West Malling packs a Norman tower, an abbey founded by a medieval bishop and a High Street of mainly Georgian fronts into one small market town. Close by, Kings Hill has grown on the old West Malling airfield since 1989. Our family firm has spent 20+ years building across Kent and the South East, and we are as at home fitting a kitchen in a period house as extending a newer one.
On a new kitchen, a roofing job or a full build, our own carpenters, joiners, plumbers, electricians, plasterers and decorators do the work, with long-standing subcontractors for anything else. Whoever quotes your job will be on site building it, and the owner visits at some point in every week of the build. You keep one point of contact throughout, and your site survey and written quotation are both free of charge.
All 15 of our services are listed below. Around West Malling that could mean period restoration on an old town house, groundworks for a new home, bathrooms and decorating inside, or barn conversions out in the surrounding countryside.
Our Services
Local Knowledge
The West Malling Conservation Area was first designated in 1971 and now falls to Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council, whose appraisal describes a largely medieval layout of buildings with mainly Georgian facades. Red stock brick is the main walling material, while ragstone, stucco or painted render dress many of the more important buildings, and some houses are weatherboarded or hung with clay tiles. Roofs are mostly peg and plain clay tiles with some slate, and windows are usually white painted timber sashes. The council asks that new sashes respect the proportions of the old ones and that extensions match the quality of what is there.
Ragstone and sand were quarried around the parish from the 11th century, and large brick and ragstone walls enclose many rear gardens behind the old streets. The conservation area takes in St Leonard's Tower, an 11th century Norman building, and the walled grounds of St Mary's Abbey, founded by Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester. The town sits on the edge of the Greensand Ridge, with the village of East Malling just to the east and the small village of Offham just to the west. Kings Hill, a planned community on the former West Malling Airfield, adds newer homes close by. We also cover Leybourne, Ryarsh, Addington and Borough Green.
Our house extensions in this corner of Kent include jobs in West Malling and East Malling, plus one at Barming towards Maidstone, and we have also carried out extension work at Kings Hill. In Borough Green our work has mostly been on the outside of houses: we clad a substantial executive home in white Eternit Cedral boards, removed moss from another roof before cleaning it, and put in automated entrance gates with brick piers, a granite sett approach and instant ivy mesh hedging.
At Platt we laid a smooth honed sandstone patio with a central water fountain, bullnose sandstone steps, a sandstone lower path and a new turf lawn. Also at Platt, our painters and decorators prepared the featheredge cladding, windows and doors, then repainted them in Dulux Weathershield. In Ightham we enlarged a gravel driveway with granite sett edging, paved the front porch in slate and put up Jackson Fencing post and rail with 6ft laurel hedging.
Recent Work
These photos come from jobs in West Malling, Barming, Platt and Borough Green, and each one opens the full set of pictures.
Point at a town to see how far it is, or see every area on our Areas We Cover page.
We offer free consultations and clear, written quotations with no obligation. To book your survey in West Malling, call 01233 225 684 or email info@heritagecrestbuild.co.uk.
