Patio Building in Norton

Housing in Norton

Norton is older than the town it now belongs to. The parish once took in the chapelry of Stockton, which only became a separate parish in 1713, and in 1982 children playing near Mill Lane found bones that led to an Anglo-Saxon cemetery of about 120 burials dated to roughly AD 540 to 610. The village core still shows that age: a large green with a duck pond, mostly Georgian houses and cottages around it, St Mary the Virgin on the west side, and a High Street lined with 18th and 19th century townhouses.

Most homes, though, are 20th century. The Norton Conservation Area appraisal records that interwar housing estates were built over the farmland around the old village, and later estates such as Albany, Glebe, Crooksbarn and Norton Grange followed. The 2021 Census shows what that means on the ground. In the Norton North ward, 61.4% of households live in a semi-detached house and 17.9% in a terrace. Norton South has more terraces (30.6%), while Norton West is the most spacious, with 28.2% detached and 56.1% semi-detached.

For a patio, that mix gives three common starting points. A semi from the 1930s to the 1960s usually has a long, narrow back garden, often with an old concrete-slab area by the kitchen door that has dropped or cracked. A terrace off the High Street or nearer Norton Road has a walled yard where every square metre counts and the bins need a clear route. A detached house in Norton West tends to have room for a bigger terrace, a path to a shed and perhaps a step down to the lawn.

Soil, slope and surface water in Norton

The British Geological Survey maps the ground under central Norton as glaciolacustrine deposits of sand, laid down in a lake at the end of the last ice age, over Sherwood Sandstone far below. Sandy lake deposits drain better than the stiff boulder clay found in much of west Stockton, but they can be loose near the surface and vary over short distances. Where we find soft or mixed fill, especially in older gardens that have been dug and re-dug, we take it out and replace it with compacted crushed stone before any bedding goes down.

Norton is mostly flat, which sounds easy but brings its own job: on level ground water has nowhere to go unless you give it a fall. We set a gentle slope away from the house, typically running to the lawn or a soakaway, and keep the finished surface at least 150mm below the damp-proof course so rain cannot splash above it.

The Environment Agency's flood map does not place the centre of Norton in Flood Zone 2 or 3, although Flood Zone 3 appears within 750 metres. Surface-water mapping, which shows where heavy rain pools rather than where rivers overflow, picks out a number of low spots across the area. If your garden holds water after a storm, a channel drain along the back of the patio or a permeable surface may be the better choice.

Permissions and protected areas

The Norton Conservation Area was designated in 1969. It runs roughly from the A1027 in the north to Esk Road in the south, takes in The Green and the High Street with the plots behind them, and contains 81 listed buildings, including one at Grade I and one at Grade II*. Behind the High Street the appraisal notes the old yards and wynds, narrow lanes that once led to smaller properties packed in behind the street frontage.

A back-garden patio at or near ground level does not normally need planning permission, even in a conservation area. What changes inside the boundary is the attention given to trees, boundary walls and anything visible from the street, and listed building consent is a separate matter if you live in one of the listed houses. Front gardens have their own rule everywhere: new hard surfacing over five square metres needs to be permeable or drain to a lawn or border, or it needs permission.

If your home is near The Green, the Fox almshouses of 1897 or the Victoria Jubilee cross at the south end of the High Street, it is worth a quick check with Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council before work starts. We will tell you at the site visit if anything looks like it needs a conversation with the council.

What shapes the price in Norton

We do not publish a price list. The cost of a Norton patio depends on things we can only judge by seeing the garden.

• Size and shape. A simple rectangle behind a semi is quicker to lay than a curved area or one that wraps round a bay.
• What comes up first. Lifting an old concrete patio and taking it away adds labour and skip space.
• The ground. Loose sandy fill or old rubble means a deeper dig and more sub-base.
• Access. Many semis have a side path; mid-terraces often do not, so materials and spoil go through the house or down a back lane.
• Material. Concrete slabs, Indian sandstone and porcelain all cost differently to buy and to cut.
• Extras. Steps, low walls, edging and drainage channels each add time.

You get the full figure in your quote, after we have measured and checked the levels.

Neighbouring areas to Norton

• Billingham: North across the A1027: post-war semis and terraces round the 1950s town centre.
• Fairfield: West of the town centre: 1930s and later semis with long rear gardens.
• Hartburn: South-west: a conservation-area village street inside a suburb of semis.

Pages that fit Norton gardens best: patio slabs and paving, indian sandstone patios, garden walls.

All places we cover: areas page.

Patio questions from Norton

Sources: Wikipedia: Norton, County Durham; Norton Conservation Area appraisal summary (heritage statement, 2021); ONS Census 2021 TS044, Norton North ward (Nomis); ONS Census 2021 TS044, Norton South ward (Nomis); ONS Census 2021 TS044, Norton West ward (Nomis); BGS Geology Viewer; Environment Agency Flood Map for Planning; Planning Portal: paving your front garden.