Service Area
Bespoke Timber Windows, Doors & Period Joinery in the West Midlands
The West Midlands is the nearest large body of period property to the studio, and its red-brick Victorian and Edwardian stock is some of the most consistent — and most consistently altered — in the country.
We Are Woodland works across the West Midlands conurbation and its edges — Birmingham and its Victorian and Edwardian suburbs, Solihull, Sutton Coldfield, and the Black Country boroughs of Dudley, Stourbridge, Walsall, Sandwell and Wolverhampton. The studio is in Shropshire, half an hour beyond the western edge, which makes the region the closest large body of period stock to the workshop.
The regional constant is brick, and the joinery has to answer to it. Vertically sliding sashes on the Victorian and Edwardian terraces and villas; casements with leaded lights on the Arts and Crafts layer around Bournville and Wightwick; painted panelled entrance doors with fanlights, sidelights and coloured glass on the suburban stock. Those are three different disciplines, and the brick they share does not make them one.
Oak is the exception to the brick, and it is worth being exact about where it belongs. The Victorian and Edwardian street elevation takes a painted panelled door rather than an oak one — paint is what that stock was designed for, and an oak front door on a Bournville terrace reads as an import. Oak arrives at the back and on the outbuildings: oak entrance doors, French doors and bifolds opening onto the garden, and the oak porches, garages, garden rooms and frame extensions they belong to — along with the older and semi-rural property at the edges of the conurbation. A canal-side country house at Stourbridge took oak windows, oak doors and oak bifolds throughout; and the studio has spent three years making oak windows, French doors and bifolds for another company’s oak frames across the region.
What the studio makes for West Midlands properties
- Bespoke timber windowsSliding sash windows for Victorian and Edwardian stock, made to the brick opening with the proportions of the original.
- Period door setsPanelled entrance doors with fanlights, sidelights and coloured or leaded glass — original glass retained and reset wherever it survives.
- Oak doors and oak joineryOak entrance doors, French doors and bifolds, and the oak porches, garages and garden rooms they open from — on the garden side and the older stock, not the painted street elevation.
- Heritage and period joineryConservation-area and listed work, including the drawings and specification a consent application is judged on.
- Entrance structuresGabled and bracketed porch canopies and designed surrounds, drawn to the elevation they sit on.
- Full joinery packagesWhole-property joinery specified and made as one package to a single standard.
- Covers
- Birmingham · Solihull · Sutton Coldfield · Dudley · Stourbridge · Walsall · Sandwell · Wolverhampton
- Building material
- Red brick, banded and dressed in Staffordshire blue
- Defining window
- Vertically sliding sash (Victorian & Edwardian) · leaded casement (Arts and Crafts)
- Doors
- Painted panelled doors with fanlights, sidelights and coloured or leaded glass
- Oak work
- Garden-side and outbuilding · oak entrance doors, French doors and bifolds · oak porches, garages and garden rooms
- Designations
- Dense conservation-area coverage · Article 4 directions common · Bournville Village Trust control
- Pricing
- Set by the building and the specification, not a price list
West Midlands project
- Joinery for Oak-Framed Buildings — West Midlands Oak FrameAn ongoing trade relationship · oak windows, French doors, bifolds and gable glazing made for another company’s frames across Shropshire, Cheshire and the West Midlands
- Oak Garden Room, Garage & Porches — Canal-Side Country HouseStourbridge · nineteenth-century canal-side country house · an open oak garden room, a two-bay oak garage, porches to house and annexe, and oak bifolds and windows throughout
- Bespoke Period Entrance Door with Leaded GlazingWest Midlands · Edwardian-register suburban home · entrance door, sidelights and fanlight
- Black Country Living Museum — Heritage Shopfronts & Sash WindowsDudley · historic shops rebuilt on the museum’s 1930s high street, 2009–2011 · shopfronts, sash windows, coach-house doors, counters and fittings, restored or made new
Common questions
- Do you make bespoke timber windows in Birmingham and the West Midlands?
- Yes. Sliding sash and casement windows are designed and made in the studio’s own workshop and fitted across Birmingham, Solihull, Sutton Coldfield and the Black Country. On this stock the window is made to the brick opening rather than the reveal adjusted to a stock size.
- Do you make oak doors in the West Midlands?
- Yes, and the useful answer includes where they belong. The Victorian and Edwardian street elevation in this region takes a painted panelled door — that is what the stock was designed for, and an oak front door on it reads as an import. Oak sits on the garden side and on the older and semi-rural property at the edges of the conurbation: oak entrance doors, French doors and bifolds, and the oak porches, garages, garden rooms and frame extensions they open from. A canal-side country house at Stourbridge took oak windows, oak doors and oak bifolds throughout, and the studio has spent three years making oak windows, French doors and bifolds for another company’s oak frames across the region.
- Do I need permission to replace windows in a West Midlands conservation area?
- Often yes. Similar-appearance replacements are normally permitted development, but conservation areas in this region commonly carry Article 4 directions that withdraw exactly that right — which is why original joinery survives where it does. A listed building is a separate and stricter regime again.
- Can the original leaded glass in my front door be kept?
- Usually, and it is the first thing to establish. Coloured and leaded lights can very often be retained and reset into a new leaf even where the timber around them has failed. On West Midlands suburban stock the glass is frequently the most valuable part of the door.
- Which parts of the West Midlands do you cover?
- Birmingham and its Victorian and Edwardian suburbs, Solihull, Sutton Coldfield, and the Black Country boroughs of Dudley, Stourbridge, Walsall, Sandwell and Wolverhampton. The studio is in Shropshire, immediately west of the conurbation.
- What does bespoke joinery cost in the West Midlands?
- There is no price list, because the figure depends on the building — the openings, the timber, the glazing, the ironmongery and the conservation context 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 West Midlands property? The conversation starts here.
Start a Project →