When working with a building that has stood for centuries, very little is perfectly straight, square or standard, and that’s all part of its character.

We recently had the privilege of making a series of bespoke solid oak mullion windows for a beautiful Grade II listed manor house*.

At first glance, you might assume that making a number of windows for the same property would mean making the same window several times.

In reality, every single one was different.

Making oak windows for openings that aren’t square

Over hundreds of years, historic buildings naturally move and settle, walls and stonework shift and, as a result, window openings that may once have been square can gradually develop their own individual shapes and angles.

This was very much the case with this particular manor house.

Rather than altering these wonderful old openings to accommodate perfectly square new windows, each opening was carefully templated to capture its individual dimensions and angles.

Back at our Worcestershire workshop, each solid oak mullion window could then be individually handcrafted out of square to fit its particular opening.

It’s a wonderful example of why truly bespoke joinery can be so important when working with historic and listed buildings.

We don’t expect an old building to adapt to a new window, we make the window adapt to the building.

Traditional joinery when nothing is square

Making a window out of square involves considerably more than simply changing its overall dimensions.

Traditional joinery relies upon accurately formed joints coming together tightly and precisely. When the components are deliberately being made at irregular angles, every measurement, shoulder, joint and cut has to correspond with the individual template.

It takes considerable skill and experience to achieve this accurately while ensuring the completed window is strong, beautifully made and looks completely at home within its historic surroundings.

Each piece of oak is carefully selected before being traditionally jointed and expertly machined in our fully equipped Worcestershire workshop.

It’s a combination of traditional hand skills, modern workshop precision and over 40 years of cabinetmaking and specialist joinery experience.

Bespoke oak windows made for the building

There are no standard sizes with work like this.

We regularly make bespoke oak windows to suit individual openings, including irregular and out-of-square openings within old and historic buildings.

Depending upon the project, we can work from architects’ drawings and specifications, existing historic joinery, site measurements and individually made templates.

This enables us to produce new joinery that respects the proportions and character of the building rather than imposing a standard manufactured product upon it.

It is an approach particularly suited to listed buildings, period properties, country houses, churches, historic estates and architecturally period homes.

Historic England similarly recognises that windows can make an important contribution to the significance and character of historic buildings through their design, materials and workmanship, where historic windows are significant, repair and retention should be considered first; where replacement is appropriate, the detailing and character of the original building matter greatly.