Man and Van in Fordwich

Fordwich is not on the way to anywhere, which is part of its charm and most of the difficulty. The streets are narrow, several run close to the water, and there is nowhere for a large vehicle to turn once it has committed to the wrong one. We work the approach out on a map before the day, not from the cab.

In practice that usually means the van stops at the nearest point that lets it get out again, and we carry from there. It is worth knowing in advance rather than discovering at the point where a Luton is reversing back up a lane it should not have entered.

A great many homes here are old, and a fair number are listed, which raises the stakes on every scuff. Stairs turn sharply, beams sit low enough to catch a wardrobe corner, and doorways were cut long before anyone was buying furniture in the sizes sold today.

We take things apart rather than force them, protect the beams and door frames before anything heavy comes through, and go slowly at the turns. Where a piece genuinely will not go up a staircase in any configuration, we will tell you that when we look rather than after we have marked the wall finding out.

The addresses nearest the quay and the water have the least room of all, and the ground by the river can be soft after a wet spell. A fully loaded van parked on the wrong verge is a problem that takes a tractor to solve, so we keep off ground we do not trust.

None of this makes a move here difficult, it just makes it a planned one. Tell us the address when you ask and we will say plainly how close we expect to get and how long the carry is likely to be.