I crawled on a bathmat to hide from my neighbours – now I’ve got a privacy fence & can hang washing out in my knickers
LOVE them or hate them, you can’t get rid of neighbours.
But like Emma Parsons-Reid, you could block them out — with a privacy fence.
More and more of us are keen to keep prying eyes from our gardens, with 60 per cent of our readers suffering disputes with the people next door.
Typically far higher and often made from sturdier materials than a standard fence, privacy fences are rising in popularity — and causing no end of rows between neighbours.
Emma, 56, from Ely, Cardiff, has assembled her own barrier after growing tired of hiding from her chatty neighbours.
The retired civil servant says: “My elderly neighbour put up a tiny 3ft fence because she likes to talk all the time.
“The back doors face each other, which means I can’t use my back door without knowing she will have hers open.
“As lovely as she is, sometimes I’m in a hurry and think, ‘Oh God, here we go’.
“I’ve had to open the door and put a bath mat down and crawl on my hands and knees along the floor to avoid a conversation.
“Sometimes you have time to talk, but she’ll have you standing out there whatever the weather.
“If it’s really windy, or freezing, our house will be cold by the time I’ve shut the back door after talking to her. It’s just exhausting.”
Now Emma and husband Kevin, 62, a retired chemical engineer, are happy to shell out as much as £2,000 to replace their neighbour’s tiny fence with something twice as tall.
She says: “I like to go out in my bra and pants and put washing on the line without being exposed.
“It’s my home and I should be able to do what I want, where I want.
“If I want to sunbathe topless in my garden, I should be able to do it without worrying.
“I have got to have some privacy.
“I can’t stand it. So we’re getting it done.
“We told our neighbour that we’ll replace the fence that’s there because it’s got holes in and needs changing.
“We said not to worry, as we will pay for it.
“We’re going to up it to at least 6ft.”
Privacy fences have rocketed in popularity for suburban households, with a recent Fabulous poll showing almost 50 per cent of people would put one up to minimise intrusion.
But Emma explains there is more to her decision than meets the eye.
She says her street has changed dramatically since the Covid pandemic, with new faces cropping up, making her uneasy.
Emma adds: “I have been living on this street for 17 years, since I married Kevin.
“But it’s seen a lot of changes in the last three years.
“We’ve got a lot of children now living here, which has been a shock because it has been predominantly middle-aged and older.
“Life goes on and they are all lovely people, but I am now surrounded by new neighbours.”
Previously dubbing herself “Britain’s nosiest neighbour”, Emma admitted she has formerly bombarded her street’s WhatsApp group with her observations about their comings and goings.
But now she needs people to respect her privacy.
Emma says: “I suppose it makes me look two-faced.
“I am known to be Britain’s nosiest neighbour, but I need my own fortress.
“I want to be able to go out in my pyjamas and not worry about the neighbours seeing me.
“I want to be able to call it my own little bit of land.
“I don’t want to share it, I just want to be cut off.
“I am very sociable and I am very community-minded.
“But I want to pull up my drawbridge and have my own privacy.
“Every extrovert has days where they are very insular and private.”
While Emma is hoping her new fence will not cause too many issues, for some homeowners they can be a real bone of contention.
June Woodward, a retired healthcare worker, and husband Peter, a retired engineer, wanted to put up a privacy fence when they moved into their semi-detached home in Iver Heath, Bucks, ten years ago.
But their neighbours were not keen, preferring to use existing bushes and trees to maintain a divide between their gardens.
Peter and June decided to compromise by spending £1,500 on erecting a lower, 3ft fence.
But now the bushes have grown taller than the proposed privacy fence, reaching more than 6ft, while the trees are over 20ft, leaving the couple with little sunlight.
“When we moved in, the back garden didn’t have a fence between our house and the neighbours’,” says June, 74.
“There were bushes but, with three rescue dogs and open fields at the back, we wanted security.
“Bushes don’t keep our dogs in or out of other people’s gardens.
“We suggested putting up a standard privacy fence and things got heated.
“So we spent £1,500 on a 3ft fence, trying to respect his desire for low bushes on his side.
“Now, to our horror, the bushes have grown over 6ft.”
Peter, 75, adds: “We respected his request for a low fence and then spent £1,500 on it, only to now see his bushes even taller.
“We have had to spend more money on extendable clippers to control the bushes that come on to our side.
“We laugh about it, it’s not worth getting angry.”