Window & Exterior Cleaning in Pulborough

The conservation area along Lower Street is full of genuinely old building stock — timber-framed medieval structures standing alongside Tudor and Georgian houses, many with original leaded or sash glazing set into lime-rendered or half-timbered walls. Buildings like these need a gentler touch than a modern pressure washer can offer. Forcing water at high pressure into old lime mortar or timber joints can do real damage, and it's the kind of thing that's very hard to undo once it's happened. Purified water and a soft brush on a water-fed pole gets the same result — clean glass, clean frames, clean render — without putting any of that historic fabric at risk. It's a slower, more careful method, and on a street like this, that's exactly the point.

Pulborough's position doesn't help keep things clean, either. Sitting on a south-facing escarpment above the confluence of the Arun and the Rother means weather rolling up the valley hits the village directly, and the damper air near two rivers meeting tends to encourage moss and algae growth faster than you'd see further from the water. North-facing walls and shaded corners in particular can pick up green staining on render and fascias, and gutters fill with silt and moss more quickly than they would on a drier, more sheltered site. The same valley views that make Pulborough such an attractive place to live also mean more exposed elevations catching wind and rain — part of why soft washing and regular gutter clearing tend to matter more here than in a sheltered, low-lying spot.

The rural surroundings add another layer. With working vineyards nearby at Nutbourne and Kinsbrook, and RSPB Pulborough Brooks — a large wetland reserve — right on the edge of the village, there's more pollen, agricultural dust and bird activity in the air here than in a built-up town. That combination shows up as a fine film on glass and solar panels that needs a proper purified-water rinse to clear completely, and bird droppings on panels and roofs are a more regular occurrence given how close the reserve is. None of it is unusual for a village this rural, but it does mean glass and panels need cleaning more often to stay at their best.

Pulborough also has a working train station on the Arun Valley line, which has brought a steady mix of newer housing alongside the historic core over the years — but even the newer streets sit close enough to the river and the escarpment to pick up the same damp, algae-prone conditions as the older parts of the village. Whether it's a Georgian house on Lower Street or a more recent build near the station, the valley setting affects the whole village, not just the conservation area.

Pulborough takes its position from geography as much as history. The village sits where the River Arun meets the River Rother, on ground that was significant enough for the Romans to route Stane Street — the road that once ran from London to Chichester — straight through it. That combination of a river crossing and a major road made Pulborough a natural stopping point for centuries, long before it became the village it is today. The escarpment the village sits on faces south, giving genuinely wide views down across the Arun Valley to the South Downs in the distance — a setting that's drawn people to build here for a very long time.

Lower Street is the clearest evidence of that long history. It's a conservation area lined with timber-framed buildings dating back to the medieval period, standing alongside later Tudor and Georgian houses, all still in use as homes and businesses today rather than preserved as a museum piece. Walking down it gives a real sense of how the village has grown in layers over hundreds of years rather than all at once. It's one of the more architecturally interesting streets in this part of West Sussex, and it's a big part of why Pulborough has the character it does.

The countryside around the village is just as defining. Nutbourne and Kinsbrook vineyards are both close by, part of a growing wine-producing area across this part of West Sussex, and RSPB Pulborough Brooks — one of the larger wetland nature reserves in the county — sits right on Pulborough's doorstep, drawing birdwatchers and walkers throughout the year. Between the vineyards, the reserve and the Arun Valley views from the escarpment, Pulborough has held onto a genuinely rural feel despite sitting on a well-used road junction. It's a village where the working countryside and the historic centre sit right next to each other, rather than one having pushed the other out.

Pulborough and Storrington are often mentioned together — the two villages sit a few miles apart on the same stretch of the A283, and our own local listings have grouped them together for years. We're based in Storrington but cover Pulborough just as regularly.

Despite the road and rail links, Pulborough has kept a genuinely village feel — Lower Street and the surrounding lanes are walkable, the countryside starts almost immediately at the edge of the village, and the pace is set by the valley and the seasons as much as by traffic passing through on the old Roman route.