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Queen's Park, Heywood
A Victorian park in the middle of town with a bandstand, a boating lake, bowling greens and a good playground, restored with lottery money.
Learn more about Queen's Park, HeywoodMiddleton, M24 - covering Manchester, Rochdale, Oldham and Bury
Heywood is the next town along from us - Hopwood runs straight into Middleton - so we are on site in Heywood more often than almost anywhere else. It is a town of solid red-brick terraces off Bury Street and Rochdale Road, big interwar semis around Queen's Park, the Darnhill estate to the south-west and a wave of new-build estates that have gone up around the edges in the last fifteen years. Each of those needs a slightly different approach to a driveway, and after twenty years here we have done all of them.
No obligation
Scott usually rings back the same working day.
About Heywood
Heywood was a mill town with a canal branch of its own, and the older housing reflects it - tight terraces on the streets running off Bury Street and Bridge Street, many with small walled fronts that people are now converting into off-road parking as the town's traffic gets worse. The houses around Queen's Park and along Bury Old Road are bigger, mostly interwar semis and detached homes with long front gardens where there is room to do something more generous than a strip of tarmac. Darnhill, built in the 1960s as a Manchester overspill estate, has plenty of driveways that were laid in concrete at the time and have since cracked and dropped. Then there is the newer stock - Hopwood, the estates off Pilsworth Road and towards the distribution park - where the builder's drive is often the first thing an owner wants to replace.
The ground across Heywood is glacial clay over Coal Measures, much like the rest of the borough, with softer wet ground near the Roch at Heap Bridge and along the old canal line. It is not difficult ground to build on, but it punishes shortcuts. Rochdale borough is also one of the wetter parts of Greater Manchester, so drainage is not an afterthought on any drive we lay here - it is planned before the first block goes down.
20+
Years Laying Drives
Middleton and North Manchester
7
Surface Types
Resin to porcelain, one crew
Free
Site Visits & Quotes
Written, itemised, fixed
10 yr
Guarantee
In writing, terms and conditions apply
Services
From £70/m²
Resin bound stone laid over a properly built permeable base. Smooth, weed-free and SuDS compliant without a planning application.
Learn more about Resin Driveways
From £60/m²
Herringbone, basketweave or stretcher bond in clay or concrete block, cut in tight to edges and kerbs. The driveway Middleton asks for most.
Learn more about Block Paving
From £45/m²
Hot-rolled tarmacadam with a proper binder course underneath, framed in block or kerb edging. The most cost-effective surface for bigger drives.
Learn more about Tarmac Driveways
From £65/m²
Pattern imprinted concrete in slate, cobble and flagstone textures, colour hardened and sealed. One continuous slab, nowhere for weeds to start.
Learn more about Printed Concrete
From £75/m²
Patios built on a full mortar bed with falls set away from the house, steps, retaining walls and drainage included in the design.
Learn more about Patio Installation
From £80/m²
Calibrated Indian sandstone in Raj Green, Kandla Grey, Fossil Mint and Autumn Brown, laid on a full bed and pointed with a resin jointing compound.
Learn more about Indian Sandstone
From £95/m²
20mm vitrified porcelain slabs primed and laid on a wet bed for a patio that will not stain, fade or green over through a Manchester winter.
Learn more about Porcelain PavingAlso
Excavation, footings, soakaways, retaining walls and steps. Usually part of a drive or patio job, sometimes the whole job.
Why us in Heywood
“More than half of the new-build drives we replace in Heywood were laid on less than 100mm of sub-base by the original developer.”
Based on jobs handled by S P Groundworks & Driveways.
The guarantee
A driveway is a structure. The part you see - the block, the resin, the tarmac - is 50 to 60mm of the 250mm we build, and it is the 200mm underneath that decides whether it is still flat in ten years. So our guarantee is written around the bit that matters: the excavation depth, the compacted MOT Type 1 base, the edge restraints haunched in concrete and the falls that move water off the surface. If any of that lets you down inside the ten years, we come back and put it right at our cost. Terms and conditions apply, and you get them on paper before we start, not after.
20+
Years in the trade
The same name, the same phone number, the same man on site
10 yr
10-year guarantee on every job
Terms and conditions apply. Handed over in writing at the final walk-round, kept on file at our end too
How we work
Most of what goes wrong with a drive goes wrong in steps three to five, which is why they are the ones we spend the longest on.
Scott comes out, measures up, looks at what is under the existing surface and how the ground drains. On Heywood clay that visit is where the real decisions get made.
Excavation depth, sub-base spec, edging, drainage and the surface all listed with a fixed total. The price on the paper is the price you pay.
The old surface comes out completely. We dig to the depth the ground needs - never less than 150mm of MOT Type 1 for a drive - and compact it in layers with a plate or roller.
Kerbs, block edging or aluminium trims are bedded and haunched in concrete before anything is laid, so the finished surface cannot spread or rock.
Linear channels, gullies and soakaways go in now, with falls set so water leaves the surface and stays inside your boundary as the rules require.
Screeded sand and machine-cut block, hot-rolled tarmac, hand-trowelled resin or floated and stamped concrete - laid by the same crew that did the groundwork.
We walk the job with you, sweep and sand-in or seal as the surface needs, take the waste away and hand over the ten-year written guarantee before we leave.
Want to see the steps on a real job? The projects page has every one of them photographed on the day we finished.
Drag to compare
Two of our own jobs, photographed the day we arrived and the day we left. Slide the handle.

Resin
Tired block to resin with a feature sweep
Sunken block paving lifted, base rebuilt, silver resin with a hand-laid charcoal sweep

Resin
Tired flags to a silver resin yard
Cracked council flags out, drainage sorted, silver resin bound with a charcoal block edge
Out and about
Block paving can be walked on straight away, but resin needs a day and tarmac wants an afternoon. Three good reasons to be out of the house.
01
A Victorian park in the middle of town with a bandstand, a boating lake, bowling greens and a good playground, restored with lottery money.
Learn more about Queen's Park, Heywood02
Heritage steam and diesel trains run from Heywood station along the line to Bury, Ramsbottom and Rawtenstall most weekends.
Learn more about East Lancashire Railway03
Wooded walks along the Naden Brook between Heywood and Norden, with waterfalls, an old chapel and views back over the town.
Learn more about Ashworth ValleyWhere we work
We are based on Ennerdale Road in Middleton, M24. Site visits across Heywood are free and usually within a few days of your call.
Video
Short phone clips from the day each job finished. Silent until you tap one.
Reviews
“Scott and his lads did my driveway this week and did a brilliant job. They turned up when they said they would and finished the job on time. No messing and no BS. The lads liked their tea and were friendly. Great job, great price and great team.”
Michael I.
New driveway · Google review
“Scott gave us good honest advice from the first visit. The completed job was exactly what we wanted with a high quality finish and lots of comments from friends and family. Definitely went above and beyond, and for a very reasonable price.”
Sarah
Middleton · Block paved driveway
“Brilliant work done by the team. Completed the work in a timely manner, very neat and professional. Would highly recommend.”
Sajida R.
Manchester · New driveway · Google review
“Scott has amazing team and so quick really excellent work.”
Jacqueline O.
Google review
“Scott and his team arrived early, worked through and finished the whole drive by Sunday. Excellent workmanship at a competitive price - we could not be happier.”
Lesley
Heywood · Resin driveway
“Ian at SP created a driveway for us that surpassed our expectations. A fantastic, clean, exact job. He is a credit to the company.”
Laurie
Chadderton · Tarmac and block driveway
Rated 5.0 out of 5 from 4 reviews on Google. Read more on our reviews page or the Facebook page.
Pricing in Heywood
Our per-metre rates are the same in Heywood as they are in Middleton - there is no travel loading. Tarmac from £45/m², block paving from £60, printed concrete from £65, resin bound from £70, Indian sandstone from £80 and porcelain from £95, all including excavation and the base. Use the slider for a range, then book the free visit for a fixed figure.
What moves the price up or down →Instant guide price
Pick a surface and slide to your approximate area. A typical two-car drive is 40 to 50m²; a rear patio is often 20 to 35m².
Guide price range
£2,700 to £4,050
Includes excavation, sub-base, edging and the surface. Excludes VAT where applicable, retaining walls and dropped kerb fees. Every real quote follows a free site visit.
FAQ
Almost never for a normal house. Rochdale Borough Council is the planning authority for Heywood, and the national rule applies: a new front drive needs no application if the surface is permeable or the water drains to your own lawn, border or soakaway. Everything we lay is designed to meet that. If your house is listed or in one of the borough's conservation areas we will flag it before we quote.
For a typical two-car semi front, tarmac starts from around £45 per square metre, block paving from around £60 and resin bound from around £70, all including excavation and the sub-base. A full breakdown is on our driveway cost page, and every quote we give is written, itemised and fixed.
Yes, and it is usually cheaper that way because the digger, the skips and the crew are already on site. A lot of our Heywood work is a block paved front with an Indian sandstone or porcelain patio out the back, done as one project over a week or so.
Not if it is built to drain. Heywood sits in one of the wetter boroughs in Greater Manchester, so every drive we build here either drains through itself (resin bound, permeable block) or has a linear channel at the low edge connected to a soakaway or the surface water drain. The base underneath is compacted in layers so it does not soften and sink when the ground is saturated.
Service area
Scott will come out, look at the ground and the old surface, and give you a written fixed quote. No pressure, no sales patter, and no obligation to go ahead.