Oakhill is a Mendip village of stone cottages, farmhouses and converted barns about 2.6 miles north-east of Shepton Mallet. We have worked in Oakhill and neighbouring Holcombe this year, on everything from a full board change at a former vicarage to a single stairwell light. This page covers that work and the villages across the Mendip top around it.
The villages around Oakhill sit high on Mendip in quarrying country, with stone cottages, farms and converted barns making up most of the housing. Oakhill's closest neighbours are Ashwick, Holcombe, Binegar and Gurney Slade, and the wider patch runs out to Stoke St Michael and Leigh-on-Mendip in the east and to Emborough, Ston Easton and Chewton Mendip in the north and west. Two main roads frame it: the A37 heading north from Shepton Mallet past Ston Easton, and the A39 running north-east from Wells through Chewton Mendip.
Because the area is rural and the houses are old, the jobs have a pattern to them. Older boards in large houses, lighting in awkward places, outbuildings on farms and smallholdings, and faults on circuits that have been altered several times over the decades.
Big period houses carry big electrical installations, and they often still have the board that was fitted decades ago. At a former vicarage in Oakhill this year, the board was an old plastic consumer unit where only some circuits shared RCD protection. We replaced it with:
On the same job we upgraded the fire detection and fitted external lighting. In a house of that size, interlinked detection matters: a fire in a far room needs to sound an alarm everywhere, not just where it starts.
New boards we fit are always metal enclosures, which is why the plastic board had to go rather than be added to. The price of a board replacement depends mainly on the number of circuits, and the survey sets the figure. See the Shepton Mallet fuse board page for the full specification.
Old houses on Mendip often have tall stairwells and high ceilings, and replacing a light in those places is a job about access more than wiring. Also in Oakhill, we replaced a stairwell light using large access ladders set up over the stairwell. The light was on two-way switching, meaning it could be switched from the top and the bottom of the stairs, so the replacement had to keep both switch positions working correctly.
We do not stand ladders on stairs without a proper set-up. If a job needs access equipment, we say so when we price it, so the cost and the time are clear before we arrive.
Holcombe sits near Oakhill and produced two very different jobs this year.
Six downlights and their dimmer needed to move to the other end of a two-way lighting circuit. Two-way circuits carry extra conductors between the switch positions, so moving the dimmer is not just a case of swapping it with the switch at the other end; the wiring at both ends has to be reworked so the lights still switch from both places and the dimmer controls them properly.
On a call-out to a socket circuit that kept tripping, we tested the circuit in sections to find where the fault was. Once the faulty length of cable was found, we removed it and fed the sockets from the other end, which put the circuit back into use without lifting the whole floor.
Our electrician in Shepton Mallet page covers this kind of work across Oakhill and the surrounding villages.
Much of the property up here comes with land and buildings: barns, stores, workshops and garages. The work that comes with them is fairly consistent. Supplies in armoured cable from the house board, metal-clad sockets that will take knocks, lighting that works in cold and damp, and security floodlights fixed to stone walls with a proper way of isolating them. Converted barns need the same care as any home, plus attention to the supply length from the meter.
Charge points are covered on our Shepton Mallet EV charger page. The price depends on the charger you choose, the length of the run and any board work, and the written quote includes the charger.
Oakhill and the villages on this page are served by our Shepton Mallet pages:
The Shepton Mallet area page covers the town itself.
Stoke St Michael is about 1.8 miles east of Oakhill and about 3.5 miles north-east of Shepton Mallet. Like its neighbours it is a high Mendip village of stone cottages and farms in quarrying country. Typical work is replacing older boards with RCBO boards, inspections when houses change hands, and supplies to outbuildings and workshops. There is more on the village on our Stoke St Michael page.
Leigh-on-Mendip is about 3.3 miles east of Oakhill and about 5.0 miles north-east of Shepton Mallet, out towards the eastern end of this patch. Its stone cottages and farmhouses tend to need the same things: a proper look at an ageing board, earthing and bonding brought up to date, and outdoor supplies run in armoured cable. Where a cottage still has rubber-insulated or very early cable in places, an inspection will show which circuits need replacing.
Binegar lies about 1.8 miles north-west of Oakhill and about 3.7 miles north of Shepton Mallet. Homes are mostly stone cottages and farm properties, and the jobs follow from that: lighting and sockets added to older houses, interlinked smoke and heat alarms fitted without lifting floors using wireless interlink, and supplies to barns and stores.
Gurney Slade is the closest to Oakhill of the villages listed here, about 1.4 miles to the north-west and about 3.6 miles north of Shepton Mallet. Its stone houses often have boards and wiring that have been added to several times. That is the kind of installation where a fault on one circuit can be hard to trace, and where an inspection gives a clear list of what is sound and what is not.
Emborough is about 2.7 miles north-west of Oakhill and about 5.3 miles north-east of Wells. It is a small high Mendip settlement of farms and stone cottages. Work here is usually about distance and weather: long armoured supplies to farm buildings, outdoor sockets and lighting rated for exposed walls, and charge points where the parking area is some way from the house and the cable route needs planning across the property.
Ston Easton lies about 4.1 miles north of Oakhill, on the A37 north of Shepton Mallet, and is known for Ston Easton Park. Houses in and around the village include period stone properties and farm buildings, and the work tends towards inspections, board upgrades and careful rewiring where original finishes need protecting. For a listed or heritage house we price an inspection after a walk-round rather than from the standard rate.
Chewton Mendip sits on the A39 on the Mendip top, about 4.2 miles north-west of Oakhill and about 5.6 miles north-east of Wells. It is the furthest of these villages from Oakhill, and is covered on the same basis. Typical requests are board replacements, kitchen and extension circuits, outdoor power and charge points. Each one starts with a survey or a phone consult with photos, followed by a written fixed price.
Doulting lies about 2.6 miles south of Oakhill and about 1.9 miles east of Shepton Mallet on the A361. The freestone quarried around the village was used to build Wells Cathedral, and the village has its own tithe barn. Its stone cottages and farmhouses need cable routes planned around solid walls. See our Doulting page for more on the village.
Real work, anonymised to the village name only.
Leave your details and a line about the job. We will ring you back to talk it through and arrange a survey or a written price.
Yes. Ashwick and Holcombe are Oakhill's neighbours and are covered on the same terms, and we have worked in Holcombe this year. The wider area runs from Stoke St Michael and Leigh-on-Mendip across to Chewton Mendip and Ston Easton. Every job gets a written fixed price.
Older plastic boards often protect only some circuits with RCDs, or none at all, and the new boards we fit are metal enclosures with a Type A RCBO on every circuit. That means every circuit has its own earth-fault and overload protection, and one fault does not switch off the rest of the house. We also fit surge protection and AFDDs on bedroom socket circuits. An inspection will tell you whether replacement is needed now.
Usually, yes. If the lights are on two-way switching, the wiring at both switch positions has to be reworked so the dimmer works properly and the lights still switch from both places. We did exactly this in Holcombe, moving six downlights and their dimmer to the other end of a two-way circuit.
We isolate and test the circuit in sections to find where the fault is, rather than guessing. Sometimes it is an appliance, sometimes a damaged accessory, sometimes a length of cable. Where a section of cable is at fault, it can often be removed and the sockets fed from another point.
With proper access equipment set up over the stairwell, never a ladder balanced on the stairs. We used large access ladders for a stairwell light in Oakhill this year. If a job needs access equipment, we include it in the price so there are no surprises.
Priced by the job, not by the hour. A written, fixed price after a survey, NAPIT certification on every notifiable job.
07889 334849