Roade kitchens, terraces and landings with a rooflight or skylight
Roade is a village with a medieval past and the West Coast Main Line running through a deep cutting at its heart. See how a skylight or rooflight brings sky into its kitchens, terraces and dim landings.
A village on two sides of a cutting
Roade is a civil parish and village in West Northamptonshire, and shares a ward with Blisworth. Its story reaches back to 1066, and it has grown into the village you see now. The most striking thing about the place is the railway: four tracks of the West Coast Main Line pass through it in a deep cutting, and the old station at the southern end of the village closed in 1964. The cutting divides the map, and the housing on either side of it falls into two broad groups.
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Historic village houses with deep, quiet rooms
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Later homes with extensions and loft rooms
A village that appears in records from the eleventh century has houses that were built before anyone thought about indoor daylight. Rooms can be narrow and deep, ceilings low and stairs steep, and the windows were sized for warmth, not for light. A conservation rooflight suits these roofs: slim, set low in the covering and detailed in a traditional style. A landing under the slope or an attic bedroom gets a patch of real daylight without altering how the house looks from the street.
These roofs also reward a careful survey. Slate and old clay tiles can be brittle, and a good fitter lifts only what the opening needs and relays it so the roof stays sound around the new frame.
Away from the old core, the village has family houses of later date, with kitchens opened out into rear extensions, loft rooms and terraces behind the house. These are the homes where a roof lantern, a flat rooflight or, failing that, a roof window transforms the room, because the roof is simple, the structure is easy to read and the side windows look at a boundary wall or a tree. A fresh opening in the roof gives these rooms an outlook that no amount of repainting can.
A short survey of the loft or the extension roof shows whether the structure is ready for an opening and which kind of rooflight sits best on it.
The light missing from three rooms in Roade
A kitchen with a tree outside
The best tree in the garden can darken the best room in the house.
Sideways
Village gardens grow trees, and the tree outside the kitchen window is the reason the garden is loved. In summer its leaves fill the glass. With the branches bare in winter, the light that gets through is thin and low and does not reach the worktop. Either way, the kitchen window is facing something that has more say over the light than the glazing does.
The room needs light at the point where the work is done, not at the end where the window is. A tree in the way means the light arrives at an angle, weak and from one side.
Straight up
A flat rooflight set above the worktop or the table puts daylight exactly where it is needed. The branches of a tree in the garden do not reach above the roof of a single-storey extension, so the glass looks up at open sky. The leaves can come and go, and the light from above carries on.
The glass sits on an upstand and is tilted just enough to shed rain, and the inside surround is finished so the ceiling edge is clean. A fixed pane is simple; an opening one adds ventilation over a hob or a sink.
Where the extension is wide, two rooflights spaced evenly give a more balanced result than one large pane. Where the room is narrow, a single long rooflight along its length lights the whole run. We measure both options on the survey and talk through which suits the space.
The glass matters as much as the position. Double glazing with a low-iron or tinted pane changes how warm the kitchen feels at midday. Our energy efficient rooflights page puts the figures on the label into plain terms.
| Roof | Rooflight | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Flat kitchen extension | Flat rooflight | A bright, even worktop |
| Flat, wide extension | Roof lantern | Height and light from all sides |
| Pitched kitchen or dining room | Roof window | Light along the slope |
| Older tiled or slate roof | Conservation rooflight | Keeping the roofline in character |
A terrace room walled in on one side
Sitting out is lovely. Sitting in, by the same wall, is not.
Sideways
A terrace or patio room on the garden side of the house is meant to feel part of the garden. When a high brick wall runs along one side, whether it is the neighbour's garage or an old boundary, the room beside it becomes a place of shadow. The glazed doors face the garden and the wall faces the doors.
That wall does not move. It holds its shade through every season, and nothing about the furniture or the paint changes it.
Straight up
The wall stops at the roof line, and the sky does not. A rooflight above the terrace room clears the wall completely, so the daylight arrives from overhead and bounces down the face of the brick to brighten it. Where the roof of the terrace is also somewhere to walk or sit, a walk-on rooflight can light the room below the terrace without closing the terrace off.
This is a job where the survey matters, because the load, the fall and the upstand all depend on what the roof will be used for.
For a terrace room with a lean-to roof, a roof lantern or a run of roof windows may suit better than a flat unit. Our roof lanterns page shows how the shape changes the light at different times of day.
Safety glass is part of the picture on any walk-on or low rooflight. The specification is agreed at the survey, together with a surface that grips, so the glass is a pleasure to cross rather than a worry.
Before you book the survey
- Which wall casts the shade?
- Is the terrace roof walked on?
- Where does the sun reach at noon?
- Could you stand under an opening?
A landing that never sees the daylight
Foot traffic is heaviest on the stairs, and the daylight is thinnest there.
Sideways
A landing is a corridor with a staircase at one end. Where there is a window, it is a small one facing the flank wall of the neighbouring house, so the glass shows brick and not sky. The result is a space people hurry through with the light on, even in summer, and where the carpet and the paint look dull however new they are.
The darkest part of a house is the part that every room opens on to, and it sets the mood of the whole upstairs.
Straight up
Daylight reaches the middle of the house through a roof window over the stairwell, or through a sun tunnel where a loft space lies between the landing and the roof. The light reaches the landing walls and carries on into the rooms leading off it. The sky is above the neighbouring wall, and the light comes from there.
We tidy up and finish the inside, so the opening sits flush with the ceiling lining. A sun tunnel takes light in through a small roof dome and carries it down a reflective tube, while a roof window gives a real view as well as light.
On the stairs themselves, daylight does a second job: it shows the treads. A landing lit from above is safer to climb as well as more pleasant, because the shadows fall evenly and the edge of each step is easy to see. That is a quiet benefit, and one you notice after the first dark winter morning.
A roof window over a stairwell also needs a safe way to open and clean it. The survey covers reach, the height of the ceiling and whether a pole-operated or electric window is the better choice.
Planning for a rooflight in Roade
Planning in Roade is a matter for West Northamptonshire Council. Roade appears among the council's conservation areas, with its boundary drawn on the Roade conservation area map held among the council's conservation area appraisals. The council's map shows the boundary, so check your street against it before planning.
A conservation area boundary does not on its own end the permitted development rights for roof changes; an Article 4 direction can, and the council's planning officers can say whether one covers your address. Listed buildings sit under separate rules, and changes to their roofs need consent.
The permitted development position is in our planning guide, and this section does not go over it again. Applications and Building Regulations are explained through the planning and building control pages, with a separate building control page. Where the work is notifiable, we send the Building Control notification ourselves, and the job meets the Building Regulations in effect when the work is done.
Roade is a civil parish, and its parish council is consulted on planning applications in the village. The decision on a planning application, though, rests with West Northamptonshire Council. If a neighbour's rooflight is already in, that does not decide the position for yours, as each address is looked at on its own facts.
The short run from Milton Keynes to Roade
A survey visit to Roade means about 19 minutes at the wheel from Milton Keynes, 14.6 road miles north-west, which makes it one of the easier surveys to fit in. One visit can take in a home in Hartwell, Blisworth or Collingtree, as all three sit close to Roade.
The railway is a good landmark if you are giving directions to a visiting surveyor, because the cutting is hard to miss. The old station closed in 1964, so the village is reached by road. Tell us the street and any parking limits when you get in touch, and we will arrive ready.
WhatsApp 07880 284133 or email info@vertexskylightsmiltonkeynes.co.uk with a picture of the room and, should you have one to hand, a shot of the roof. We reply with a time for the free survey.
Because the visit is short, we can talk through a kitchen, a terrace and a landing in one sitting. Bring the list of rooms you are thinking about and we will look at them together.
What the survey and the quote look like
At the survey we look at the room short of light and at the roof over it. We take the measurements, inspect the structure and the covering, check what is in the loft or under the flat roof and talk through the glass, the finish and the date. It is free, and there is no obligation to go ahead.
Afterwards you get a written quote at a fixed price, and that figure is the one still standing when the work begins. Once the fitting is done the inside is left finished, and the 10-year workmanship guarantee is given to you in writing. Houses are the bulk of what we fit, and a small commercial roof will not be turned away. Start with the quote form whenever you are ready.
The idea behind the whole job is on our Straight up is clear page. Side windows look at trees, walls and neighbours. The roof looks at the sky.
If you want to compare options, ask for a quote on two choices, such as a lantern and a flat rooflight for the same kitchen. Seeing both on paper, with the written detail of each, is the fairest way to decide.
What Roade homeowners ask us
Does Roade have a conservation area to check?
West Northamptonshire Council publishes the map for Roade's conservation area, which is where to check the boundary. Check the map for your street and ask the planning team about any Article 4 direction. Our planning guide explains how permitted development fits in.
Who decides planning applications in Roade?
West Northamptonshire Council, the unitary authority for the area. Roade sits in the Blisworth and Roade ward. Its planning and building control pages explain applications and notifications.
The permitted development rules for rooflights are in our planning guide.
Can a landing or hallway in Roade get daylight from the roof?
Yes. A roof window set over the stairwell, or a sun tunnel through the loft space, carries daylight into the middle of the house. The survey checks the roof and the route down before a fixed quote is written.
What does the drive out to Roade involve?
Out of Milton Keynes towards the north-west, Roade is a 14.6-mile drive that takes about 19 minutes. Our cover extends to Hartwell, Blisworth and Collingtree nearby.
A survey can be arranged to fit around your week. WhatsApp us a photo showing the room and the roof, and we will suggest times.
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