Dark Bicester stone homes answered by skylights or rooflights
A market town of twin settlements by the River Bure, with stone and tile at its core and post-war housing around it: here is which skylight or rooflight suits each roof.
Stone streets by the Bure and the housing built after the garrison
In the Cherwell district of Oxfordshire, Bicester is a civil parish and market town. It began as twin settlements on opposite banks of the River Bure, sat on two Roman roads and grew again in the twentieth century when a military airfield and an ordnance depot arrived. The old centre has a local market, independent shops and a conservation area. Everything built after the garrison years surrounds it. The two groups of roof ask for different glass, so here they are in turn.
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Limestone, ironstone and clay-tile houses in the old centre
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Homes built as the town grew around the garrison
The historic buildings were made from stone dug close to the town: grey oolitic limestone, ginger ironstone from the Banbury area, and the white and bluish cornbrash quarried nearby. Some are brick or local rubble walling. Roofs are clay plain tiles in red, with blue slate brought in from north Wales once canals and railways made the haulage cheap. Under those steep slopes sit attic rooms that were never planned for daylight. A conservation rooflight has a slim frame and sits low in the covering, so the street sees a roof and the room sees the sky.
The airfield opened in 1917 and the depot in 1942, and the housing that followed them in the post-war years gave the town its larger ring of estates. They are houses on regular plots, with garages, porches and extensions added over time. Back gardens meet back gardens along a fence line, so a ground-floor window looks at boards while the roof above looks at the open sky. A roof window opens a loft to that sky, and a sun tunnel brings daylight to an inside landing or hall.
Two dark spaces in a Bicester house and the roof above them
A landing with no window and a fence beyond
The stairwell is the darkest part of a two-storey house.
Sideways
Where the stair turns and the landing runs between bedrooms, there may be no outside wall to put a window in. Where there is one, it looks over a side passage to the fence of the next plot. The light that reaches the landing is the glow from open bedroom doors, and when they close the stairwell turns to dusk.
That has a practical cost. People feel for the switch at the top of the stairs at seven in the morning, and carry washing and children down steps they cannot see well.
A taller window does not help here. The thing in front of the glass is the fence, and it stays the same height whatever the window does.
Straight up
A sun tunnel takes the sky and brings it into the stairwell. A clear dome on the roof catches daylight and a reflective tube passes it down through the loft; at the landing ceiling a diffuser spreads it as a soft, even circle. Straight up is clear, so the dome has bright sky to draw on whatever stands at the boundary.
If the roof void above the landing is wide enough, a small fixed roof window may suit better. It lights the stairwell from a larger pane and gives the loft a source of daylight too, which helps if the roof space is ever used for storage or a room.
The survey checks the line from roof to ceiling, since insulation, pipework and the position of rafters all decide which route the tube can take.
On the clay-tiled roofs found in the older streets, the dome has to sit well with the covering, and the flashing has to be made for that tile profile. The surveyor records the tile type and the pitch, so the right flashing kit is on the van on the day.
Stairwells in older houses are tight, with steep flights and low turns. The tube or the roof window has to land where the ceiling is clear of the stair rail and the head height is comfortable, and that is something a tape measure on site settles better than a drawing. We mark the diffuser position with tape on the ceiling before any cutting starts, so you can stand on the landing and judge it.
On the same visit, the roof void is checked for insulation depth, wiring and the water tank, because each of those changes how the tunnel is run.
Numbers behind a roof glazing choice
- 1.4 W/m²K
- heat-loss limit for a roof window in an existing home; WER band B is the alternative
- 2.2 W/m²K
- the matching ceiling for a flat or sloping rooflight
- 4.5 m
- how far above the ground a storey floor can sit and still rely on an escape window
A hallway that never sees a sunny day
A front door with a narrow pane lets in a thin slice of light.
Sideways
The hallway sits in the middle of the house between the front door and the stair. The front door may have a small glazed panel, and the side of the hall may face the fence on the boundary, but the light does not go far. Coats hang in a dim corridor and the floor is the colour of dusk.
For a house that has grown over time, with a porch added at the front or an extension at the back, the hall is the room that lost its light when a new wall went up beside it.
Artificial light works, but it is flat. It does not change with the hour, and it does not tell you what the weather is doing.
Straight up
If the hall has a pitched roof above it and a loft space to match, a sun tunnel brings daylight straight down, and so can a roof window. If it sits under an extension with a flat roof, a flat rooflight set over the hall does the job, and a lantern gives it height where the ceiling can be raised.
Daylight from overhead falls along the length of the hall rather than from one side, so both ends of the room look equally lit. That is a feature of overhead light that no side window can offer where a fence sits just outside it.
Fitting is a defined piece of work: the opening is cut and framed, the unit goes in and is sealed, and the ceiling inside is finished tidily. The surveyor will mark the exact spot on your ceiling so you can see where the light will land.
Rooms with more than one possible position, such as a long hall with the stair at one end, get the unit placed where it lights the stair as well as the floor.
A hall with a glazed front door and a rooflight above it feels like a different space. The door brings in a thread of light from the street, the roof brings it from above, and the two together lift the whole entrance. Paint colours that looked grey in a lamp-lit hall start to show their true shade, and the stair carpet stops looking like a dark tunnel.
If you plan to redecorate, it makes sense to book the rooflight first and choose paint after, because the colour you pick in daylight from above is the colour you will live with.
Verdict: for a Bicester hall or landing with a fence outside and a roof overhead, a sun tunnel or roof window gives light that no side wall can.
Planning in Bicester and the town-centre conservation area
Applications for work in Bicester are decided by Cherwell District Council. Its planning pages are at cherwell.gov.uk/planning and its building control pages are at cherwell.gov.uk/info/40/building-control.
A Bicester conservation area, covering the historic town centre, appears in the council's conservation area appraisals. A house inside one keeps its permitted development rights unless an Article 4 direction has taken them away, and the council can tell you if your street has one. A listed building needs listed building consent for a change to the roof that affects its character.
For the general rules on a domestic rooflight, read our planning guide, then check the specifics with Cherwell.
Reaching Bicester by road
Driving south-west from Milton Keynes, the 25.4 road miles take around 36 minutes. That is a longer trip than the villages on our doorstep, and we treat the visit accordingly: a proper survey, time to measure, and a conversation about the room you want to change.
Ambrosden, Arncott and Steeple Claydon lie close enough to be covered on the same trip, so if a neighbour or relative wants a survey too, say so when you get in touch. The town has had good road and rail links for a long time, and East West Rail is being built to connect it to Milton Keynes and Cambridge.
The areas page shows the whole patch we cover.
The town sits on the Chiltern line from London Marylebone, and a visitor from further away has a simple route in, but the surveyor comes to you by road with the tools to measure and test the roof on the day. A visit takes as long as the roof asks. If you can have someone at home who knows which rooms feel dark and at what hour, the visit goes faster and the advice is better.
Tell us in your first message which room you are thinking of, whether the house has a loft you can enter, and whether any part of the roof has been altered. Photos from the garden are helpful.
Which roof covering is on the house
A town with red clay tiles, Welsh slate and a mix of newer coverings needs a surveyor who looks at each roof as it is. A clay plain tile is small, laid in overlapping rows, and a rooflight must be flashed to that pattern. Slate is thin and brittle at the cut edge. A newer concrete tile is larger and the flashing sets differently.
The survey records the covering, the pitch and the spacing of the rafters, and then works out which opening fits. Where the rafters are old and irregular, the opening is framed to suit them, and the quote includes the carpentry.
For a deeper look at how to choose, our roof windows and sun tunnels pages go through the options.
Houses in the old centre sit on narrow plots with steep roofs, where an attic has a single small window and the far end of the room is dim. Houses on the later estates were built to repeating plans, so a standard roof window may drop into a standard gap. The survey tells you which of these your home is, and the quote is written to match.
From survey to finished ceiling
The survey is free. The fixed written quote that follows holds on the day, and a 10-year workmanship guarantee comes in writing. Where the work is notifiable, the Building Control notification goes in from us, and the unit is installed to current Building Regulations. When it is in, the interior is finished and left tidy.
We work on homes first, and a small commercial roof is welcome too. Our WhatsApp line is 07880 284133, our email is info@vertexskylightsmiltonkeynes.co.uk, and the quote form works as well. The reasoning behind the whole approach is in straight up is clear.
Bicester homeowners ask
Is permission needed for a rooflight in the Bicester conservation area?
Sitting in a conservation area does not by that fact remove your permitted development rights, but an Article 4 direction can. Cherwell District Council can confirm what applies to your street, and our planning guide gives the general rules.
How can a windowless landing be lit?
A sun tunnel carries daylight from the roof to a ceiling diffuser. If the roof space is deep enough, a small fixed roof window is an alternative.
Will a rooflight fit a clay-tiled roof?
Yes. The flashing is chosen for the tile profile, and the survey records the covering so the right kit is ordered.
Is Bicester within reach of Milton Keynes?
Yes. By road it is 25.4 miles south-west, about a 36 minute drive.
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