Brickwork, Landscaping & Driveways in Great Dunmow

An old market town that has grown fast

Great Dunmow is an ancient market town, known for the Flitch Trials and for Doctor’s Pond near the High Street. Its centre is a conservation area with timber-framed and Georgian buildings. Around that core the town has expanded considerably in recent decades, with large estates of new housing to the west and south.

New-build homes usually come with the basics: a strip of tarmac or block paving just wide enough for the cars sold with the plot, a few slabs outside the back door and a lawn laid on compacted subsoil. The most useful improvements are a proper patio, a path that reaches the shed and the side gate, and extra parking where the layout allows.

Check your covenants

On newer estates, the deeds sometimes restrict changes to front gardens, boundaries and driveways for a number of years, and some estate roads are not yet adopted by the highway authority. It is worth checking your paperwork, or asking the developer or management company, before planning a wider drive or a front wall.