Driveways in Copmanthorpe, York

The traders' village

The Domesday Book of 1086 records the village as Copemantorp, from the Old Norse for a village of traders or craftsmen. The Roman road from York to Tadcaster ran just north of the centre, along what are now Top Lane, Hallcroft Lane and Colton Lane. In the Middle Ages the Knights Templar had a preceptory here, and later the Vavasour family lived in the village for around three centuries. During the First World War a Royal Flying Corps airfield sat near what is still called Drome Road.

The old village follows Main Street and Church Street, with St Giles' Church, the Royal Oak, the library, the Methodist church and a few listed houses. Around it, the village grew outwards in the second half of the 20th century with estates of detached houses and bungalows on roads such as St Giles Way, Wilstrop Farm Road, Back Lane and Westfield Court. The A64 forms a hard edge to the north, and the railway runs along the south-east side.

Detached homes and two-car households

Across the Copmanthorpe ward, the 2021 Census found:

• 66% were detached houses or bungalows, 21% semis and 12% terraces, with almost no flats.
• 87% were owner-occupied, and more than half were owned outright.
• 49% of households had two or more cars or vans; only 10% had none.

The area around Main Street and the streets just south of it (LSOA York 024E, 513 households) is even more striking: 75% detached, 92% owned, and 55% of households with two or more vehicles.

So most enquiries here are about drives that already exist:

• Replacing a tired drive laid when the house was built, often cracked concrete or faded block paving.
• Making room for a third car, a caravan or a motorhome beside the house.
• Tidying up the frontage of a bungalow, sometimes with a ramp or level access to the door.
• Choosing a drive to suit a stone or brick house on Main Street.

Gravelly clay ground

The BGS maps the centre of the village on the Vale of York Formation, a gravelly sandy clay left by the ice sheet, over Sherwood Sandstone. Clay with stones in it can be firm to build on, but water drains through it slowly. That changes how we plan a drive:

• Permeable surfaces need a deeper open-graded stone base to hold water while it soaks away, or a drain to a soakaway or border.
• Tarmac and close-jointed paving need proper falls and somewhere for the water to go that isn't the road or the house.
• Trial holes come first, because the clay content varies from plot to plot.

Flood risk is low in the village itself. The Environment Agency map shows very little Flood Zone 2 or 3 land near the centre, mainly along Town Ings Drain. Surface water after heavy rain is the more common problem on flat clay ground, and good drainage on the drive helps keep it away from the house.

The conservation area

The Copmanthorpe Conservation Area was designated in 1978 and covers Main Street, Church Street and Low Green. Listed buildings close to the centre include the Church of St Giles, 4 and 6 Main Street, Ashfield Grange, Oak Lea and an old milestone, all Grade II.

If your home is in the conservation area:

• ask City of York Council's planning team before removing boundary walls, hedges or railings to open up the frontage,
• think about surfaces that suit the older houses, such as clay pavers, setts or a bound gravel,
• keep listed buildings in mind; changes to their setting or boundary can need listed building consent.

Outside it, a new front drive that is permeable, or drains to your own garden, is permitted development. Impermeable paving over five square metres draining to the road needs planning permission.

Kerbs and crossings

A new or wider crossing needs City of York Council's approval. York charges £263 for an approved crossing, £131.50 to improve an existing one and £63 for a refusal, none refundable. Many Copmanthorpe homes already have a crossing, but widening it for a second or third car still needs an application. See our dropped kerbs page.

What affects the price in Copmanthorpe

We visit, measure and look at the ground before quoting, and the quote is fixed for the work we agree. In Copmanthorpe these points make the biggest difference:

• Size. Detached plots often mean long or double-width drives, and the area drives the materials and the time.
• The clay. Slow-draining ground can need a deeper base, a soakaway or a channel drain.
• What's there now. Lifting old paving or concrete and taking it away is a job in itself.
• Access and levels. Steps, ramps for level access and changes in height around the house all add work.
• The kerb. If the crossing needs widening, the council's approval and the highway works sit alongside the drive.

Neighbouring areas

• Driveways in Bishopthorpe: The next village east, towards the Ouse.
• Driveways in Dringhouses: North-east along Tadcaster Road, on the edge of the city.
• Driveways in Acomb: North across the A64 and the ring road, a large suburb of semis.

Surfaces often chosen in Copmanthorpe: block paving, tarmac, gravel.

All the areas we cover: Where we work.

Questions people ask in Copmanthorpe

Sources: ONS Census 2021, Copmanthorpe ward and LSOA York 024E (TS044, TS045, TS054 via Nomis); Wikipedia: Copmanthorpe; Planning Data: conservation areas and listed buildings; BGS Geology Viewer, 1:50,000; Environment Agency flood map for planning; City of York Council: dropped kerbs and vehicle access; GOV.UK: permeable surfacing of front gardens.