Oven cleaning in Farningham, DA4, the old coaching village just south of the A20. Dip-tank method, seven days a week, single ovens from £77.
The ancient ford here was replaced by a bridge in 1773, and that bridge was widened in 1833, when the number of stagecoaches coming through was at its peak. Beside it stands the cattle screen, a rare survival, thrown across the Darent around the middle of the 1700s to stop livestock wandering up or downstream. The Lion Hotel at the bridge is Grade II listed, one of the inns built for the coach trade.
The village has been bypassed twice
London to Kent traffic funnelled through here hard enough that an early bypass was built north of the village in the mid-1920s, and in 1977 the M20 was extended from Wrotham to Swanley and did the job a second time. Sevenoaks District's appraisal is direct about the result: taking the through traffic out changed the character of the place. There is still no station. Eynsford and Farningham Road are both under two miles off.
Most of the houses arrived between 1950 and 1970
New dwellings went up on the southern side of the village after the war and the population nearly doubled between the 1950s and the 1970s, some of them designed by Jessica Albery, a resident and an early pioneering female architect who had already done the Village Hall in the 1930s and who rebuilt parts of the Manor House afterwards. Kitchens of that vintage usually run to a fitted oven with a hood over the hob, so the extractor hood in a post-war house on the southern side is £28 on top of the oven. The eighteenth-century end of the High Street is another proposition, rows and terraces, some of them three storeys.
The list, and it does not move
Prices are fixed and given on the phone. No premium-area surcharge on DA4.
| Single oven | £77 |
| Double oven | £110 |
| Range cooker, 90cm | £114 |
| Two-oven AGA | £143 |
| Hob | £23–28 |
| Extractor hood | £28 |
| Microwave | £22 |
The tank sits in the van, not in your kitchen
Racks, shelves, trays and side runners come out and soak there. Cavity, fan cover and door glass are degreased by hand indoors with non-caustic products, so the room does not smell of chemicals once we have gone, and the oven is heat-tested and signed off first.
Questions from Farningham
Do you charge extra for coming out to DA4?
No. The figure on the phone is the figure.
Can you work in a three-storey terrace on the High Street?
Yes. The parts go down to the van and back up again. The stairs are our problem, not yours.
Is the oven ready to use the same day?
Yes. It is heat-tested before we leave.
Can you do the hob as well?
Hob £23–28, at the same visit. Say so when you book.
Reviews from our rounds
Very satisfied with the service. They were slightly late at first but I got a call from customer service to let me know, and it was all fine. The oven man, as he called himself, arrived and worked very hard for a couple of hours. My oven now looks like it has never been used.
Nice hardworking lads that always do a good job. We used them for our old flat when moving out and for the new one now, both jobs were done very professionally. My wife is very impressed with the results and would recommend them to friends and family.
Once again a great job guys, I will see you in a couple of months.
Farningham on the map
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Leytonstone High Road · Whitefoot · Kentish Town · Willesden · New Ash Green · Ruislip
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Call 020 8077 5225 and the Farningham price is fixed on the spot.