Wooden Driveway Gates
in Dorking.

Dorking wooden gates are shaped by three overlapping contexts: the Surrey Hills AONB coverage that applies across the town and surrounding parishes, the Dorking Town Centre conservation area in the historic core, and the sloped-driveway geometry that the North Downs gap produces on almost every residential street. The residential stock includes substantial Victorian and Edwardian detached property on the slopes off the A24, period cottages and former coaching-inn buildings in the centre, and rural properties on the lanes out towards Westcott, Holmwood, and Capel where the Low Weald clay takes over from the chalk.

Specifying a wooden gate for a sloped Dorking driveway is a different engineering problem from doing the same job on a flat site. Hinge-post loading changes along the swing arc because the gate is raising and lowering against gravity as it opens; standard-depth post foundations on a 5-degree or steeper slope will move within the first few seasons. Every installer we refer in Dorking specifies deeper post foundations as standard on sloped sites and designs the hinge geometry to match the specific approach. Oak is the dominant timber, with iroko on larger spans and Accoya on exposed positions towards Leith Hill.