Wealden Times | WT204 | February 2019 | Wedding supplement inside

The beauty
of oak
Three experts in timber-framed
buildings tell us what makes this
traditional British building style so
special – for historic restoration
and contemporary projects
Anthony Hicks Ltd
Gary Kelly, company director
During our 30 plus years in this sector, we have been
fortunate enough to help with the restoration of
many historical and listed buildings. We have worked
throughout Kent, Sussex, Surrey and beyond and there are
lots of buildings that have received our personal touch.
We also design and build new oak-frame buildings and we
have noticed an increase in demand for these, especially with the
popularity of home improvement TV shows. In fact, Phil was
recently singing the praises of a property that we have added an
oak frame extension to on ‘Phil & Kirsty’s Love it or Leave it’.
Families now are living together for a longer time and this
has increased the demand for extending living areas and the
opportunity to add new buildings or adapt outbuildings
for separate living accommodation. A traditional oakframe
extension ticks this box, adding long-term value
and certainly providing the wow factor. The appeal
we have to our clients is the bespoke approach that we
take to ensure we fulfil these requirements, from initial
enquiry to design, through to the complete build.
We specialise in oak-frame buildings and have specialist
oak-framing teams that work on both restoration and newbuild
projects. It tends to be a pretty even split between
the two, but barn conversions and the restoration of
unused buildings are always in high demand, especially
with the additional tax benefits that can be applied to
particular projects that meet with certain criteria.
Oak frames have always been a popular choice and apart
from being a fundamental part of our building heritage
in England, they have great character and a traditional or
contemporary oak frame both look amazing in the right setting.
The popularity of new oak-frame buildings has also
increased the number of companies who provide this service,
and there are obviously lots of good and bad to be found
in every sector. Thankfully the information is available
today to enable people to make an informed choice.
A new oak-frame or restoration project can be a big
commitment and we invite our customers to ask questions.
We are genuinely interested in every new project as they
are all different and have their own unique characteristics.
anthony-hicks.co.uk
01797 366895
103 wealdentimes.co.uk