Blisworth canal and quarry roofs take a rooflight or skylight
A village with a canal tunnel, a railway embankment and a quarrying past. Below is the skylight or rooflight that fits each kind of roof in Blisworth.
Quarry-village stone and later brick
Blisworth sits in West Northamptonshire, 17.4 road miles north-west of Milton Keynes, and the Grand Union Canal runs along the south-west side of the village. It is a place shaped by things that were dug, laid and carried: a long canal tunnel, limestone and iron ore from the ground, a main line railway on its embankment. A roof here is best judged by the street it belongs to.
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Houses from the quarry and canal years
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Brick and rendered houses with extensions behind
Limestone was cut at Blisworth from the early nineteenth century, with a quarry opening in 1821 beside the canal tunnel and stone moved to the water by tramway. If your house is stone, or sits among stone neighbours, the way the roof looks from the lane matters. A conservation rooflight lies low in the slope and keeps the line of the covering. Put on the back pitch, it gives a dim upstairs room its first proper daylight and leaves the front of the house as the village knows it.
Away from the old lanes you find brick and rendered houses, some with a kitchen or garden room added at the back. The pitched roof over the bedrooms suits a roof window, and the flat or low-pitched roof over an extension is the place for a flat rooflight, with a roof lantern as the taller choice. Gardens in a village run close together, so a side window can face a neighbour's wall while the sky above the same room is wide open.
Three Blisworth rooms and the daylight they are missing
An extension with a wall beside it
New walls, old boundaries.
Sideways
A rear extension is built to fill the space between the house and the garden, and in a village the boundary on one side can be a high wall of stone or brick. The side window faces it from a few paces away. The long glass doors at the far end look at the garden and give a bright strip, and the middle of the room, where the table stands, sits in a soft grey.
Lamps go on at three in the afternoon. The room is warm, well laid out and nicely finished, and it still feels smaller than the plan promised.
Straight up
A wall can hide the horizon, but it cannot reach the sky above its top edge. A flat rooflight over the table opens the room to that clear view, and daylight falls into the centre of the floor instead of arriving from one end only. The unit sits on an insulated upstand with the glass at a slight fall, so water leaves the pane rather than sitting on it.
Two rooflights in a line suit a long, narrow room. A single large pane suits a squarer one. A roof lantern is worth a look where the ceiling can rise, since it adds height as well as light.
On the visit we stand in the room at the hour the room is busiest and look up. The best position is rarely the middle of the roof. It is the spot over the place where people actually sit, cook or work, shifted so the glass clears the beams and any services running through the ceiling.
Roof words you may hear at the survey
Upstand
A short raised kerb round the opening that the rooflight frame sits on.
Pitch
The angle of a sloping roof, measured from the horizontal.
Flashing
Metal strip that makes the junction of frame and roof covering waterproof.
Rafter
A sloping timber that carries the roof covering.
Lantern
A raised glass roof with sloping sides that lets light in on every face.
A landing that never sees the day
The room you pass through twice a day.
Sideways
On a two-storey house the upstairs landing lies at the centre of the plan, with bedrooms on each side and a stair below. It has no outside wall to give it a window, or it has a small one at the gable, half hidden by a tree in a neighbour's garden. In winter it is dim from breakfast to bedtime.
Nobody lingers there, yet everybody crosses it, arms full of washing. A bulb left on all day is the usual fix, and it is a dull way to light a part of the house you see so often.
Straight up
A roof window over the stairwell, or a sun tunnel where the loft space allows, brings light straight down into the landing. The tree beside the house stops nothing from above, because straight up is clear. Daylight then runs down the stair and brightens the hall below, as well as the landing.
Where the roof space above the landing is shallow, a tunnel with a mirrored tube can be the neater answer, since only a small opening in the slope is needed. Where the roof is steeper and there is headroom, a roof window gives more light and a view of the clouds.
The route of the light matters as much as the size of the opening. We look at what lies between the roof and the ceiling below, such as joists, wiring, a water tank or a bend in the ceiling, and we choose the line that is straight and simple.
Worth deciding before the survey
- Which part of the landing is darkest in the afternoon?
- Is there loft space above, or a sloping ceiling?
- Do you want a view of the sky, or just light?
- Is the stair below dim as well?
A kitchen hemmed in by a high wall
The cooker, the sink and a view of stone.
Sideways
Some Blisworth kitchens sit at the back of a terrace or semi where the only window gives onto a yard and the wall of the next building. The glass is perfectly good. What it shows is a flat face of brick or stone a couple of metres off, and the daylight that gets past it is thin by the time it reaches the worktop.
A kitchen needs good light more than a hallway does. Knives, hot pans and recipes all do better when the room is bright enough to see them clearly.
Straight up
A flat rooflight placed over the worktop or the dining end puts the daylight where the work is done. It looks at the sky, which no wall can block, and the room feels taller because its ceiling now has a window in it. If the kitchen sits under a pitched roof, a roof window gives the same effect between the rafters.
The inside is finished neatly, with plaster and paint made good round the opening, so the new light looks like part of the room from the first day.
The two drawings below show one kitchen, first lit by a side window and then from above.
Planning and Building Regulations in Blisworth
Blisworth is in the area of West Northamptonshire Council, which is the planning authority. The council lists a Blisworth conservation area and publishes a map of it among its conservation area appraisals. Living in a conservation area leaves your permitted development rights in place unless an Article 4 direction takes them away, which is why the street is worth checking before you choose a product.
Our planning guide sets out the national rules, and the council's planning and building control page is the place to ask about a particular address. Building Regulations run alongside. Where the work is notifiable we put in the Building Control notification, and the finished opening complies with the regulations in force now. For the council's own account of the process, read its building control pages.
The drive from Milton Keynes to Blisworth
From Milton Keynes the road to Blisworth runs north-west for 17.4 miles and takes about 23 minutes. That puts it well inside our working area, so a survey is an ordinary visit and not a day out. Collingtree lies near it, as do Roade and Towcester, and every one of them has its own page: Collingtree, Roade and Towcester.
If you have neighbours with the same idea, mention it when you write. Two surveys on one street are easy to line up on the same day. The full spread of places we serve is on the areas page.
The village is easy to reach from the direction of Towcester, and a morning or afternoon survey fits comfortably into the day.
Which rooflight suits which Blisworth roof
Choose by the roof first and the room second. A steep or moderately steep pitch over a bedroom or loft takes a roof window, set between the rafters. A low or flat roof over a rear room takes a flat rooflight, and a lantern if the room can use the height.
A stone-fronted house on an old lane calls for the lightest touch on the slope people can see, and the slim conservation rooflight was designed for exactly that. A walled yard behind a terrace may suit a walk-on rooflight set into a flat roof or a small terrace, where the glass takes your weight and the light drops into the room beneath. If the room is hot in summer, an opening rooflight lets warm air leave from the top of the room.
Where two rooms share a wall, a single pair of matching units can light both, and it keeps the roof looking tidy from the lane.
Roofs near a canal and a railway
A house close to the canal or the West Coast Main Line sees things a roof inland does not. Trains pass along the embankment, and the canal brings damp mornings, mist and the occasional boat. Neither changes how a rooflight is fitted, but both are good reasons to ask for well-sealed glazing and a careful job on the flashings.
Double-glazed units cut noise from outside as well as heat loss, and a second pane makes a visible difference to a room that faces the line. We will talk through the glazing options at the survey and choose a build that suits the room and the roof, not just the opening.
What the survey covers in a Blisworth home
No charge applies to the survey. We look at the room from the floor, then at the roof from above or from the loft, checking the covering, the structure and the route for the light. We measure, take photographs and talk through two or three layouts with you.
You then receive a fixed written quote that does not change on the day, and the work carries a 10-year workmanship guarantee in writing. Fitting a rooflight takes a day or two, and the inside is left tidy, with the plaster and paint finished. To start, send a WhatsApp to 07880 284133, write to info@vertexskylightsmiltonkeynes.co.uk, or fill in the quote form.
Blisworth roofs, answered
Does the Blisworth conservation area stop me fitting a rooflight?
Not by itself. West Northamptonshire Council lists a conservation area for the village, and whether your address is inside it, and whether an Article 4 direction applies, is a question for its planning team. A slim conservation-style frame on a back slope is a sensible choice either way.
Will a rooflight help a kitchen that faces a wall?
Yes. The wall blocks the side window, but it does not reach the sky above your roof. Straight up is clear, so a flat rooflight or roof window gives light from a direction the wall cannot touch.
Can you fit a sun tunnel in a landing?
A short tunnel can suit a landing where the roof space is shallow. We check the line between the roof and the ceiling at the survey and tell you whether the sun tunnel or the roof window is the better fit.
How do I arrange a survey in Blisworth?
Tell us the room and the street by WhatsApp (07880 284133) or email (info@vertexskylightsmiltonkeynes.co.uk) and we will find a day. No charge for the survey, and the quote that comes after stays as written.
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