Window & Exterior Cleaning in Shoreham-by-Sea

Shoreham-by-Sea sits at the point where a tidal river meets open sea, and that combination brings a genuinely different set of conditions to a purely inland or purely coastal town. Salt carried on Channel winds settles on glass, render and metalwork much as it does anywhere on this stretch of coast, but the damp air rolling up the Adur estuary adds to it, encouraging algae and green staining on north-facing walls and rooflines faster than a drier, more sheltered site would see. It's exactly the kind of exposure purified-water cleaning is suited to — it lifts salt residue and grime without leaving the streaking or spotting that ordinary tap water can, and without the risk a pressure washer brings to older render or brickwork.

Out on Shoreham Beach, a shingle spit built up by longshore drift over thousands of years, many homes sit directly on the shingle itself, with almost nothing between them and the sea beyond the beach's vegetated shingle — a genuinely rare habitat, home to around 90 plant species including yellow horned poppy and sea kale, and protected as a Local Nature Reserve since 2006. Properties out here take a harder, more constant soaking from salt spray than anywhere else in the town, closer in exposure to the open Channel than to a typical seafront street, and it shows in how quickly glass and render need attention compared with homes set back from the beach itself.

The town's historic core, centred on St Mary de Haura Church and the streets around it, has been a conservation area since 1971, protecting the older brick and timber buildings that grew up around the port through the Victorian era, when the 1840 railway brought a new wave of shipyards and coasting trade. That older building stock, much like anywhere else with genuine 19th-century brick and timber joinery, is better served by a gentle purified-water approach than anything higher-pressure that could force water into old pointing or strip protective coatings from painted render.

Shoreham Airport's 1936 terminal, one of the finest Art Deco buildings on the south coast and Grade II* listed in its own right, is a reminder that a fair amount of Shoreham's housing dates from the same interwar period — rendered walls, steel-framed Crittall windows and flat or shallow-pitched roofs that were fashionable through the 1930s as the town grew around the airfield and the port. Render from this era needs the same careful handling as anything older: a pressure washer can etch or crack it, where purified water and a soft brush get the same result without the damage.

Even away from the beach and the historic centre, Shoreham's position between the Downs and the Channel means salt-laden air reaches further inland here than it would in a town set back from the coast. Regular window, gutter and render cleaning tends to matter on a shorter cycle across the whole town than it would a few miles north, up the Adur valley towards Steyning.

Shoreham's history as a working port goes back further than most towns on this stretch of coast. Traces of pre-Roman settlement have been found here, and the Anglo-Saxon origins of the area are still visible in the surviving fabric of St Nicolas' Church. It was the Norman conquest, though, that properly established the town, with New Shoreham founded as a port in the closing decades of the 11th century — one of a string of new Norman harbour towns along the south coast.

St Mary de Haura, the parish church at the heart of the town, was built in the years following 1103 and remains one of the more substantial Norman churches in this part of Sussex. The town's fortunes as a port grew steadily from there, reaching a peak in the Victorian era once the railway arrived in 1840, bringing with it a new wave of shipyards and a busy coasting trade that shipped goods along the English coastline.

Shoreham Fort, built in 1857, was constructed to defend the river mouth after the Adur's course was stabilised in 1816 — before that, the river had a habit of shifting its outlet along the coast. The old Shoreham tollbridge, a Grade II* listed structure, carried traffic across the Adur for well over a century before closing in 1968; a modern replacement, the Adur Ferry Bridge, opened in 2013 a short distance away.

The airport, opened in 1911 and still the oldest licensed airfield in continuous operation in the UK, sits on the eastern edge of town towards Lancing. Its Art Deco terminal, completed in 1936, is one of the best-preserved examples of the style anywhere on the coast and remains a working part of the airport rather than a preserved relic.

Across the water from the town centre, an unusual community of houseboats has grown up along the Adur's mudflats — a genuinely eclectic mix of converted barges, tugs and other vessels, including one built from a converted coach and another shaped like a shark. We're based in Storrington, reached along the Adur valley, and cover Shoreham-by-Sea as part of our regular service area.