Plasterer in Cheswick Green

Cheswick Green is a planned village in the south of Solihull borough, tucked between Shirley, Monkspath, Dickens Heath and Earlswood, and bounded by Creynolds Lane, Watery Lane, Tanworth Lane, the River Blythe and Mount Brook. Almost every house in the village was built in one go from 1969 onwards, on the site of a scattered settlement of self-built bungalows, chalets and caravans known as the Mount. That gives the place an unusual mix: a strong village feel, a common age and style of housing, and a buried history that is far stranger than the neat cul-de-sacs suggest. RCR Connections Ltd is Birmingham based, covering the whole of the Midlands. Our plasterers work all over the parish, from re-skimming a single ceiling in a 1970s semi to boarding out a converted garage or loft.

Below is a brief account of the village’s unusual origins, a guide to the houses that were built here and the plastering problems that come with each type, and practical information on planning, preparation and what happens when we work in your home.

Free, no-obligation quote in Cheswick Green: WhatsApp me on 07453 614095 with a few photos, or send us a message.

How the village came to be

Cheese farm or Domesday name

The name Cheswick probably comes from the Old English for a cheese farm, a dairy settlement on the edge of the Forest of Arden. Sources disagree on how far back it goes. One account dates the first written record to the thirteenth century, while another describes Cheswick Green as the name of the site at the time of the Domesday survey. Either way, it is far older than the present village.

The Mount and its arguments

North of the modern settlement is the earthwork that gave the area its nickname. The parish council describes it as an ancient fortified site whose origin and purpose remain a mystery, and some have claimed it is Saxon or even Roman. Archaeologist Steven Taylor, who excavated it in 1973, concluded that it was a medieval earthwork with no buildings inside the bank, probably begun for a purpose that changed before it was finished, and later used now and then for charcoal burning. The question has never been fully settled, and we will not try to settle it here.

Archers, Benettsford Mill and Banisters Farm

In the Middle Ages, the Archer family, who had settled near what is now Umberslade and owned much of Tanworth, are recorded as holding court at a manor house at Cheswick. A water mill called Benettsford Mill stood on the River Blythe where Watery Lane meets Tanworth Lane. By the early twentieth century much of the land belonged to Banisters Farm, which fronted Tanworth Lane and later became Mount Dairy Farm.

A pleasure ground for Birmingham

The land was later bought by a Birmingham lawyer, Philip Baker, who laid it out as an extensive pleasure ground. According to the parish council, it included refreshment rooms, a ballroom, tennis courts and a maze, a garden copying the atrium of the Vestal Virgins in Rome, and another laid out in the shape of a Victoria Cross in memory of those who died in the Boer War. For years it was a popular day out for people from Birmingham, and old postcards of the gardens still turn up.

Plots, chalets and caravans

After the pleasure ground, the land was divided into small plots and sold off. From the 1920s onwards, people built their own homes on them, often without professional help. A report in the Birmingham Daily Post described one home on Brooklands Walk as two long-immobile caravans joined together, and others as built around old chalets. Most dwellings were wooden, although some were of asbestos sheet or brick. The rough tracks between them had grand names like Appian Way, Brooklands Walk and Pleasaunce Walk.

Life on the Mount was hard in many ways. The homes had electricity, but water came from wells and waste went to cesspits. There were no pavements, mains water, gas, street lighting or sewers, and the unmade tracks turned to mud in wet weather. Solihull Council consistently refused planning applications on the estate, which meant owners could not improve their homes even if they wanted to.

From Solihull to Stratford and back

In 1964 Solihull became a county borough, and the Mount, together with Hockley Heath, Dickens Heath and Tidbury Green, was moved into Stratford-upon-Avon Rural District. When Stratford councillors toured the Mount in May 1964 they said they were shocked by the conditions. More than 60 per cent of the homes were judged unfit to live in. The Mount Residents’ Association was set up the same year to resist compulsory purchase, and soon spoke for most of the households on the estate.

In December 1965 Stratford approved a clearance order, saying the plots were too varied in shape and size for owners to redevelop individually. In 1967 the council backed a scheme by the Birmingham developer David Charles to replace the estate with a new self-contained village to be called Cheswick Green. Tracing every owner took two years, and there were complications with rights of way and with a stream that ran across part of the site. Under the scheme, existing residents were to be offered the chance to buy one of the new houses, and land was set aside for a housing association to rehouse a small number of tenants who could not afford to move on their own. When the legal problems dragged on, David Charles called in the newly formed Land Commission, which was set up to buy land for planned development. The residents, through their Shirley estate agent, made it clear they would rather sell to the Greaves Organisation of West Bromwich, and it was Greaves that went on to build the new village.

The Village of the Seventies

On 13 July 1969 Greaves put the first homes in “the Village of the Seventies” on sale. Footings were being dug by early August, and the architects, Lane, Lister and Associates, took care to keep as many mature trees and green spaces as they could, along with footpaths that followed some of the old routes across the site. Published figures for the final number of homes vary between sources, so we will not quote one, but the scale was enough to give the village its own centre, shops, pub and school. Greaves ceased trading in December 1976.

Saving what was left of the Mount

The Mount itself survived the first phase of building. In 1973, when Greaves had outline permission to build more homes on the earthwork, residents launched the Save The Mount campaign, and the action committee even found an old air-raid siren to sound if the bulldozers moved in. They did move in on 6 August 1973, cutting into the ramparts while filling in the moat. A government order then stopped work for two months while Taylor excavated. Much of the earthwork was eventually lost, but a section survives off Chatsworth Close and is owned and looked after by the parish council.

A parish of its own

Cheswick Green was for many years part of Hockley Heath parish. More recently it became a civil parish in its own right, taking in the old hamlet of Illshaw Heath, the northern end of Warings Green and the new homes at Blythe Valley Park. New housing has also gone up on the former Mount Dairy Farm land off Tanworth Lane, so the parish now has two distinct generations of homes.

The village today

The centre of the village is organised around a traditional green. Opposite are a row of shops, the Saxon pub, the village hall, which residents raised money to build, and the doctors’ surgery, and beyond them a recreation ground running down to the River Blythe. Most of the village is made up of quiet roads and cul-de-sacs, with footpaths linking them and plenty of open green space kept by the parish council. That layout is a direct result of the planning in the late 1960s.

Mature trees and seasonal movement

Because the architects set out to keep the existing trees, a number of houses in the village stand quite near large, mature specimens. Where the ground is clay, large trees dry the soil out through the summer months and it swells back over the winter, and inside the house that can appear as cracks which widen and narrow through the year. Cracks like these are usually cosmetic and can be filled and skimmed, but if you see them getting wider each year, or doors starting to stick, have the house checked before redecorating. Trees in the village may also be protected, so ask the council before cutting any back.

The houses Greaves built

House types

The original sales literature lists the main types: the Arden three-bedroom townhouse and the Henley four-bedroom townhouse, both with garages; the Haselor three-bedroom detached house with garage and a long living room; the Avon three-bedroom semi with a side garage; and a few larger four-bedroom detached homes on private drives. Many of these are still easy to spot today, although most have been extended, altered or refitted at least once since they were built.

How they were built

Like most private housing of the period, the Greaves homes were built with cavity walls of brick outside and blockwork inside. The block walls were plastered wet, usually with a gypsum backing coat and finish. Ceilings were plasterboard, and many were finished with a textured coating rather than a skim. Internal partitions were a mix of block and timber stud lined with plasterboard. That construction is sound, but after more than half a century it has its typical weaknesses.

Plastering problems in 1970s homes

Artex and textured ceilings

Swirls, stipples and other textures were the fashion when Cheswick Green was built, and many still survive. If the coating is sound, it can be skimmed over after preparation. If it is cracked, flaking, or heavily patched, over-boarding gives a cleaner result. Certain textured finishes applied before 2000 included asbestos, so send a small sample off for testing before anybody sands or scrapes. For a longer look at the options, read our Artex skimming guide.

Board joints and nail pops

Plasterboard ceilings from the 1970s were often fixed with nails, and over time nails can work loose and push the finish out. Joints between boards that were never taped properly show as straight cracks across the ceiling. We refix loose boards with screws, scrim every joint and put a fresh skim across the full ceiling so the problem does not come back in a different place.

Tired wall plaster

Original wall plaster in the village is usually sound, but decades of wallpaper, filler, wall plugs and redecorating leave it uneven. Once old paper is stripped, we cut out any loose areas, apply a bonding coat if the surface is weak, and then skim the wall. The result is a smooth surface that takes paint well.

Cracks at openings and junctions

Small cracks at the corners of doors and windows, and where walls meet ceilings, are common in houses of this age. Most come from normal settlement and from timber shrinking and swelling with the seasons. We rake them out, reinforce them with scrim and plaster over them. A crack that keeps reopening after repair, or one that runs through the brickwork outside, should be looked at by a surveyor before any cosmetic work.

Old repairs and patches

Fifty years of homeowners means fifty years of DIY. We regularly find walls patched with filler, ceilings repaired with odd pieces of board, and plaster cut away for long-gone wiring. Some of these patches stand proud of the wall or have sunk back, and a few have never been finished at all. Most of them can be blended in with a skim, though some need cutting back and filling properly first.

Townhouses, garages and loft rooms

Turning the garage into a room

The townhouses and many of the semis and detached homes were built with garages, and converting them into a playroom, office or extra living space is one of the most common jobs in the village. Once the builder has put in the new floor, wall and window, we fix insulated plasterboard or board over the studwork, skim the walls and ceiling, and make the new room blend in with the rest of the house. Building control will usually want to see the insulation before we cover it.

Plastering for a loft conversion

Loft rooms bring sloping ceilings, dormer cheeks and lots of awkward angles. The boards need to be fixed to the rafters and the new studwork with the right screws and spacing, the joints taped, and every corner beaded so the edges stay crisp. Because a converted loft heats and cools faster than the rest of the house, cracks can appear at the slopes later if this preparation is rushed, so we take our time over it.

Tall stairwells in the townhouses

Three-storey townhouses have tall, narrow stairwells, and the plaster on those walls is the hardest to reach and often the most damaged by years of furniture being carried up and down. We set up safe access so the whole wall can be skimmed in one pass, rather than leaving joins halfway up the stairs.

Extensions and open-plan living

Many Cheswick Green homes have been extended at the rear or side, often to create a big kitchen and family room. When the builder has finished the structure, we line the new ceilings with board and skim them, plaster the fresh blockwork, and blend the old and new so there is no visible line where the original house ends. Where a steel beam has been put in to open up the back of the house, we board and bead it so it looks like part of the original structure.

Newer homes in the parish

Mount Dairy Farm and Blythe Valley Park

The newer houses in the parish, on the former Mount Dairy Farm land and at Blythe Valley Park, are built in the modern way. Most walls are plasterboard, either stuck to blockwork with adhesive or fixed to studs, and ceilings are boarded and skimmed or simply taped and jointed. These homes do not have the problems of 1970s plaster, but they have their own.

Snagging and settlement cracks

New houses dry out and settle in their first few years, which often shows up as cracks along board joints, at corners and around doors. Screw heads can also show through. We can fix individual defects or, if the original finish was poor, skim whole rooms so they are ready for decorating. If your home is new, check with the builder before you book any repairs.

Hollow walls and fixings

Dot-and-dab plasterboard can sound hollow and give way if a shelf or television bracket is fixed without the right plugs. When a board has been damaged or pulled away, we can cut it out, refix it and make good so the repair cannot be seen.

Illshaw Heath and Warings Green

The older hamlet

Illshaw Heath is older than Cheswick Green, and takes its name from the de Yelschawe family who lived there in the Middle Ages. An earthwork there is thought to mark the site of Sidenhall Manor, home of the de Sidenhall family. Today the hamlet has a mix of older cottages, farmhouses and later homes spread along the lanes, quite different from the main village. Some of these older buildings have solid walls, lime plaster or timber in their structure, and they need a gentler approach than the 1970s houses a short walk away, with breathable materials and careful repairs rather than wholesale stripping.

Warings Green

The northern end of Warings Green, on the Earlswood side of the parish, also lies in the parish. Homes here range from older cottages to post-war houses and newer builds. Older properties may have solid walls and original lime plaster, so we always check what we are working on before deciding which material to use.

Inside a typical house, room by room

The kitchen and family room

When an original 1970s kitchen is ripped out, the walls behind it are rarely in good shape. Tiles leave adhesive and broken plaster, old cooker points and pipe runs leave holes, and the corners are often far from square. Our ideal slot is once the first-fix wiring and pipework are in but before the fitter starts, so the new units go against walls that are flat, sound and dry. If the kitchen is being opened into the dining room, we finish the new opening and the patched ceiling at the same time, so the whole space reads as one room.

Long living rooms and big ceilings

Some of the original house types, the Haselor in particular, were sold on the strength of a long living room. A big ceiling like that has to be skimmed in one continuous operation, because plaster sets as you work and a join left halfway across shows in the light from the window. On larger ceilings we put two people on the job so it can be laid on, flattened and polished before it goes off.

Bathrooms and en-suites

Original bathrooms in the village were small, and many have been knocked through, re-planned or given an en-suite next door. Behind showers and baths we fit moisture-resistant or cement-based board, which is the right base for tiles. On the dry walls and ceiling, a skim is fine, but the room needs a fan that actually clears steam, or mould will find its way back onto the new surface.

Bedrooms

Bedrooms are often where the oldest decorating survives: layer on layer of woodchip, textured paint, or wallpaper hung straight over cracks. Once it is stripped, we usually find sound plaster that just needs filling, bonding where weak, and a fresh skim. Built-in wardrobes from the 1970s and 80s, when taken out, leave a rectangle of unfinished wall and ceiling that we can bring up to match the rest.

Hallways

The hall takes the most knocks in any family home: bikes, pushchairs, shopping and school bags. Corners and the plaster around the front door and the bottom of the stairs are usually the worst. We replace damaged angle beads, rebuild broken corners and skim the hall walls so they are ready for a hard-wearing paint.

Finishing details

Rusty beads and corners

The metal angle beads used on corners in older houses can rust over time, especially in kitchens and bathrooms or anywhere that has been damp. The first sign is a brown or orange line showing through the paint on the corner. Painting over it does not work for long. The fix is to cut out the old bead, fit a new one and replaster the corner.

Coving

Plaster coving was a popular upgrade in the village from the 1970s onwards, and many homes still have it. If a length is cracked, loose or missing after a ceiling repair, we can replace it with a matching profile, or take it all down if you would prefer a clean modern look and finish the angle neatly instead.

Sockets, switches and downlights

Many owners add downlights when a ceiling is redone. We work with your electrician so the holes are cut after the plaster has gone off, and the ceiling around each fitting stays crisp. The same goes for new sockets and switches on the walls: back boxes set flush before we plaster mean faceplates sit flat afterwards.

Warmer and quieter rooms

Cold walls and condensation

Houses of this age often have cold spots, especially on north-facing gable walls, in bedrooms over garages and in rooms with large windows. Cold surfaces attract condensation, and condensation brings black mould. Lining a cold wall with insulated plasterboard and skimming it can make the room feel much warmer, although it takes a little off the room and means moving sockets and skirting. We will talk through whether it makes sense for your room.

The room over the garage

Bedrooms built above an integral or attached garage are a common complaint in homes of this period, because the floor and the walls next to the garage can be cold. When a garage below is being converted, it is a good chance to improve the ceiling of the garage with insulation and new boards before it is skimmed, which helps the room above as well.

Party walls

In the semis and the townhouses, sound from next door can be a nuisance. Acoustic plasterboard, fixed on a resilient frame or with a gap behind, can reduce noise through a party wall, though it will not eliminate it. It is worth doing when the room is being replastered anyway.

Skim, re-plaster or new boards: how we decide

We start by tapping the wall or ceiling to find hollow areas, looking at any cracks, and checking whether the existing surface is dusty, painted with a sheen paint or covered in old texture. A sound surface with surface marks needs a skim. A surface with large hollow or crumbling patches needs those areas cut out and rebuilt before skimming, and if most of the wall is hollow it is quicker and better to strip it back and start again. On ceilings, boards that have sagged or come away from the joists are refixed or replaced, and if the whole ceiling is poor, new boards over the old, fixed properly into the joists, is usually the most efficient answer. We explain what we found and why we recommend each option.

Water, damp and the River Blythe

The village sits between the River Blythe and Mount Brook, and the historic accounts of the Mount describe tracks that turned to mud and a stream crossing the site. Most homes in the village are well above any flood risk, but houses near the watercourses, or with poor drainage around them, can show damp at the base of walls. Before we plaster, we look for the cause: blocked gutters, high ground levels, leaking pipes or a failed damp course. Once that has been fixed, the wall can be re-plastered with materials that suit the situation.

Rendering in Cheswick Green

Updating the front of the house

Many Cheswick Green homes have brick fronts, and some owners choose to render all or part of them to give the house a fresh look or to match a new extension. We apply traditional sand and cement, silicone render, and K-Rend monocouche, which has its colour mixed right through so it never needs repainting. You can read more about the K-Rend monocouche system we use, see how the three main render types compare, or visit our pages on rendering in Solihull and rendering in Shirley.

Repairs and maintenance

Existing render on extensions and gable ends can crack, blow and lose its colour over time. Have a look through our pre-winter render warning signs first if you are not sure whether yours needs attention.

Who we work for in the village

Our customers in Cheswick Green are a mix of long-standing residents updating homes they have lived in for decades, families who have recently bought a 1970s house and want to modernise it, landlords preparing a property between tenants, and builders who need a plasterer for extensions and conversions. Each wants something slightly different. A long-term resident may want one room done well with as little upheaval as possible. A new owner may want the whole house skimmed before moving in. A builder needs us to arrive on the right day and finish so the next trade can start. We plan the work around whichever of those fits your situation.

Before you move in

If you have just bought in the village, the gap between completion and moving in is the best time for plastering. Empty rooms are faster to work in, there is no furniture to protect, and the new plaster can dry while the house is unoccupied. Let us know your dates as early as you can and we will try to fit the work in before the removal van arrives.

Between tenants

For landlords, a quick turnaround matters. We can patch and skim the areas that need it, repair damage from fixings and furniture, and leave the rooms ready for the decorator so the property is back on the market as soon as possible.

Planning in Solihull

Cheswick Green is in Solihull Metropolitan Borough, so planning applications go to Solihull MBC, and the parish council is consulted on applications in the village. There is no conservation area in the village that we are aware of. Inside plastering does not need planning permission. Rendering a house may fall under permitted development if the finish is similar in appearance to nearby houses, although permitted development rights were taken away on certain estates at the time of building, so it pays to check with the council before you change the outside of your home.

Plastering job by job

1. Start with a WhatsApp to 07453 614095: a handful of pictures of each wall or ceiling, plus approximate measurements, is plenty. The contact page works too.
2. We reply with a free quote. If the photos leave questions, such as whether a ceiling is hollow or a wall is damp, we come and look.
3. Together we fix a start date and agree the materials and how many days the work will take, so you can plan around it.
4. On arrival, sheets and boards go down over carpets, hard floors and stairs, and anything left in the room is wrapped.
5. Loose plaster comes off, cracks are taped, beads go on and the new coats are applied, with a tidy-up at the end of every day.
6. Before we leave, we talk you through drying the room and tell you when it will be safe to start painting.

How to prepare

• The less furniture left in the room, the better; whatever has to stay can be gathered in the centre for us to sheet over.
• Pictures, mirrors, curtain tracks, blinds and wall shelves should come down beforehand.
• Faceplates on switches and sockets need loosening by a qualified electrician so the new finish can tuck in behind.
• Tell us where the van can go, as some of the cul-de-sacs are tight and many drives are shared.
• Keep little ones and pets well away from the room, buckets and mixing area while work is going on.
• If a builder or kitchen fitter is involved, put us in touch so we can agree who does what and in what order.

Drying and first decoration

Freshly plastered walls and ceilings need time to dry before they are painted. The time varies with the thickness of the plaster, the weather and how well the room is ventilated. Keep windows open a little and the heating on low, but do not blast the wall with heat. Once every darker patch has faded and the surface looks uniformly light, start with a mist coat of thinned emulsion, then follow with your chosen finish once that has dried. Avoid vinyl or wipe-clean paints for the first coat, because they seal moisture in. For typical timings, see our post on plaster drying times before painting.

Nearby areas

As well as Cheswick Green, Illshaw Heath and Warings Green, we work in Shirley (see our plasterer in Shirley page), Dickens Heath, Tidbury Green, Hockley Heath, Tanworth-in-Arden and across Solihull. See areas we cover and all plastering and rendering services.

Your Cheswick Green project

The team has 62 years of combined experience. Across the parish, from the first Greaves townhouses to the newest homes at Blythe Valley Park, the plastering we do is usually about putting right what time, family life and earlier work have done to a house. Tell us what you would like done and we will tell you honestly what it needs. Send photos to 07453 614095 on WhatsApp or message us through the contact page, and a free quote will follow.

Cheswick Green homes we plaster

Cheswick Green is a village of 1970s and 80s family homes, with newer estates and countryside around it. Here’s where we work most, the homes you’ll find there and the plastering jobs that come up.

• Cheswick Green village. 1970s and 1980s family homes. Artex ceilings covered and garage conversions.
• Blythe Valley. Newer homes. Board joint cracks and loft rooms.
• Monkspath. 1980s and 1990s estates. Kitchen extensions and cracked plasterboard.
• Tidbury Green. Village houses. Rooms replastered after a rewire.
• Dickens Heath. Apartments and townhouses. Patch repairs after other trades.
• Illshaw Heath. Older homes. Ceilings and extensions.
• Hockley Heath. Village homes. Through lounges and ceilings.

Whatever the house, RCR Connections Ltd puts 62 years of combined experience into it. We’re Birmingham based, covering the whole of the Midlands, and we work Monday to Friday 7am to 5pm and Saturday 7am to 1pm. WhatsApp me on 07453 614095 or message the page with photos of the room and your road or postcode in Cheswick Green.

Outside, we also fit K-Rend monocouche and silicone render for homes around Cheswick Green, see rendering in Shirley. Across the fields, we’re also the plasterer in Dickens Heath.

More services: Plastering repairs · Plastering and coving · Plastering extensions and lofts.

More from RCR Connections Ltd: All plastering and rendering services · Areas we cover