Gritting and snow clearance in Newdigate

Long drives on flat Wealden clay, cleared and salted by hand from Horley, 4.5 miles away.

Most gritting in Newdigate starts with a question of distance. The parish is overwhelmingly detached houses (the 2011 census found 381 of them against just 26 terraces), so the walk between car and front door can be a long one, and so can the trip out to the bins. Salting the lot is rarely necessary. Salting the right bits, before a frost, makes a real difference.

We’re based in Horley, about 4.5 miles east, on the same heavy ground, so we know how Newdigate’s clay behaves once the cold sets in. It doesn’t drain. Puddles sit on paths and patios for days, and on a clear night they freeze into a glaze that’s hard to spot in the half-light.

Pick the routes, not the whole drive

On a big plot we’d suggest choosing the lines people really walk: car to front door, back door to bins, the path to the garage and the gate the post comes through. We clear any snow off those while it’s still loose, then salt them lightly. Keeping salt to a minimum matters when the drive is edged with lawn and the beds run right alongside. Salty slush pushed onto grass turns up as brown strips in April, so we leave cleared snow on hard ground where it can melt without harm.

Gritting in Newdigate’s school, pubs and farm yards

The village has more places where people arrive on foot on a cold morning than you’d guess. There’s the infant school, where children as young as two come through the gate with their parents. There are two old pubs with big gardens and paths to match, the listed church and its churchyard, and farm buildings let out for storage. HSE expects anyone running a workplace to manage slip risk on outdoor routes in ice and snow. We’ll agree which entrances, ramps and car parks to cover, write it down, and turn up when the forecast drops.

Gritting in Newdigate: your questions

Anything else, just ring. You’ll speak to the people who do the work.

Our patio floods every winter. Can you stop it icing over?

We can’t change the clay, but we can stop most of that surface water freezing. Salt laid the evening before a frost keeps a shallow puddle from setting. A hollow that holds water all winter is a drainage problem, though, and salt only ever treats the top.

What if we’re away when a cold snap arrives?

That’s fine. As long as we can reach the paths, we’ll get on with it and send you a message once it’s done.

Is it worth booking for just a couple of frosty weeks?

Yes. You don’t have to sign up for the whole winter. Ring when a cold snap is forecast and we’ll fit you in as soon as we can, or agree a list at the start of the season if you’d rather not think about it.