Goring-on-Thames sits in the Goring Gap, where the river cuts through the Chilterns, and the housing reflects that setting as much as any village we work in. There are flint and brick cottages close to the church and the station, Victorian villas along the riverbank and the roads climbing towards the downs, and a scatter of larger detached houses on the hillside with views back over the water. Fitted wardrobes have to answer to whichever of those you own, and no two rooms in the village behave the same way once you start measuring them.
In the older cottages we regularly find low eaves, sloped ceilings and walls that lean in by 15 to 20mm from floor to head height, which rules out anything bought flat-packed and assembled on site. In the larger villas and hillside houses the rooms are more generous but often have bay windows, picture rails and deep skirting that a run of wardrobes needs to work around rather than override. Either way, a proper survey and a CAD drawing before anything is cut is the only way to get doors that line up and stay lined up once the house settles again after the work.
Goring has a good number of second homes and downsizers moving in from larger properties, both of whom tend to want storage that earns its keep in a smaller footprint without looking like an afterthought. Our workshop at Blackbarn Farm in Ipsden is a short drive from the village, so a site visit does not turn into a half-day round trip, and we can come back mid-project if something needs a second look. Where a house sits within the village's conservation area or the wider Chilterns National Landscape, we will flag anything that might need a check with South Oxfordshire District Council before work starts, rather than assuming.
