Tree shade over Towcester lofts calls for a skylight or rooflight
A market town on the River Tove that began as a Roman garrison on Watling Street. Its older lofts and its newer extensions both lose daylight to trees, and both can be lit from straight above.
A town older than its coaching inns
Beside the River Tove, Towcester answers to West Northamptonshire Council, and the drive from Milton Keynes is 14.1 road miles to the north-west. The Romans called their garrison here Lactodurum and ran Watling Street through it, the road that is the A5 today. Saxon rulers later treated the area as a frontier between Wessex and the Danelaw, and finds from the Iron Age have led the town to claim the title of oldest in Northamptonshire. A place with that much behind it has roofs of very different ages, so the sensible start is to ask which kind of house you live in.
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Old frontages along the road the Romans built
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Rear extensions on the newer streets
The coaching trade shaped the centre of Towcester until September 1838, when the new London and Birmingham line went through Blisworth instead and the town settled back into quiet market life. Older buildings near the A5 can have narrow fronts onto the street, deep plans behind them and bedrooms tucked up under the slope. Rooms like these were built before anyone thought about daylight from above. Low in the pitch, a slim conservation rooflight leaves the roofline right from the pavement and still gives a loft room its first honest light.
The A43 now takes through traffic round the north of the town, and the streets that have grown up away from the old centre hold the family houses of later decades. Some have gained a rear kitchen or garden room whose roof is flat or low-pitched. Gardens in this part of Northamptonshire hold tall trees, and a tree at the boundary can stand squarely in front of the one window an extension has. Beneath the branches, flat rooflights and roof lanterns alike face upward, where the sky is open.
Two Towcester rooms and a tree in the way
A cottage loft with a tree throwing shade across it
The room under the roof, and the branch that stands in front of it.
Sideways
Think of a cottage on one of the older streets of Towcester. The bedroom in the roof has a small gable window, set low, with sloping ceilings on both sides. Outside the glass stands a mature tree in a neighbour's garden, and in summer its leaves fill the opening almost completely.
In winter the branches are bare and the light gets in, but that is the season when the day is shortest. The result is a room that is dim when you most want it bright, with a desk pushed to the one patch of glass and a lamp lit by mid-afternoon.
Straight up
A tree can block the view from a side window, yet it stands to one side of the roof, not above it. Look straight up and the way is clear: a rooflight in the slope clears the canopy and faces the sky itself. The light comes down into the middle of the room, not along a narrow shaft from the gable.
For an older house we choose a slim conservation-pattern frame with a central bar, which keeps the look of a traditional rooflight and sits low in the covering. Towcester has a conservation area, so the style of the frame matters as much as its size.
Old lofts seldom follow a tidy plan. Rafters may sit at uneven spacings, a chimney breast may take up one bay, and a ceiling of lath and plaster below the slope can be fragile. Our free survey is done in the roof space with a torch and a tape, not from a photograph, because the position that looks best on paper is not always the one the timbers allow.
We also look at where the opening will fall in relation to the stairs and the headroom. A loft room has little space to waste, and a rooflight that lights the bed but not the floor beside it has only half done its job. Once the position is settled you get a fixed written quote, and the inside is plastered and left tidy.
One note on a loft conversion in a house with two floors below it. Windows set in the roof can bring light and ventilation, but the rules on escape and stairs belong to the Building Regulations, and the figures below are the ones that apply when we work out what the roof can carry.
Numbers behind a Towcester loft rooflight
- 1.4 W/m²K
- most heat a pitched-roof window may lose in an existing house
- 2.2 W/m²K
- maximum heat loss allowed when a low-pitch or flat rooflight goes into an existing house
- 4.5 m
- highest storey floor from the ground where an escape window can count
An extension with a tree beside it
New walls, new floor, and a view of bark.
Sideways
A rear extension on a newer Towcester street is a tidy thing. It has underfloor warmth, a good set of doors and a long worktop. It also has one boundary close by, and on that boundary stands a tree that was there long before the builders were. The side glass looks at its trunk and the doors at the far end look at the lawn, so the centre of the room is the darkest part of it.
Owners in this position add spotlights. They help after dark, but in the afternoon the room still feels like a corridor with a table in it, and the family drifts back into the older part of the house where the windows are bigger.
Straight up
Light from the sky does not care about the tree beside the wall. Over the dining end, a flat rooflight brings daylight onto the table; in a wider room, a roof lantern set mid-ceiling lets the sun travel across it as a side window never can. Rainwater drains away because the glass is pitched slightly, and each unit stands on an upstand.
The choice between them comes down to the shape of the room and how high the ceiling can go. A lantern needs headroom and a roof deep enough to take its frame. A flat unit suits a lower, simpler roof, and a sun tunnel can serve a small corridor or utility area where nothing else would fit.
Trees bring other things to a flat roof. Leaves settle on the glass, sap marks it and a branch overhead may shed in a storm. We take that into account when we choose the unit and the position. A rooflight a little way out from the tree gives you a clearer sky and an easier clean, and we can say how far is far enough once we have seen the roof.
The glass itself is double glazed with a coating that reduces heat loss, and the frame is built to meet the figures for an existing house. Tell us at the survey if the room gets strong sun, and the glass options can be discussed so it stays comfortable as well as bright.
| Choice | Suits | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Flat rooflight | A level roof over a table or worktop | Needs a clean upstand and fall |
| Roof lantern | A wide room with ceiling height to spare | Needs the depth for its frame |
| Sun tunnel | A small, windowless utility or corridor | Gives a pool of light, not a wash |
| Roof window | A pitched slope on the main house | Fits only where the roof is pitched |
Planning with West Northamptonshire Council
Planning for Towcester sits with West Northamptonshire Council. The council keeps a conservation area map for the town, so part of the old centre is covered, and a conservation area is a place where an extra layer of thought applies without necessarily removing your permitted development. An Article 4 direction can do that, and only the council can tell you whether one touches your street. Listed buildings are a different matter again and need their own consent for roof changes.
Each condition on permitted development is listed in a separate guide. Read our skylight planning permission guide first, and then use the planning and building control pages at West Northamptonshire Council to check your address. Its conservation area appraisals hold the map for Towcester.
Building Regulations run alongside planning. We send the Building Control notification for any notifiable work, and the fitting is built to the rules in force at the time. The council explains its own route on the building control page. If you are unsure about listing or a boundary, a quick question to the planning team before you order anything saves a redesign later.
The drive up from Milton Keynes
A survey visit follows the road north-west for 14.1 miles, about 19 minutes at the wheel from Milton Keynes. It is a short run, with the A5 and A43 giving the two ways in, and the A5 still passes through the middle of the town. The town had a railway station of its own once, with lines to Blisworth, Banbury, Stratford-upon-Avon and Olney, but the site is now a supermarket, and the nearest station today is at Northampton.
That makes the road our route, and it is a route that costs little time. A survey fits into half a morning with the journey included. Putting in a single rooflight occupies a day or two, so we are not parked on your drive for long.
Nearby towns and villages have their own pages if you live a little way out: Silverstone, Greens Norton and Blisworth, the last of which is the place the railway chose over Towcester in 1838. Each has housing of its own, so the advice on those pages differs from this one.
Choosing between a window in the slope and a unit in the flat
The roofs in a town this old range widely, so the first step is to sort yours into one of three groups. A pitched slope with a loft room beneath it wants a roof window or, if the street needs care, a conservation rooflight. Over a flat-roofed extension you choose between a flat rooflight and a lantern rising above the roof. A dark hall or landing with a roof above and no room for a large opening can take a sun tunnel.
Size comes next. A bigger unit is not always a better one. A rooflight that is too large for a small room makes it hot in summer and can leave glare on a screen. Floor area, ceiling height and the way the roof faces are what we weigh, and then we propose a size that suits all three.
Where a tree stands near the house, shape and position count for more than size. A unit set nearer the middle of the room clears the canopy sooner than one set at the edge, and it gives light to the part of the room that the side window cannot reach.
Standing in the room before anyone climbs a ladder
The free survey starts inside, in whichever room is to be altered. We begin in the chair you would choose, glance at the ceiling and ask what bothers you about the room. Next comes a look at the structure, from the roof space or from up on the roof, to judge what it will allow. An older house prompts a check of its timbers and roof covering. On a newer extension we look at the fall, the build-up of the roof and the way water leaves it.
Measurements and photographs come next, and you are shown two or three possible layouts before anyone commits to one. You then receive a fixed written quote that does not change on the day. The 10-year workmanship guarantee is in writing, and the inside is plastered and left tidy.
Ready to start? Give us the street and a photo of the room, using WhatsApp on 07880 284133 or the address info@vertexskylightsmiltonkeynes.co.uk. You can also use the quote form.
Watling Street roofs: Towcester questions
Does the Towcester conservation area take in my street?
The council's list includes a conservation area for Towcester, and a map shows its extent. The council holds the exact boundary. Ask its planning team two things: is your street within the boundary, and does an Article 4 direction apply? Ask before you order: where the roof is visible from the road, a slim conservation-pattern frame may suit better.
Can a rooflight help a room that looks at a tree?
Yes. A tree blocks the side window, but it stands beside the roof, not over it. Nothing overhead blocks the view, which is why a roof window or rooflight can see the sky above the canopy. For an extension choose a flat rooflight; for a pitched loft, a roof window.
What is the distance to Towcester, and when can you come?
Expect a 19 minute drive over 14.1 road miles, heading north-west from Milton Keynes. A survey is a short trip for us. WhatsApp 07880 284133 with the street and a picture of the room, and we will fix a day that suits.
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