Drive around Barnsley and it is difficult to miss how much residential development is taking place or working its way through the planning system. That growth is changing the type of gardens many people live with, and with it the job we expect garden fencing to do. A boundary used to be primarily a boundary. On many modern developments it is also expected to provide privacy, security, shelter, screening and a usable backdrop to a relatively compact outdoor space.
There is plenty of development behind that observation.
A current application at Jump proposes 270 homes, while another at Cudworth is for up to 144. Work associated with a development of up to 215 homes at Carlton is progressing through planning conditions, and a material start has been confirmed for a 72-home development at Monk Bretton. Barnsley Council’s housing strategy also explicitly identifies the need to increase housing supply across the borough.
More homes are needed. But from a fencing point of view, what interests me is what happens to the space between them.
Modern gardens ask a lot from a small boundary
On older housing, particularly where plots are generous, the fence can almost disappear into the garden.
There might be a lawn, mature trees, several metres of planting and a shed before you reach the boundary. Even if the fence is fairly ordinary, it doesn’t necessarily dominate the space.
Put the same six-foot fence around a compact new-build garden and the situation changes.
The boundary becomes one of the largest visual features in the garden. You see it from the kitchen. You see it from the patio. You probably see it from upstairs. Your neighbour sees the other side.
At the same time, that fence may be only a few metres from several windows.
This is where privacy becomes much more important.
It isn’t necessarily because modern homeowners are less sociable. It is simply a consequence of proximity. If neighbouring patios, kitchen doors and seating areas are relatively close together, people become much more aware of overlooking.
A fence that technically separates two properties might therefore be doing only half the job expected of it.
Privacy isn’t solved by blindly making everything taller
The obvious response is height.
If somebody can see into a garden, put up a taller fence.
Sometimes that’s appropriate. Sometimes it creates a different set of problems.
Higher solid fencing blocks more light and catches more wind. In a small garden it can also create a boxed-in feeling, particularly where tall boundaries run along several sides.
There are planning considerations too, so simply increasing fence height shouldn’t be treated as an automatic solution.
Good privacy design can be subtler.
The position of seating matters. So does the direction from which overlooking occurs. A small amount of trellis in the right position, carefully chosen planting or screening around one section of a patio may solve a problem more effectively than turning the entire garden into a fortress.
This is particularly worth considering before replacing otherwise sound fencing.
Work out where the privacy problem actually exists first.
Parking has changed the front boundary too
The traditional front garden has changed considerably on many properties.
Cars take up space.
Driveways, parking bays and access routes mean front boundaries often have to perform several competing jobs. Homeowners may want some separation from the pavement without making it difficult to manoeuvre vehicles. They may want security without completely obscuring visibility when pulling onto the road.
Then there is the gate.
A driveway gate is a much more substantial piece of equipment than a small garden gate. Width, weight, hinges, posts and ground conditions all matter.
I’ve seen large gates hung from posts that I wouldn’t have been particularly enthusiastic about using for a modest pedestrian gate.
They might look fine initially.
Then gravity starts doing its job.
A heavy gate places a constant load on its supporting structure. If the post moves even slightly, the far end of the gate moves considerably more. That’s when gates start scraping the ground, latches stop meeting and homeowners find themselves lifting the gate every time they close it.
New doesn’t necessarily mean well specified.
New ground isn’t always settled ground
This is one of the less obvious issues around newer developments.
Building a housing estate involves considerably more than putting houses on untouched soil.
Ground is excavated. Services go in. Trenches are backfilled. Levels change. Drainage is installed. Machinery moves across the site. Topsoil may be redistributed and gardens landscaped.
That doesn’t mean every new-build garden is unstable. It does mean I wouldn’t assume ground conditions are identical across a development simply because the houses were built at the same time.
When installing fencing, what is underneath matters.
I’ve dug holes where the first section looks like ordinary soil and then hit rubble. I’ve encountered roots, old concrete and compacted material. Other areas can be unexpectedly soft.
You deal with what is actually in the hole.
This is why I don’t like rigid assumptions about post installation without considering the site. The aim is not to meet some arbitrary amount of concrete and move on to the next post. The finished fence has to remain stable in the ground it is actually standing in.
Open edges can be very different from the middle of an estate
One feature of expanding developments deserves particular attention.
The outside edge.
A garden in the middle of established housing may receive considerable shelter from surrounding buildings, walls, hedges and trees.
A house at the edge of a development backing onto open land can experience something very different.
Wind doesn’t care that the same fencing specification has been used 200 metres away.
Solid fencing presents a considerable surface area to it. The force travels through panels and rails into the posts and ultimately the footings.
If those posts aren’t adequate, something eventually moves.
This is also why repeated failure in one particular section of a garden should make people curious.
If the same panel comes down twice, stop blaming the panel.
Look at exposure. Look at the posts. Look at the direction of the prevailing weather. Look at whether buildings are funnelling wind towards that part of the garden.
Replacing like-for-like without understanding why the previous installation failed can simply reset the clock.
Smaller gardens make poor workmanship harder to ignore
There is another practical difference with compact plots.
Everything is close.
A badly aligned fence running along the bottom of a huge garden might not attract much attention. Put the same workmanship three metres from a patio door and you’ll notice it every morning.
Posts that aren’t plumb stand out.
Uneven panels stand out.
A badly hung gate stands out.
So does cheap timber once it starts twisting and moving.
That doesn’t mean every modern garden needs expensive fencing. Quite the opposite. I would rather see straightforward materials installed properly than premium materials used to disguise mediocre workmanship.
Spend money on the structure first.
The decorative choices come afterwards.
Garden storage creates another security issue
Smaller homes and busy family houses can put a surprising amount of value into the garden.
Bikes, children’s equipment, barbecues, tools, lawn equipment and garden furniture have to live somewhere. Sheds and storage boxes are common solutions.
That changes the security role of a boundary.
The back garden isn’t necessarily an empty patch of lawn anymore.
Side access becomes particularly important. A weak or permanently unlocked gate can undermine an otherwise decent boundary because it gives straightforward access away from the front of the property.
Good security doesn’t require a garden to resemble a prison yard.
In fact, indiscriminately making every boundary completely opaque can sometimes remove useful visibility.
The sensible approach is to think about the property as a whole. Where can somebody enter? Which areas are overlooked? What is stored outside? Where does the side passage lead? Can a gate actually be secured?
These are more useful questions than simply asking for “security fencing”.
Neighbours matter more when gardens are closer together
Boundary disputes are nothing new.
What does change on compact developments is how noticeable relatively small disagreements become.
A fence position, ownership question, damaged panel or change in height can directly affect the space next door.
My advice is boring but useful: establish what you’re entitled to alter before doing it.
Don’t assume a fence belongs to you because the “nice” side faces your garden. Don’t assume an old convention about which boundary a homeowner owns applies universally. Check the property information you have and talk to the neighbour where appropriate.
A five-minute conversation before work starts is usually preferable to an argument after twelve metres of fencing has been installed.
The same applies to appearance.
You may be paying for the fence, but somebody else could be looking at the opposite side of it every day for the next 15 years.
Gardens are becoming working spaces
One of the biggest changes I’ve noticed in how people use gardens is how much we now expect them to contain.
It isn’t simply lawn, flowerbeds and somewhere to put the washing out.
There are home offices, garden rooms, dining areas, children’s play equipment, hot tubs, bars, outdoor kitchens, storage and increasingly elaborate seating areas.
Every additional use creates another relationship with the boundary.
Put a dining table near an overlooked fence and privacy matters more.
Put a garden office near it and the outlook matters.
Install decking and the effective relationship between your eye level and the top of the fence can change.
Add a large shed and access matters.
This is why fencing is best considered as part of the garden rather than something installed around it afterwards.
Composite has a different appeal in compact spaces
There is also a reason composite fencing attracts interest in modern gardens.
Maintenance becomes more noticeable when the boundary occupies a large proportion of what you can see.
Some homeowners simply don’t want to spend weekends treating timber or dealing with the visual changes natural wood goes through as it weathers.
Composite can address some of those concerns.
It doesn’t remove the need for good installation.
The posts still have to be secure. The system still has to cope with wind. The fence still needs to be straight. Ground conditions don’t suddenly become irrelevant because the boards are manufactured rather than timber.
I’ve always been wary of materials being sold as solutions to workmanship problems.
There isn’t a panel on the market that can compensate for a badly installed post.
The boundary deserves to be considered earlier
Barnsley’s housing growth is continuing rather than happening in isolation. Current planning records show substantial schemes at different stages around the borough, and the council’s own strategy says significant numbers of new homes are required annually to meet a growing and changing population.
That means more new gardens.
Some will be generous. Others will inevitably need to make efficient use of limited outdoor space.
Either way, the fence shouldn’t be treated as the leftover bit around the edge.
On a modern plot it may be providing privacy for the patio, securing the side passage, supporting the visual design of the garden, separating parking, sheltering a seating area and defining the view from inside the house.
That’s quite a lot to ask from a row of posts and panels.
Get the structure right and most people barely think about it again.
Get it wrong and they’ll be looking at it every time they open the back door.