Post and rail

What it is

A post and rail fence is about as simple as timber boundary fencing gets. Posts driven or concreted into the ground, with two, three or four horizontal rails running between them, mortised or nailed in place. No panels, no boards, no infill. The fence marks a line; it doesn’t enclose a view.

You’ll see it on paddocks, field boundaries, driveway edges and rural front gardens across East Sussex. It’s the right fence for the job where you want a clear boundary without blocking sightlines or the airflow the field needs.

When post and rail is the right call

• You’re fencing a paddock, field boundary or horse enclosure.
• You want a rural front garden boundary that doesn’t wall the cottage in.
• The line is long and a panel or close-board run would cost four times as much for work the ground doesn’t need.
• You want to keep the view out to the Weald or the downs and a solid fence would spoil it.
• You’re running a driveway edge and need something visible without being a screen.

How we build it

• Chestnut or softwood, cleft or sawn. Cleft chestnut is the traditional rural spec, splits along the grain, no chemical treatment needed and will easily see twenty years. Sawn chestnut is the tidier look. Pressure-treated softwood is the budget option; shorter life but fine for a temporary or short-run boundary.
• Posts either driven or postcreted. On clay or loam a driven post goes in tight and lasts. On sandstone or rocky ground we dig and postcrete. Two or three rails as standard, four for a taller horse fence.
• Rails nailed or mortised. Mortised is the traditional job, slower and stronger. Nailed rails are faster and standard on softwood builds. We’ll tell you which we’d quote for on your run and why.
• Wire stock-netting if needed. If the fence has to keep something in or out, smaller livestock, dogs or deer, we can fit stock netting on the field side before the rails go on.

What it costs

Priced per metre after a site visit, not per panel, because there aren’t any. Length, number of rails, timber choice (cleft chestnut vs sawn vs softwood), ground conditions, corners and gate positions all move the number. We put a written quote in front of you within two working days.

What we won’t do

We won’t fit softwood post and rail and tell you it’s the same as chestnut. It isn’t. Softwood has a shorter life in the ground, even pressure-treated, and on a long field boundary the cost of re-doing it in ten years often outweighs the saving now. We’ll quote for whichever spec you want, but we’ll be straight about the difference.