Thirteen miles down the A2 from Chatham. Brickworkers' terraces in Milton Regis and Murston, the 1924 garden village at Kemsley, and new estates out towards Iwade: a town that was built on brick.
Sittingbourne
The High Street, Highsted, Woodstock Road and Chalkwell sit on chalk. Milton Regis, Murston, Snipeshill, Bapchild and Borden are on Thanet Formation sand, with a belt of brickearth to the south and west of Milton. North of the town, around Iwade, Bobbing and Kemsley, the ground turns to London Clay, which the British Geological Survey describes as very susceptible to shrinking and swelling with tree roots.
That divide matters for foundations. On chalk and sand a standard trench usually does. On London Clay near trees, building control will want the footing taken deeper, so a builder needs to know which you have before pricing the job.
The houses tell the town's story. The High Street was largely rebuilt in red brick in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Milton Regis has a timber-framed core and Victorian terraces on Union Road, Crown Road and St Pauls Street built for brickworks staff. Murston has 1860s workers' houses built by George Smeed, and Kemsley was built as a garden village with the paper mill in 1924.
Permissions
Swale Borough Council
Sittingbourne is in Swale, not Medway. Swale Borough Council decides planning applications, and building control is provided by STG Building Control, the same partnership that serves Medway, Gravesham and Canterbury. The Sittingbourne and Milton Regis conservation areas both cover parts of the town, and Milton Regis has one of the highest concentrations of listed buildings in the borough. In July 2026 Swale made an Article 4 direction bringing house-to-HMO conversions in parts of the borough under planning control. Crown Quay Lane, at the head of Milton Creek, is in Flood Zone 3.
Services in Sittingbourne
Rear extensions on Victorian terraces in Milton Regis and Murston, where the kitchen is the narrowest room in the house.
→Footings on the London Clay around Iwade and Kemsley, taken to the depth the ground and nearby trees need.
→Re-roofing older terraces in natural slate or clay tile rather than concrete, which the conservation appraisals single out as harmful.
→Loft conversions on the Kemsley and Great Easthall houses.
→Matching the local red brick on the High Street and in Milton Regis.
→Timber sash windows and panelled doors for period houses, the details the Milton Regis appraisal asks owners to keep.
→Common projects
Sittingbourne is about 22 minutes from Gillingham on the A2 or the A249. Let us know which of these you are planning and we'll pass it to builders who work in Sittingbourne.
Questions
Get quotes
A rough idea and a postcode is enough. We'll pass it to local builders who cover Sittingbourne, and they'll contact you directly.