What glazing pattern for farmhouse flush casement windows?

[Philip_I]

In the process of replacing 1970's stormproof georgian style windows with a more traditional looking but modern flush casement window and a bit confused about the right glazing pattern. My house is not listed but a lot of similar looking rendered farmhouses from 18th/19th century that are listed seem to have georgian square type glazing patterns and I was assuming I would just follow that. Had an architect around today to talk about various things and he says flush casement windows with lots of georgian squares would be out of keeping. The more grand farmhouses would have had sash windows with squares but more modest ones with flush casement windows would have had simpler glazing patterns such as just a single horizontal bar per casement or perhaps a cross. I don't recall seeing too many house with windows like that and would be interested if anybody has any views.

Should I go for windows like this:

View attachment 1

or more like this?

 

[Philip_I]

Umm that second picture hasn't come out very well and not sure how to make it bigger but instead of six panes per casement there are just two with a single horizontal bar. It actually looks quite nice.

 

[middi]

The reason why you do not see many windows with flush casements, incorporating a simple central glazing bar, is due to the fact that they have been replaced at some time or other by plastic DG, or, " pretty" and intricated multi bar systems. Neither of these two applications are suitable for a period farmhouse.

The " average" cottage or farmhouse had very simple uncomplicated windows and they look much better for it.

admittedly even I have difficulty in spotting houses in the Dunmow aerea that have maintained their original window design. simply because that when they have been replaced ( usually due to lack of maintenance) their owners ( or developers) have " shoved in " contemporary adaptation.

If you want proper windows for you building you need someone that can make them for you

 

[Gareth Hughes]

The second picture is probably more historically accurate, if by "accurate" you mean the last set of windows it had before the rise of plastic, home "improvement" and DIY.

 

[AMc]

Well just to confuse you a bit - our Norfolk house dates from the same periods i.e. it was extended in 1858 so was built some time before that. Always a farmhouse albeit reasonably grand.

The street facing windows were 8 over 8 sashes with small panes as shown in this picture from 1992 before they were replaced.

The rear windows are a mixture of types and styles. The tiled lean to is 1858 and the window above it appears to be one of the two oldest - small leaded panes in the top, a larger wood cross in the fixed pane on the right and an opening casement on the left . Moving back with have another older window with one opening casement with small panes, then a another leaded/opening mix. The sections further to the back are extensions possibly from 1870 and have sliding sashes, while that porch and ground floor window are 20th century.

So you can see we have/had sashes, casements and on the other side we have a yorkshire sash (?) with two panes that slide past each other horizontally!

Unless you can find some pictorial evidence you may not know for sure and even then a farmhouse may not have had a consistent window style throughout.

I found that Norfolk County Council has an archive of old pictures some of which show tiny parts of my house http://www.noah.norfolk.gov.uk/ which might have helped if I were in your situation, I expect Essex have something similar. If you can't find anything that shows your house you'll have to look for local examples or follow your best guess. Good luck!

 

[Nemesis]

A bit of history, which is relevant to more than simply the Winchester area:

http://www.winchester.gov.uk/General.asp?id=SX9452-A781AA36

http://www.buildingconservation.com/articles/pdf_casement/casement.pdf

As your home is unlisted, unless it's in a Conservation Area and the CO can argue for you, you will have to have double glazing.

There is another thread currently on the site about the difficulties with that and glazing bars.

 

[Hatster]

We have a C17 farmhouse in Cambridgeshire, and some of the windows are reasonably old. None of old windows are anything like the Georgian-style top ones - they are much more like the ones in the picture of the blue house. A lot of the windows have just a one bar per casement. BUT couldn't you look in your country archive for photos of your house? This is what I've done, and it's really interesting!

 

[biffvernon]

The only certainty is that there is no 'right' window. There's a general rule that the older the window the smaller the panes of glass were likely to be as it was tecnically diificult and expensive to produce larger panes. Sometimes 'Georgian' windows were replaced by 'Victorian' when money and the desire to get ahead of the neighbours allowed.