Oakley, Bedfordshire estate cottages with a skylight and rooflight
A Bedfordshire village on the Great Ouse, built in tidy rows by a ducal estate: the difference a skylight or rooflight can make to Oakley's cottages and houses.
Cottages in blocks, and the houses beside them
Oakley stands on the River Great Ouse, about four miles north-west of Bedford itself, and is a village and civil parish within the Borough of Bedford. About 2,500 people live here, with Bromham, Clapham, Milton Ernest, Radwell and Felmersham close by. Two kinds of roof matter when you start thinking about daylight: the estate cottages that gave the village its look, and the individual houses built since.
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Estate cottages built in blocks of six
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Individual houses and extensions on village plots
In the nineteenth century the 7th Duke of Bedford built new cottages for his estate tenants, choosing good materials so that repairs would not keep coming round. Along the High Street and Station Road they went up in blocks, usually six to a block, and most carry a gable stone showing a ducal coronet, the letter B and the year. That gives long, regular rows with shared party walls and plain pitched roofs. Upstairs rooms are modest, and a landing or a small bathroom can sit with no outside window at all. A roof window on the back pitch works, or where the space under the roof is tight, a compact sun tunnel, and either brings light into the middle of the house without touching the front elevation that gives the row its character.
The parish council looks closely at new development around the village, and planning has in the main been permitted for individual properties rather than estates. The result is a scatter of single houses, bungalows and extended homes rather than one big modern district. Some have a rear extension, a garage conversion or a loft room added over the years. An extension of one storey under a flat roof suits a flat rooflight or, for more height, a roof lantern ; a loft room suits a roof window fitted in the slope. Each one answers the same problem: the side window faces a neighbour, a hedge or a wall.
Finding daylight in an Oakley house
A landing without any window
The middle of a terraced cottage is the part the front and back windows never reach.
Sideways
In a row of cottages built to a single plan, the stairs and landing sit in the middle of the house, between a front bedroom and a back one. The party walls on either side are shared with neighbours, so there is no side window to be had. Even a landing that does have a small window at one end looks straight at the brickwork of the next building, and the light that arrives is thin and grey.
Doors get left open to borrow light from the bedrooms, and the stairwell stays dark in the morning and the evening alike.
Straight up
Above the landing, a window set in the slope of the roof lights the space from overhead. The sky is not blocked by the next cottage, because it lies above both roofs, and the light drops down the stairwell and into the rooms leading off it. A roof window also opens, so the landing gets fresh air without anyone climbing a ladder.
Because it sits in the rear slope, nothing changes on the street side of the row. The survey checks the rafter spacing, the height of the landing ceiling and how the new opening is framed, and the quote is fixed before any work starts.
When the room under the roof is too shallow for a full window, a short tube taking daylight down from a sun tunnel is the alternative, and the ceiling finish stays tidy once the work is done.
Numbers a new roof window has to meet
- 1.4 W/m²K
- heat loss ceiling for a roof window in an existing house, or a WER rating in band B (Part L, Table 4.2)
- 2.2 W/m²K
- heat loss ceiling in the same table, for a lantern or flat rooflight
- 4.5 m
- height above ground, measured to the floor of the storey, within which an escape window counts
A bathroom under a tree
Village gardens grow tall trees, and a small window cannot see past one.
Sideways
Village plots near the Ouse carry mature trees, and a hedge or a big garden tree standing a few metres from the house can fill a bathroom window with leaves. In summer the room goes green and dim. Winter strips the branches bare, yet the low sun is already behind the roofs and the room stays gloomy.
Frosted glass makes it worse. Privacy is kept, and the little light there is gets scattered before it reaches the floor.
Straight up
Looking straight up, a tree is only in the way if it overhangs the roof. A roof window or a small rooflight above the bath or the shower takes its light from the open sky overhead, so the tree beside the house does not matter. Privacy is no worry either: nobody can look down into a bathroom from above, so the glass can stay clear.
Condensation matters in a bathroom, so the survey looks at how the window opens and where the air can move. The inside is finished neatly, with the plaster returns and paint done.
Verdict: for a windowless or tree-shaded bathroom, a rooflight above the bath gives the steadiest daylight, because the sky overhead cannot be blocked by a hedge.
Planning in Oakley: Bedford Borough Council and the parish
Bedford Borough Council receives planning applications for Oakley. Its planning and building control pages explain how applications are handled, and its team can tell you whether a particular address is subject to any special designation. The council's conservation area list does not name Oakley, but it costs nothing to ask the council to confirm the position for your own street before you commit to a design. A listed cottage is a separate case, because roof alterations there need their own consent.
The parish council also takes a close interest in what is built around the village. That scrutiny is aimed at new development, whereas a rooflight set into an existing roof is a far smaller change. Whether a particular rooflight needs an application at all depends on conditions that vary with the house, the roof and how far the glass projects, so the rules live in our planning guide, which lays them out in full, and at the survey we go through your own roof against them before any quote is written.
Building control for work in an Oakley roof
Cutting a new opening in a roof, or replacing a window with a larger one, is work the Building Regulations care about. Structure, insulation and ventilation are all affected, and Bedford Borough Council's building control service is one route for the notification, while a registered building control approver is the private alternative. We handle the notification where the work is notifiable, so you are not left chasing certificates after the roof is closed up.
Everything we fit meets the current Part L figures for an existing dwelling: a roof window at 1.4 W/m²K or in WER band B, and a flat or lantern rooflight at 2.2 W/m²K. If you are weighing a loft room in a cottage, remember that an escape window helps only for a storey within 4.5 m of the ground, measured to the floor of that storey, so the survey looks at the stair as well as the glass.
The work is fitted to current Building Regulations, finished tidily inside, and covered by a ten-year workmanship guarantee in writing.
From Milton Keynes to Oakley by road
Driving north-east from Milton Keynes, you cover 21.7 road miles to reach Oakley in about 28 minutes. That puts the village comfortably inside the area we cover, and a survey visit fits into the working day without trouble. It sits close to Bromham and Clapham, and Great Denham is not far off, so a single trip can take in a neighbour who is thinking along the same lines.
To arrange a visit, WhatsApp 07880 284133 or email info@vertexskylightsmiltonkeynes.co.uk, and name the dark room. A photograph of the room and another of the roof above it are enough to start with, and we will suggest a time for the survey.
Rooflights for blocks of six and village plots
For the estate cottages, the roof is a plain pitch over a narrow plan, and the rear slope is the place to work. A roof window is the straightforward choice for a landing, a loft room or a bedroom under the slope. Where the space beneath is cramped, a sun tunnel does the job with a smaller opening. Where a cottage has a listed status or sits beside others that do, a conservation rooflight sits low in the roof with a slim frame and a central bar, and from the lane it reads as part of the roof.
For individual village houses with a flat-roofed kitchen or garage conversion, the choice widens. A flat rooflight lights a room from a single clean pane; it stands on an upstand, and the glass is tilted gently so that rain runs off. A roof lantern adds height and a view of the sky from the table. A walk-on rooflight suits a terrace or a patio set over a room below.
The reasoning is the same in every case. A side window looks at what stands beside the house, and the sky overhead is clear, which is why straight up is clear.
What a visit to an Oakley home involves
The visit is free. The roof gets inspected from outside and, where we can reach it, from within the roof space: the covering, the rafters, the pitch and the way the ceiling below is built. In a row of estate cottages we also look at where the party wall runs, because a new opening has to sit clear of it. On a flat roof the checks are the fall, the deck and the height of the upstand.
We then talk through the options for the room and give a fixed written quote that does not change on the day. Should you go ahead, fitting an ordinary rooflight occupies a day or two on site, and the room is left finished and clean. Questions about glass, opening and ventilation can be settled at the survey, so nothing is a surprise when the scaffold or ladders arrive. We also agree where the dust sheets go, how we reach the roof, and which room we use for access, so the house stays livable while the work goes on.
Oakley roofs, asked and answered
Do Oakley's estate cottages sit in a conservation area?
Oakley does not appear with a conservation area on the Bedford Borough Council list. Individual buildings can still be listed, and a street can carry its own restrictions, so put your address to the council's planning team before settling on a design. We can raise it at the survey too.
Can a cottage in a block of six have a rooflight at the back?
The rear slope is the natural place to look first, since the front elevation is the part that gives the row its look. The survey checks the rafters, the party wall and the head height beneath the opening. A roof window above the landing is a good first idea, and the quote sets out exactly what is involved before you agree.
Will a skylight make a bathroom colder or damper?
A new roof window must meet the Part L heat loss figure of 1.4 W/m²K, or sit in WER band B, so the glass is far better insulated than an old single pane. Opening it lets the steam out, which helps keep the room dry. A rooflight that does not open can be paired with an extractor, and we talk through that at the survey. A blind fitted to the window gives you shade and privacy on the days you want them, and the frame is finished so that it sits cleanly against the ceiling.
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