History of the Sash Window

The main innovation of the sash window was the use of a counter balancing weight. Sash windows without counter balancing were produced way before the 17th century. They were originally designed to operate horizontally (Known as a Yorkshire sash) and then later in the vertical, as now, but they would have been heavy to open and were held in place with wedges and stoppers.
The counter balancing idea has not been historically traced but they were well evident towards the end of the 17th century in great houses like Chatsworth and Kensington palace.

Sir Christopher Wren was an ardent fan of the sash window, he was no doubt impressed by its simple but effective principle and they soon became a distinctive feature of Georgian, regency and later Victorian buildings throughout the country.
(There are over 40 million sash windows still in use today in the UK alone)

The development of the sliding sash window in this country was boosted by the events of 1666 with the great fire of London. Most buildings were re-built with sash windows as they were at that time quite a modern window. The city of London introduced regulations stating that windows had to be set back four inches from the face of the building to prevent flames jumping from building to building. This is now a traditional feature of sash windows throughout the country. Building regulations were slow to be implied locally outside of London, in Brighton this was in the early 1800s.

Traditionally made from hard wood such as oak, the design enabled the user to open the window as much or as little as they wished, and in a country prone to wind they had the added advantage of not jutting out like sails catching the wind. Most Victorian and Edwardian sash windows were constructed wholly out of Baltic soft wood.

Early windows had smaller sections of glass (Georgian Sash) with either three six or nine panes of glass per sash. As glass was very expensive to produce during the Georgian period only the wealthiest home owners had large panes of glass which became wide spread during the later part of the Queen Victoria's rule. This is the reason that windows at the top and rear of the property's have glazing bars (Vertical or horizontal strips of wood dividing the glass). Large and ornate panes of glass are now associated with the Edwardian period when ornate large pained windows were highly fashionable.

In upper class homes that were extremely exposed to the elements (Brighton seafront for example) they sometimes fitted double sashes. This consisted of two windows in one, an old age double glazing, Very effective. There are still some fine examples in use today on the Brunswick and Kemptown estates in Brighton.

Sadly as the cost of labour rose, quick to fit mass produced windows came to the fore, but the skills of the sash window maker are still in demand and there will always be a craftsmen somewhere who gets a special thrill from making one of the remaining mechanical devices made from wood.

Rough time line of sash windows in the Brighton / Sussex areas area;
1650 – 1700 hardly any sash windows were fitted in this period locally.
1700 – 1750 multi pained sash windows were now being fitted to larger town house / remodelled Elizabethan frontages to look Georgian and upper class boutiques.
1750 – 1800 Sash windows were starting to be being made with bowed aspects and bays to for let in more light especially in older medieval dating streets.
1800 – 1840 the regency period had made a great impact on the sash window with larger more ornate windows being fitted as wealth had taken it hold on the Sussex coast. These still had multi pained windows.
1840 – 1890 the sash window had taken a more bulky look with horns and large single pained sashes stamping their mark on all of the big Victorian developments. The invention of mass production large panes of glass had architecturally changed the look of windows forever. Most Georgian / regency town houses had the multi pained sashes replaced with large one pained sashes.

1890 -1914 the sash window had now taken the Edwardian look with a mixture of ornate multi pained top sashes (a throwback to Regency period) with large single pained sashes fitted to the bottom of the window.
Post the First World War; due to huge loss of life labour became very expensive so new mass produced windows came to the fore, with the odd exception of a modern mock Georgian property. These were normally made with inferior timber and rotted after only 20 years.

Today uPVC windows are the norm due to their lack of maintenance and cheaper cost. However as far as insulation rates and calculations are concerned traditional timber sash windows easily compete with uPVC replacements when installed with discreet slim line high performance double glazed sashes.