Historic Doors near Alfriston has acquired a pair of Noman arched oak Victorian double doors from the twelfth century and earlier church of St Michael and All Angels in Berwick. The interior was copiously decorated with murals and painted panels by the Bloomsbury group artists Duncan Grant (1885-1978) and Vanessa Bell (1879-1961) Quentin Bell and Angelica Bell, who lived nearby at Charleston in Firle. The doors survived a doodlebug attack during World War II which destroyed much of the east wall and stained glass of the church.
 
Historic Doors supplies and renovates from its 1,500 reclaimed and antique door inventory, makes new doors from old, supplies liners and frames, upcycles and recrafts doors into all sorts of other things, and generally does everything any client could possibly ask.
 
Around 80% of its turnover is in salvaged doors.
 
A Salvo UK wide reclaimed door survey ten years ago found that around two million old doors were thrown away each year, with less than 100,000 saved for reuse. The number being trashed has probably increased now, and the numbers being saved has probably reduced.
 
So hooray for Neil Peters, owner of Historic Doors and his team of craftspeople. Remember that, if he has not got a door of the exact size you need, he can whittle down the size of a larger one, or plant on to increase the size of a smaller one - both of which are not normally hugely expensive. Also, if the panels of a set of doors do not exactly match, no worries. Most older houses had plenty of mismatching doors which you do not tend to notice much - they all add to the interesting history of a building.
 
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Watch out for a forthcoming SalvoNEWS story on stiles and rails - how they got their names.