Irchester loft and kitchen roofs fitted with skylight or rooflight
A Nene valley village that grew with its ironstone and its railway, with a Roman town on its doorstep. Read on for the loft and kitchen roofs that Irchester houses actually have, and the glass that fits each.
Houses that came with the ironstone, and the rooms added since
Irchester sits beside the Nene in North Northamptonshire, north of Milton Keynes by 20.3 road miles. It is a village with a long story. Flints from the Mesolithic have turned up here, a walled Roman town lies north of the houses, and in the nineteenth century the arrival of the railway and the digging of ironstone pushed the population up from 960 to 1,168 in ten years. A village that grew in bursts has housing from more than one age, and the roofs follow.
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Village-centre houses with loft rooms under the slope
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Newer family houses with kitchen extensions on the back
A house that dates from the years of growth has a pitched roof and a loft that was built as store space. Those lofts make good bedrooms, studies and hobby rooms, but they get light only from a gable window, if there is one at all. A roof window cut between the rafters gives the room its own view of the sky, and it lets in daylight at the angle that reaches the middle of the floor. The position matters. We look at where the rafters run, where the bed or desk will sit and which slope the neighbours cannot see, and we choose the opening from those three things together.
Away from the village centre, the housing is built to a later pattern, with gardens behind and a rear extension that opens the kitchen to the garden. The new room can be the best one in the house, apart from one thing: its side window looks at a boundary wall, and the middle of the room is a long way from the garden doors. At the dining end, daylight arrives from straight above through a flat rooflight, or through a roof lantern if the ceiling can spare the height.
Two rooms in Irchester still waiting for daylight
A loft room where the tree takes the afternoon
Leaves in July, bare branches in January, and neither lets much through.
Sideways
A mature tree beside the house can stand close to the gable, and the small window in the loft room looks straight into its branches. In summer the glass is green and dim from midmorning onward. In winter the bare limbs let a little through, but the days are short and the sun is low.
So the room is not used the way it could be. The desk stays downstairs, the guest bed gets a lamp switched on at three in the afternoon, and the tidy, well-insulated space under the slope feels shut in rather than snug.
Straight up
A tree blocks the side. It does not block the sky above the roof slope in the same way, because the light reaching a rooflight comes from a high arc and not from the horizon. Straight up is clear, and a roof window on the slope that faces away from the branches collects that overhead light all through the year.
We check the slope in the survey, standing in the room and looking up through the rafters to the place where the glass would go. A sensible position puts the opening over the desk or the bed, and a size that suits the rafter spacing so the structure is not cut more than it needs to be.
Trees bring a few practical points of their own. Leaf litter collects on a low-pitched roof or in the angle of a flashing, so the position of the rooflight should leave a clear run for water. We also ask about the branches that overhang the slope, because a limb that rubs the roof will rub a frame as well. None of this rules a tree out. It is simply part of choosing where the opening goes.
Inside, the finish matters as much as the glass. The splay between the frame and the ceiling is lined and painted, so the daylight spreads into the room instead of stopping at a dark reveal. If the loft room is a bedroom, a blind that suits the roof window keeps the early light out when you want it to stay out.
Whether an opening in the slope needs permission is covered in the planning guide, and roof windows sets out the options by frame and size.
Verdict: for an Irchester loft room shaded by a garden tree, a roof window on the clearest slope gives steadier daylight than any change to the gable window.
A kitchen extension facing a boundary wall
A good room, lit from the wrong direction.
Sideways
A rear extension in a newer Irchester street runs close to the boundary. The wall next door is only a few strides from the side window, so the glass frames brick and a drainpipe. At the far end, garden doors let light in, but only there, while the cooking and eating happen in the middle, where the lamps are on from breakfast onward.
You could fit a larger side window, but it would still look at the wall. The trouble is the direction the light comes from, not the amount of glass in the opening.
Straight up
A flat rooflight over the working part of the kitchen takes light from the open sky. It sits on an upstand with the roof falling gently away to the gutter, and the daylight lands on the worktop and the table instead of on the ceiling by the door. Where the extension has height, a roof lantern adds a glazed crown and light on four sides.
Size and position come from the room: how long the extension is, where the table sits and what stands beside it on the boundary. We set the opening where the light helps most and keep it clear of the structure and the services below.
A kitchen is a warm, damp room, and the rooflight has to cope. The glazing is chosen for its thermal performance, and the Building Regulations set the limit for new rooflights in existing homes at 2.2 W/m²K. We install to current Building Regulations and handle the notification to Building Control where the work is notifiable, and the inside is finished neatly when the fitting is done.
Summer heat is a fair question. Overhead glass catches the sun, so we talk through glazing that tempers the heat, and an opening version that releases warm air from the top of the room. Both are options to weigh up in the survey, not extras to be added later.
Terms for a kitchen rooflight job
Upstand
The raised kerb around the opening in a flat roof, on which the rooflight sits.
Fall
The gentle slope on a flat roof that carries water to the gutter.
Roof lantern
A glazed crown, sloping at the sides, that stands up from a flat roof.
U-value
A measure of how quickly heat passes through the glazing; lower holds more warmth in.
Reveal
The sloping inner surface between the frame and the ceiling.
Building Control notification
The formal notice that tells the building control body about work covered by the regulations.
Who decides, and where to ask in Irchester
North Northamptonshire Council is the authority for planning and building control in Irchester. The council's planning and building control pages are where to check your address; its building control page covers the regulations side.
Only the council can say whether a particular street is inside a conservation area, and it is worth asking before you order anything. The same call tells you if any listed building or protected feature stands near the house. The village has a scheduled monument associated with its Roman past, so a question about anything close to that land should go to the council first.
The permitted development conditions run to detail that is better read in one place. Our planning guide covers them, and the survey is a good moment to bring the council's answer along so the quote reflects it.
The drive from Milton Keynes to the Nene valley
Driving north from Milton Keynes, the 20.3 road miles take roughly half an hour (29 minutes). Irchester is a village you can plan a morning around. A survey, the roof-space inspection and a talk through the options sit comfortably inside half a day, and the fitting that follows is arranged for dates that suit you.
The closest station for passengers is Wellingborough, two miles from the village. Irchester had a station of its own to the east until 1965, and there are people who would like it back. We travel by road with our tools and materials, so the station question is more for visitors to the village than for us.
Close by are Rushden, Wollaston and Wellingborough, each with a page of its own if you are not sure which one is closest to you.
Matching a rooflight to the roof in Irchester
The village has pitched roofs and flat ones, and the right product follows the roof and the room.
- Where a loft room sits beneath a pitched roof, use a roof window set between two rafters.
- A flat-roofed rear extension is lit well by a flat rooflight, with a roof lantern as the taller option.
- A narrow hall or landing with no direct roof above takes a sun tunnel, which carries light down a tube.
- A bathroom with no outside wall can use a small opening version for light and ventilation.
Where the choice is close, the survey settles it. Standing in the room and looking up, we compare what is possible with what the room needs.
Thinking about the viaduct country, the quarries and the weather
The land around Irchester has been shaped by industry. The country park was made when worked-out ironstone quarries were allowed to return to the wild, and the removal of stone lowered the ground in places by several metres. For a homeowner the more useful fact is simpler: a roof at the edge of the valley can meet the wind, rain and sun with little shelter.
That is good reason to pay attention to how a rooflight is fixed and sealed. The flashing round a roof window and the upstand round a flat rooflight are what keep the weather out, and they are fitted to the roof covering you already have. Once the work is finished, the lining is painted, the space is tidy and the room is ready to use.
What happens at the survey and after
The survey is free. At the house we look at the room from the inside, go into the roof space where we can and measure the opening. You get a fixed written quote whose figure stays put on the day, along with a plain account of the options we considered.
When you say yes, we arrange the date, handle the Building Control notification where the work is notifiable and do the fitting. Allow a day or two for one rooflight. A 10-year workmanship guarantee is given in writing. The quote form takes a minute, or you can send a photograph through WhatsApp, 07880 284133, or email info@vertexskylightsmiltonkeynes.co.uk with a photograph of the room.
Small commercial jobs are welcome too, so a village hall roof or a workshop in Irchester is as good a place to start as a house, though residential work comes first.
Irchester questions, answered plainly
Is there a conservation area in Irchester?
Whether your street falls inside one is a short question for the council's planners. North Northamptonshire Council keeps the records. The village also has a scheduled monument tied to its Roman history, so anything near that land is a council question first. A conservation area does not take permitted development away on its own, though a direction can. See the planning guide for the conditions.
Will a tree stop a roof window working?
A tree beside the house shades the side windows, but a rooflight takes light from higher in the sky. We check the branches in the survey, choose the slope with the clearest outlook and leave a run for leaves to wash off. Straight up is clear in a way that the side view is not, so a tree does not rule a rooflight out.
Can a kitchen extension on a boundary have a rooflight?
Yes. It is the side window that the wall next door blocks; the sky above the extension stays open. A flat rooflight on an upstand with a gentle fall, or a roof lantern where the height suits, lights the middle of the room. We confirm the structure and the roof build-up at the survey, then give a fixed written quote.
How far is Irchester from you, and will you come out?
We survey in Irchester for free, and it is a 29 minute drive of 20.3 road miles north from Milton Keynes. To book a time, send a photograph through WhatsApp on 07880 284133 or email info@vertexskylightsmiltonkeynes.co.uk. Look at our areas page to see the other villages and towns we reach.
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