Patios in Newport Pagnell.

Behind the High Street and Tickford End, many period houses have no front garden at all; the back is reached through yards and lanes. Those lanes are how the slabs and sand get in, so Terry walks the route on the visit and the written price includes barrowing everything through.

A patio at the back of a listed house in the conservation area is rarely a problem, because the rules are mostly about what the street can see. Terry still checks what applies to your house before you choose.

On the Poets Estate, Green Park and the newer streets built since 2016, porcelain is the alternative for anyone who wants a patio that does not stain or fade.

With little parking on the High Street, deliveries to a job in the centre are planned early in the day and a skip goes on the plot or on a permit.

Lathbury, Moulsoe, Sherington and North Crawley, the villages around Newport Pagnell, are covered too, with the same free visit and the same written quote.