Houses sales in Winchelsea

 Basic facts about Winchelsea

• There are 278 houses in Winchelsea
  
• Virtually the whole of Winchelsea (not just the citadel) is now a Conservation Area, many buildings are listed, and some medieval buildings and most open spaces are Scheduled Ancient Monuments. Winchelsea is also part of the High Weald AONB. Most open land in and around Winchelsea is owned by the National Trust. All of this offers some protection against intrusive and inappropriate development, but also restricts what you can do with your own property.
  
• Many householders in neighbouring villages such as Icklesham and Winchelsea Beach like to give their address as Winchelsea, particularly when selling their houses.
  
• Winchelsea has a village shop, sub-post office, butcher plus delicatessen, two pubs, a motel and a (hidden) tea room. There is a milkman, but no newspaper delivery. The mobile library calls every fortnight. The fish and chip van calls on Saturday evening.
  
• Garages are at a premium in Winchelsea (one small garage has been on the market for £15,000). There is however ample parking space on most streets, exceptions being North Street, Hiham Green, Mill Road and Barrack Square.
  
• The school causes a traffic and parking nuisance in Back Lane, Friars Road, Rookery Lane and St Thomas's Street in the mornings and afternoons on schooldays.
  
• Traffic rat-running through Winchelsea is the main day-to-day problem in the village, especially if you live on the C298 (High Street-German Street-Monks Walk) or A259 (Hastings Road-Rectory Lane-Roberts Hill-Ferry Hill-Tanyard Lane-Strand). Winchelsea has the only Community Speed Watch scheme in the district.
  
• The nearest supermarkets are in Winchelsea Beach (Co-op), Rye (Budgens-Jempsons), Peasmarsh (Jempsons), Tenterden (Waitrose, Tesco) and Hastings (Sainsbury, Tesco, Lidl).
  
• The nearest banks and building societies are in Rye.
  
• There is a CoE church and a Methodist Chapel, but the latter is no longer regularly used. The nearest RC church is in Rye.
  
• There is an excellent Montessori nursery in Udimore, a middling primary school in Winchelsea and a poor secondary school in Rye (in 2007/08, 40% of 15-year olds got the equivalent of grades A*-C in GCSE's, including English and Maths, compared to 46% in East Sussex and 47% nationally, but this compares with an appalling 24% in 2004/05). There are good secondary schools in Guestling, Bexhill, Tenterden and Ashford.
  
• There is a gym and leisure centre (with swimming pool) in Rye.
  
• Crime is generally low and Winchelsea has an active Neighbourhood Watch.
  
• Refuse is collected every week from most of the citadel and there is a recycling collection every fortnight (some paper, tin cans and some plastics). If your house has a wheelie bin, you will have collections every two weeks. There are glass recycling bins by the public toilets in Monks Walk.
  
• The weather along this stretch of coast is better than the national average and Winchelsea has a benign microclimate courtesy of the shelter provided by Fairlight Head.
  
• Council Tax ranges from £806 (Band A reduced) through £1,450 (Band D) to £2,899 (Band H), second highest in the District. Winchelsea is in Rother District. The District Council is generally quite efficient, as are parts of the somewhat remote County Council.
  
• Winchelsea Station is about 0.5 mile away. It is on the Hastings-Ashford line but the service is now very infrequent. It is better to catch trains at Rye.
  
• The nearest commutable stations are Hastings and Battle (on the line to Charing Cross and Cannon Street) and Ashford (on the line to Charing Cross and Victoria). It takes 1 hour 30 minutes from Battle to Charing Cross (rather longer than in the reign of Queen Victoria). However, there is now a high-speed service from Ashford to London (35 minutes).
  
• Winchelsea is on the 100 bus route from Hastings to Lydd (from where you can get the 711 to Dover).
  
• To get from Winchelsea to London, you can use the A268-A21-M25 or A259-A2070-M20-M25. The A259 and A21 can be awful (after which, there is the M25).
  
• For other information about Winchelsea, see our community pages.