Harlington church-side homes suit skylights or rooflights
A Bedfordshire village with a Thameslink station, a medieval church and a conservation area of its own. Below, the Harlington roofs you are likely to have are each paired with a suitable skylight or rooflight.
Old village roofs and the streets that grew towards the station
Harlington is a Bedfordshire village and civil parish beside the M1, and the road back to Milton Keynes is 15.8 miles to the north-west. Its story runs a long way back. The Domesday Book names it Herlingdone, a church was raised here in the early fourteenth century, and John Bunyan was taken to Harlington House in 1660, a building now known as Harlington Manor. A railway station followed in 1868. A roof is a record of when its street was built, so it helps to know which kind you have before choosing glass.
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Homes close to the church and the manor
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Later homes around the shops and the station
Around the church and the manor the buildings carry the village's age on their roofs. Sir Albert Richardson drew a new north range for the manor as late as 1937, so even the grand houses here have been added to and altered over time. An older roof is rarely simple. Timbers can be hand-cut, the spacing may change between bays, and the ceiling could be lath and plaster. A conservation rooflight sits low and slim in the slope, with a central bar, so the roof still reads as a traditional one from the lane while the room below finally gets daylight.
Away from the old core, Harlington has later housing near its small parade of shops, and the west of the village has the station that the Midland Railway opened in the nineteenth century. Houses of this kind have lofts that have become bedrooms and offices, rear extensions with flat roofs, and landings that never had a window. A roof window suits a pitched loft slope. On an extension roof, choose a roof lantern where there is headroom in the ceiling, or a flat rooflight where there is not. Where gardens are narrow, side windows can look straight at a boundary.
The sky three Harlington rooms cannot see
A cottage loft shaded by a garden tree
The window is clean. The tree has simply grown.
Sideways
A village garden gathers trees over the decades. An apple that was planted knee-high, a neighbour's sycamore, a hedge left to run. Under the slope of an older Harlington house, the small gable window of a loft room now looks into leaves for half the year and into bare, grey branches for the rest.
The room is used, since a village home needs every square metre, but it is used with the lamp on. Even at noon the light has to squeeze round the trunk and through the canopy, and the far corner under the eaves stays dim all day.
Straight up
Set in the slope, a roof window looks past a garden tree to the open sky. It looks at the sky instead of the canopy, and the daylight that arrives is not filtered through leaves. Straight up is clear. A tree can stand at the fence for fifty years and the view overhead stays open.
The window is placed for the room, not for symmetry. We look at where the desk or the bed sits, where the headroom is best and which slope is out of sight from the lane, then choose the frame and the glazing to match the roof around it.
On a roof as old as some in Harlington, the survey matters more than the catalogue. We go up into the roof space, look at what carries the load and agree a position that suits both the structure and the room. The written quote is fixed once that is agreed.
A rear extension in the shade of a tall tree
New walls, new glass, and still a gloomy table.
Sideways
A kitchen-diner built out into the back garden should be the brightest room in the house. Bi-fold doors face the lawn, a long window runs beside the table, and yet the room feels shut in. The cause is a tall tree at the bottom of the plot, or a neighbour's conifers, standing between the glass and the southern sky.
Side glazing can only see what is level with it. A wall of glass faces a wall of leaves, and the middle of the room, furthest from the doors, gets the least light of all.
Straight up
Over the table, a flat rooflight clears the tree line. The frame stands proud of the roof on an upstand and the glass falls gently, so rain runs off and the surface stays clear. Where the extension is large enough, a roof lantern gives the room a ceiling with height as well as light, and its glass faces all four ways.
The size is chosen from the room, not from the catalogue. We measure the plan, the joist direction and the distance from the doors, then fix the opening where the light is wanted.
Flat roofs have a build-up of layers above the ceiling. A rooflight means opening that build-up, so the upstand, the insulation and the weatherproof layer are all made good together. The inside is finished too, with a neat lining to the opening, so there is no bare plaster left for you to deal with afterwards.
Three numbers to know before choosing glass
- 1.4 W/m²K
- heat-loss limit on a new roof window added to an existing house, or WER band B
- 2.2 W/m²K
- heat-loss limit on a lantern or flat rooflight added to an existing house
- 4.5 m
- greatest height above the ground at which an escape window can serve a storey
A landing that never had a window
The middle of a house is the part the sun never reaches.
Sideways
On the first floor of a two-storey house, the landing is a space in the middle. The bedrooms take the outside walls and the windows. The landing takes what is left, which is a narrow passage with a door at each end and a switch by the stair.
Where a landing window does exist, it can face a close boundary: a neighbour's fence, a few feet away, with a side passage between. The glass is there and the light is not.
Straight up
When the landing has a pitched roof above it, a roof window right over the stairwell lets daylight run the length of the stair. Where the roof space is in the way, a sun tunnel brings daylight from a small roof dome down a reflective tube. It looks at the open sky, and not at the fence.
Each suits a different house. A roof window needs headroom and a clear route in the roof space. A tunnel needs far less, and it can go where a window will not fit.
For a loft conversion on a house like this, the stair and its escape route have their own rules, and a roof window is not a substitute for them. We cover that at the survey, with the routes and the heights drawn out.
Before we visit your Harlington roof
- Which room needs the light, and at what time of day?
- Is the slope visible from the lane or the churchyard side?
- Is the roof space boarded, insulated or both?
- Does a tree or a boundary sit close to the window you have now?
- Has the house been extended, and is there a flat roof?
Planning in Harlington and what Central Bedfordshire Council decides
Harlington sits in the area of Central Bedfordshire Council, which is the planning authority for a roof here. A conservation area carrying the village's name is on the council's list, which puts some Harlington homes inside it. Whether yours does is for the council's planners to say, and the answer takes a minute to get. Being in a conservation area leaves the right to add a rooflight in place, but an Article 4 direction can withdraw it, so ask about both.
For the usual rules on rooflights and roof windows in houses, read our planning guide, which explains how the conditions work. The council's own planning pages and its building control page sit alongside it. A listed house is a separate case and always needs the council's consent before work starts.
Where a Building Control notification is needed we handle it, and the finished job meets current Approved Document L.
Fifteen miles from Milton Keynes, nineteen minutes by road
A survey visit means 15.8 road miles south-east out of Milton Keynes, about 19 minutes at the wheel. That is a short run for a survey visit, and a short run for the fitting crew with ladders, glass and a clean-up kit in the van. The village is near the M1, though the way in does not need a long motorway stretch.
Because the trip is so short, a survey can be arranged on a day that suits you. You do not have to take a morning off for a window of hours. To arrange a survey, give us the street and a photo of the room by WhatsApp (07880 284133) or by email (info@vertexskylightsmiltonkeynes.co.uk).
Which rooflight suits which kind of Harlington roof
Match the glass to the roof and the room rather than the other way round.
- A pitched loft slope on a village house takes a roof window, which can be hinged or electric.
- An older or more visible slope near the church suits a conservation rooflight, slim and low.
- A flat rear extension roof takes a roof lantern when the ceiling can spare the height, and otherwise a flat rooflight.
- A landing or hallway that has no outside wall can be reached with a sun tunnel.
If you already have a skylight that has misted or leaks, the same survey shows whether the old frame can take new glass or whether the whole unit comes out. We install and replace, and the inside is finished neatly in both cases.
Just outside the Chilterns edge
The Chilterns AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) does not take in Harlington, though its boundary lies only 0.3 km from the village. That matters for planning in one sense: it is worth confirming with the council, for a house at the very edge of the parish, that nothing about your site changes the picture. For a Harlington home the village's own conservation area is the question that counts, so start there.
The nearby villages of Westoning, Toddington and Flitwick are covered from the same base, and the same planning route applies, council by council. All three also fall to Central Bedfordshire Council, and the details can differ by a few streets.
What happens when you ask for a survey
The survey costs you nothing. We visit the house, go up into the roof space, look at the structure and the slope, and talk through the room with you. You get a fixed written quote that does not change on the day of the work, and the 10-year workmanship guarantee is set out in writing.
A single rooflight is fitted inside a day or two, and the site is left tidy. The opening is made weathertight at once, the lining is finished inside and the mess is cleared. For a small commercial job, such as a shop or a village office, the route is the same.
The shortest way to start is to ask for a quote, with a photo of the roof and the room.
Harlington questions, answered plainly
Will the Harlington conservation area stop a rooflight going in?
Not automatically. A conservation area is not a ban, and the permitted development right for rooflights survives inside one unless something else removes it. An Article 4 direction, which a council can add for a particular area, can. Ask Central Bedfordshire Council's planning team for your address, and keep the answer in writing. Where a slope faces the lane, a slim conservation rooflight is the sensible choice.
Can a loft above an older cottage take a roof window?
Yes, it is possible, but the timbers decide. An older roof can have hand-cut rafters at uneven spacing, so the survey looks at what carries the load and where a trimmer can sit. We pick a position that leaves the structure sound and the slope tidy from the street.
Is a flat rooflight right for a rear extension roof?
For a flat extension roof it is the usual first choice, and a roof lantern is the alternative when the room has height to spare. The frame stands proud on an upstand and the glass falls gently, so rainwater leaves cleanly. The size depends on the plan of the room and the position of the doors.
Do you need to be at home on the day?
Someone needs to let us in and agree the room is clear, and then the crew can work. The loft or room below is covered and protected, and when the work ends the inside is finished and cleaned. If you cannot be there, tell us when you book and we will arrange it with you.
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