Wendover railway-era streets with skylight or rooflight options
A market town at the foot of the Chilterns, with a red brick clock tower, medieval plots and a canal arm. Read on to match a rooflight to each kind of Wendover roof.
Old plots, red brick and newer streets under the hills
Beneath the Chiltern Hills, Wendover is a civil parish and market town, 26.2 road miles south of Milton Keynes, with Buckinghamshire Council as its planning authority. It has held a market charter since 1464, and a chartered market in 1214 before that, which is a long time for houses to have been altered, extended and re-roofed. Knowing which part of town a house stands in tells you a good deal about its roof.
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The medieval core: narrow plots, timber frames and brick
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Streets that grew with the railway and the bypass
The older streets of Wendover still show the planning of the Middle Ages, with long, narrow burgage plots running back from the road. Aylesbury Street, lined with trees, has the sixteenth-century timber-framed Chiltern House and the eighteenth-century Red House, and the red brick clock tower of 1842 stands where High Street meets Tring Road. Roofs here are close together, gardens are long and thin, and a rear room can look straight at a neighbour's wall. The town has a conservation area, so a slim conservation rooflight that sits low in the slope is the sensible starting point for any old roof.
The railway arrived in September 1892 and the A413 bypass followed in 1998, and the streets between and beyond them hold houses of every decade since. Plenty have been extended at the back, with lofts converted to bedrooms or workrooms. The roof choices are wider here: a roof window for a loft slope, a flat rooflight for a kitchen extension, a sun tunnel for a stairwell that has no window of its own. Trees on the hillside edge and in long gardens can stand right beside the windows.
The sky above three Wendover rooms that cannot see it
A loft room shaded by a garden tree
Leaves are lovely in July and a curtain in the other months.
Sideways
Many gardens in Wendover run back a long way, and the trees in them have had years to grow. A loft bedroom with a gable window may look straight into a branch, and in summer the glass fills with green. It is pretty, but the room is dim at the very hours when you want to use it.
Winter tells a different story. The branches go bare, the light returns and the room feels like another place. So the room has two moods a year and neither of them is reliable.
Moving the window will not help, because wherever you put a pane in the gable, the tree is standing in front of it.
Straight up
Set into the pitch, a roof window faces up past the tree line. The canopy stands beside the house; it does not stand over the roof. Straight up is clear, and the glass catches the open sky even when the side of the room is full of leaves.
We match the unit to the rafters and the room, and finish the lining inside so that the splay passes the light along the ceiling. If the roof sits in a part of town with extra care for its appearance, a slimmer rooflight keeps the slope looking right from the street.
You also gain fresh air, if you choose a version that opens, and a view of the weather, which a gable window under a tree never gave you.
Because the town sits close to the edge of the Chilterns AONB, the council's planning team is a good first call for any visible change to a roof. We are glad to talk the plan through with you in advance.
Terms for a Wendover loft
Burgage plot
A long, narrow strip of land running back from a medieval street frontage.
Roof window
A glazed unit set into the sloping face of a pitched roof and sitting level with the covering.
Rooflight
The trade name for any window set into a roof, flat or pitched.
Splay
The angled lining inside the opening that spreads daylight across the ceiling.
Rafter
A timber running up the pitch under the covering, whose spacing limits the width of an opening.
Article 4 direction
A council order that takes away some permitted development rights in a defined area.
A stair landing lit by borrowed doorways
The brightest part of the house, with the lights on at noon.
Sideways
A stair and landing in a house at the foot of the hills can be the darkest place in the building. The windows belong to the rooms, and the landing sits in the middle, borrowing from doorways. If a mature tree shades the nearest window, even the borrowed light is dim.
You walk through it a dozen times a day, carrying washing and half asleep. Nobody sits on a landing, so the darkness goes unremarked, but it makes the whole upstairs feel narrower than it is.
There is no wall to knock through, because the landing is in the middle of the plan, and a new side window has nowhere to go.
Straight up
A sun tunnel reaches the sky by a different route. A small dome on the roof gathers the light, and a tube lined with reflective material carries it through the loft to the diffuser that finishes the landing ceiling. The loft space in between is crossed with no loss of room.
Where there is a pitched roof above and space for a larger opening, a fixed roof window over the stairwell does the same work with a wider pool of light. Either way, the source is overhead, so the tree beside the house makes no difference.
The ceiling is finished neatly, the loft is left tidy and the landing simply becomes a lighter place to be.
Light that falls down a stairwell reaches the rooms below as well. A bright landing makes the hall easier to see, and a house that is lit from the top feels bigger on every floor.
Energy and escape numbers behind a Wendover roof job
- 1.4 W/m²K
- Part L, Table 4.2 maximum for a new roof window, or WER band B on the Window Energy Rating scale
- 2.2 W/m²K
- limit for a new flat rooflight or roof lantern fitted to an existing home (Part L, Table 4.2)
- 4.5 m
- height from the ground to the floor of a storey that can rely on an escape window
A bathroom that backs onto a blank wall
Steam needs somewhere to go, and daylight needs somewhere to come from.
Sideways
On a narrow plot, a bathroom can sit against the party wall or looks onto one a few feet off. The window, if there is one, is small and made of frosted glass. It lets in a grey light that never gets stronger, and in winter the room is lit by lamps from the moment you step in.
The other trouble is air. Steam from the shower has nowhere to go, the mirror stays fogged and the corners start to darken. Rooms like this need both light and ventilation, and a window to a wall gives neither well.
A bigger side window would only make a bigger view of the same blank brick.
Straight up
A rooflight above the bathroom looks over the wall rather than at it. Over an extension or a flat roof, a flat rooflight brings real daylight to the basin and the bath. Beneath a pitched slope, a roof window brings the same result.
If steam is the bigger worry, choose one that opens. An electric opening rooflight can be set to vent the room at the touch of a button, so the mirror clears and the walls stay dry.
Obscured glass is easy to arrange where the room needs privacy, though from a roof there is little to see in at anyway.
If a conservation area or a protected view comes into it, we advise on slimmer rooflight options and point you to the council for the formal answer.
Verdict: for a bathroom hemmed in by a wall, an opening rooflight overhead gives the daylight and the fresh air that a small side window cannot.
Planning your roof work in Wendover
Buckinghamshire Council takes the planning decisions for Wendover, with Wendover Parish Council beneath it at local level. For general guidance, start with the council's planning pages, and read our guide to skylight planning permission for how permitted development applies to rooflights.
Buckinghamshire Council's register names a conservation area for the town, Wendover. Being inside one does not, on its own, switch off permitted development; an Article 4 direction is what can do that. The council's conservation officers can confirm if your street is covered by either, and its conservation area pages are the place to look.
We make the Building Control notification for notifiable work, and the fitting meets the current Building Regulations. The council's building control page explains how that route works.
From Milton Keynes to the foot of the hills
Allow about 41 minutes for the southward drive from Milton Keynes to Wendover, 26.2 miles by road. Wendover lies about 0.4 km beyond the edge of the Chilterns AONB, which makes it worth asking the council early how it treats rooflights on slopes that can be seen.
Neighbours nearby include Weston Turville, Stoke Mandeville and Aston Clinton, which are all on the same side of the county. A survey visit in Wendover can sometimes take in a second house nearby, so mention a friend or relative if they have a dark room of their own.
Which rooflight for which Wendover roof
Old roofs in the centre call for a slim conservation rooflight that sits close to the covering. A loft conversion in a later house wants a roof window. A flat-roofed rear extension suits a flat rooflight or, as an alternative, a roof lantern.
A landing or a windowless hall is the sun tunnel's best ground. A bathroom needs ventilation as well as light, and an opening unit fits that job. If you are replacing a tired or misted unit, our page on VELUX windows explains how sizes and codes work.
The thermal numbers do matter. Whatever goes in has to meet the limits for an existing dwelling, and we specify accordingly so that a lighter room does not become a colder one.
How a Wendover survey runs
We come to the house, study the roof and then the room beneath it, and talk through what you would like to change. The survey is free. You hear what will work, what will not and why, with no pressure to decide.
The written quote that follows is fixed and holds on the day of the fitting. A 10-year workmanship guarantee, given in writing, covers the fitting, and you are left with tidy, finished rooms.
The fitting itself is brisk and planned, and we protect the rooms around it. We put homes first, though a small commercial job, a shop or a hall roof for example, is just as welcome.
A town that has always looked up
Wendover sits in a gap through the hills that has carried travellers since the days of the Icknield Way. The canal arm, the railway and the bypass each had their turn bringing people through. What has not changed is the sky above the roofs, which is as wide as it was when the market first met.
That is the useful fact for a homeowner. Trees, boundary walls and neighbours cover the view from the sides of a room, but they do not reach the sky straight overhead. A rooflight borrows that open patch of sky and drops it into the room.
To find out what that could mean for your own dark room, book a free survey or message us on WhatsApp.
Wendover roof questions
Can I fit a rooflight inside Wendover's conservation area?
Not automatically. A conservation area is on the council's list for the town, but only Buckinghamshire Council can confirm if your street lies inside that boundary and if an Article 4 direction applies there. For roofs where appearance matters, a slim conservation rooflight is the one designed for the job.
Can a tree next to my loft window be worked around?
Yes, and the answer is a roof window cut into the roof pitch. The canopy shades the side of the room, but it does not stand over the roof, so the glass above you stays clear of it. We check the line of the branches at the survey.
How far is Wendover from Milton Keynes by road?
The journey south is 26.2 road miles of driving, around 41 minutes. We make the journey for the free survey, and we agree a date for the fitting once you have accepted the fixed written quote.
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