Driveways in Bowburn

Who lives in Bowburn

Bowburn began as a small farming hamlet, named after the shape of the small burn that runs through it. It is in the civil parish of Cassop-cum-Quarrington. The first Bowburn Colliery shaft, sunk in 1840, failed to find workable coal, and a second small pit closed around 1870. The third and best-known Bowburn Colliery was sunk in 1906 by Bell Bros. Ltd. and drew its first coal in 1908. It merged with Tursdale in 1931 and became one of the largest pits in the Durham coalfield, with more than 2,500 workers in the 1950s. The village grew around it, and celebrated its centenary in 2006. Almost nothing of the colliery remains.

Today Bowburn has the Church of Christ the King, the Oak Tree pub on Prince Charles Avenue, a doorstep green and the Bowburn North Industrial Estate. Streets include Broadmeadows, Oakfield Crescent, Brockwell Street and Henry Avenue.

The census area around Broadmeadows (LSOA County Durham 041A) is overwhelmingly semi-detached: 82% of 713 households lived in semis, 11% in detached homes and 6% in terraces. 39% rented from a social landlord, 49% owned their home, and 30% of households had no car. The wider Coxhoe ward (2021 boundaries) was 53% semi-detached and 63% owner-occupied.

Typical Bowburn jobs:

• A first drive on a semi with only a lawn and a path.
• A widened or resurfaced drive on an owner-occupied home.
• Permeable gravel drives, a low-cost option on a budget.
• Parking for tenants, where the housing association agrees.

Because so many Bowburn homes are semis built in pairs, neighbours sometimes do their drives at the same time. Sharing the set-up costs, skip and machinery can bring the price down for both households, and it leaves one neat frontage across both houses.

The ground

The British Geological Survey maps Bowburn on glacial till over the Pennine Middle Coal Measures. Till is firm but slow to drain, so:

1. Dig out the topsoil to firm clay.
2. Lay a geotextile membrane and a compacted crushed-stone sub-base.
3. Fix the edges in concrete.
4. Fall the surface away from the house to a border, a soakaway or a permeable area.

The Environment Agency's flood map shows no mapped flood zone within 300 metres of Broadmeadows, so the centre is in Flood Zone 1.

Permissions

Landlord consent. With almost four in ten homes socially rented, many Bowburn residents need their housing association's written permission before any drive is built. Ask them first. Some have their own approval process and standards.

Planning. A Bowburn conservation area appears in the planning data within about 1.5 km of the centre, so check with Durham County Council if your home is in an older part of the village. Elsewhere, a permeable drive on a house, or one draining to the garden, is permitted development. Impermeable paving over five square metres draining to the road needs planning permission.

The kerb. Durham County Council requires a licence for every new or extended crossing. It costs £171, paid once you have arranged a contractor and before work starts. There is no fee if it is refused, and the approval letter lists registered contractors. See our dropped kerbs page.

Prices in Bowburn

A single drive in front of a semi is often around 15m², and a double about 30m². At Checkatrade's April 2026 UK averages:

• Gravel in a grid: about £60 per m², roughly £900 single or £1,800 double.
• Tarmac: about £90 per m², roughly £1,350 or £2,700.
• Block paving: about £100 per m², roughly £1,500 or £3,000.
• Resin bound: about £120 per m², roughly £1,800 or £3,600.

The £171 licence and the crossing works are extra. Gravel in a grid keeps costs down and is permeable, so no planning permission is needed for a house. Tarmac costs a little more but is easy to sweep and stands up well to a car turning on a small drive.

Places near Bowburn

• Driveways, Shincliffe: North-west along the A177, a conservation village by the Wear.
• Driveways, Belmont: North, a suburb of semis and detached homes.
• Driveways, Gilesgate: North-west towards the city, with terraces and flats.

Practical options in Bowburn: gravel, tarmacadam, kerb dropping.

Full list of areas: Full list.

Questions people ask in Bowburn

Sources: ONS Census 2021, Coxhoe ward and LSOA County Durham 041A (TS044, TS045, TS054 via Nomis); Wikipedia: Bowburn; Planning Data: conservation areas; BGS Geology Viewer, 1:50,000; Environment Agency flood map for planning; Durham County Council: vehicle access over kerbs; GOV.UK: permeable surfacing of front gardens; Checkatrade driveway cost guide (April 2026).