macclesfield, Congleton, Nantwich, Tarporley, Sandbach, Northwich and Malpas, and the farms and country houses of the Cheshire Plain between them. The studio is in Shropshire, immediately to the south, and Cheshire adjoins that work directly.
Cheshire’s own tradition is a timber one, which is unusual among the counties the studio works in. The black-and-white halls are the county’s signature building — Little Moreton Hall the most famous of them, and the timber-framed streets of Nantwich a working town version of the same thing. Around that sit the brick farmhouses of the plain under slate, the red sandstone of the ridge towards Beeston and Peckforton, and the large Victorian and Edwardian houses of the Alderley Edge and Knutsford belt.
One distinction matters more here than anywhere else the studio works. A great deal of Cheshire’s black-and-white is Victorian revival rather than genuine frame — Chester’s Rows carry some of the best of it — and the two are not specified the same way. A revival elevation is a nineteenth-century building wearing applied timber, and joinery drawn for a real frame will be wrong on it. Establishing which one a building is comes before anything is drawn.
What the studio makes for Cheshire properties
- Oak garden rooms, orangeries and frame extensionsGreen oak frames jointed and pegged traditionally, drawn to the host building so the structure reads as architecture rather than a glazed box against a wall.
- Bespoke door setsGlazed entrances with sidelights and fanlight, and the internal thresholds between old house and new room, specified together so the openings align.
- Bespoke timber windowsSash windows for the Victorian and Edwardian stock, casements for farmhouse and plain property — each made to the opening that exists.
- Heritage and period joineryListed and conservation-area work, including the drawings and specification a consent application is judged on — and the survey that establishes genuine frame from revival.
- Full joinery packagesWhole-property work specified as one package, so an extension and the house it joins are resolved against each other from the first drawing.
- Covers
- Chester · Knutsford · Alderley Edge · Wilmslow · Prestbury · Macclesfield · Congleton · Nantwich · Tarporley · Sandbach · Northwich · Malpas
- Building traditions
- Black-and-white timber frame · brick farmhouse under slate on the plain · red sandstone on the ridge · Victorian and Edwardian villa
- The distinction to establish
- Genuine timber frame or Victorian revival — the two are not specified the same way
- Anchor work
- Green oak garden rooms and orangeries joined to period country houses
- Designations
- Chester conservation areas · Peak District National Park at the eastern edge · listed halls and farmhouses across the plain
- Pricing
- Set by the building and the specification, not a price list
Common questions
- Do you build oak-framed garden rooms and orangeries in Cheshire?
- Yes — it is the work the studio is anchored on in the county. Frames are green oak, jointed and pegged in the traditional way and left expressed inside, with the glazing filling the frame rather than defining it. The frame and the doors are specified together, so openings sit within the structural bays by design rather than being cut to fit afterwards.
- How do you tell a genuine timber frame from Victorian black-and-white revival?
- By survey, and it is the first thing established. A revival elevation is a nineteenth-century building carrying applied timber rather than a structural frame, so the sections, the joints and the way glazing meets timber are all different. A great deal of Cheshire’s black-and-white is revival, including some of the best of it in Chester. Joinery drawn for a real frame will look wrong on a revival house, and the reverse is equally true.
- Can an oak extension be made to belong to a period Cheshire house?
- That is the whole problem worth solving. Oak is unforgiving of half-measures — done well it reads as architecture that settled against the brick as though it grew there, done badly it becomes rustic decoration. Tying the roof to the existing house, carrying the frame down on a plinth in matching brick, and aligning the thresholds between old and new are what make the two read as one building rather than a handsome room parked alongside.
- Which parts of Cheshire do you cover?
- The county broadly — Chester, Knutsford, Alderley Edge, Wilmslow, Prestbury, Macclesfield, Congleton, Nantwich, Tarporley, Sandbach, Northwich and Malpas, and the country property of the plain between them. The studio is at Upper Farmcote near Bridgnorth in Shropshire, directly south of the county.
- What does bespoke joinery cost in Cheshire?
- There is no price list, because the figure depends on the building — the structure, the openings, the timber, the glazing and the ironmongery all move it. The studio works at three tiers of project: single elements, multi-element commissions, and full architectural packages. An indication follows once the scope is understood.
Considering joinery work on a Cheshire property? The conversation starts here.
Start a Project →