Borrowash, 11.2 road miles west-south-west of Nottingham
Skylights & rooflights in Borrowash
A village just east of the Derby city boundary, where the Nottingham to Derby traffic runs past the front door. Rooms at the back of the house still wait for daylight like everywhere else.
Next door to a protected settlement
The civil parish is Ockbrook and Borrowash, and Ockbrook holds two conservation areas, one of them a Moravian settlement with fifteen listed buildings. With protected ground that close, we check the paperwork before we draw an opening on any roof.
Borrowash, read from the roof down
Borrowash is a village in the Erewash district of Derbyshire, home to 7,171 residents, and it shares a civil parish with Ockbrook. It lies right up against the eastern edge of Derby. Our five chapters follow the questions we work through before suggesting a skylight here: how the location shapes a visit, which council rules, what the old railway tells us, what the water and parkland do to a roof, and which products make sense. For the bigger picture, see skylight installation in Nottingham.
01
On the edge of Derby, and the long way from Nottingham
Borrowash sits immediately east of the Derby city boundary, but it is Nottingham we measure from. By road the village is 11.2 miles away, to the west-south-west of the city centre, and roughly 20 minutes' drive. Derby looks nearer on the map, yet the village lies comfortably within the 30-mile ring we work to from Nottingham.
The roads in and out
The A52, the A6005 and the B5010 all pass close to the village centre. The A52 is the Nottingham to Derby artery, so a visit from our side is a straight run along it. For anyone travelling without a car, Trent Barton's Indigo and i4 routes link the two city centres at frequent intervals, though a survey is something we do at your house, so you never need the bus for us.
Nobody can take a train to the village now. It once had its own station, and a later chapter looks at that.
11.2miles
driving distance into the city centre
20minutes
in the van, traffic allowing
3roads
A52, A6005 and B5010 close to the village centre
What the survey visit involves
We turn up, look at the room that frustrates you and ask where the light stops. Then we climb up to look at the roof itself: its pitch, its covering, the frame underneath and the way rain leaves it. Nothing is priced until we have done both. The survey costs nothing, and the figure we put in writing afterwards does not move.
Ahead of the visit we ask about parking for the van and whether a side passage reaches the garden, so ladders never cross your front rooms. Those two answers decide how the day runs.
Nearby places on both sides of the county line are listed on our areas we cover page.
02
Erewash decides, and Ockbrook is the place to watch
The local planning authority for Borrowash is Erewash Borough Council. Derby City Council, so close on the map, is not the body that decides your application. Questions about a new opening in the roof go to Erewash, and so does any Building Control matter where it is the chosen route.
Two conservation areas near the village
The planning records name two conservation areas close by, both designated on 4 July 1978. Ockbrook Village sits 0.87 km out and holds six listed buildings, one Grade II* and five Grade II. Ockbrook Moravian Settlement is 1.08 km out and holds fifteen: two at Grade II* and thirteen at Grade II. The parish carries both names, and the first area shares the Ockbrook name. A house on the Ockbrook side of the parish needs a proper look.
Draw a ring of 1.5 km round the centre and Historic England counts 35 listed buildings inside it. Three are Grade II* and thirty-two are Grade II. Erewash holds the boundary maps, and we ask the council directly whenever your house is old, close to Ockbrook or listed.
| Area | Distance | Listed buildings |
|---|---|---|
| Ockbrook Village | 0.87 km | 6 |
| Ockbrook Moravian Settlement | 1.08 km | 15 |
What stays the same everywhere
Whether a rooflight needs a planning application depends on national rules, which we explain in full in our guide to the planning rules for rooflights. We deliberately keep that detail in a single place. Here, our job is the local reading: where the house sits, which slope the street sees and what Erewash has on file.
When the work needs a Building Control notification, we file it. The installation then meets the regulations in force on the day. Measure the finished ceiling opening before ordering, not the rough roof cut.
03
A village that had its own station, and what that suggests
Borrowash once had a railway station. The Midland Counties Railway opened it in 1839, passenger services stopped in 1966 and the buildings were demolished in 1994. Today the nearest open station is further than two kilometres off.
It is a neat reminder that the place was shaped by transport, but it says little about your roof. Whatever its age, on the visit we read the roof itself: timbers, covering, pitch and the ceiling below.
Variety is the reason we measure
Two houses on the same road can have completely different roofs. One might be an older pitched roof with cut timbers and slates or tiles that show their years. The next might be a later build with a factory-made frame. Each asks something different of a new opening, so every roof gets its own answer.
In the loft we look for daylight showing between tiles, old water stains on the rafters and any sign that an earlier owner has already cut into the frame. Each of those changes how we frame the new opening, and each is easier to deal with when we find it at the survey rather than with the covering already lifted.
On an older slope we check the spacing of the timbers and the state of the covering around the opening, because a new window needs sound material to seal against. On a newer roof we look at how the frame is built, since sawing through a load-carrying member is never a casual decision.
- Pitch
- The angle of a roof slope, which decides which windows and flashings can be used on it.
- Reveal
- The inside faces of the opening, which can be angled and painted pale to bounce light into the room.
- Like-for-like
- A new unit that fits the existing opening without altering the roof structure.
Renewals as well as new openings
Not every job needs a new hole. A rooflight that has fogged between its panes, or whose frame has stopped closing properly, can often be exchanged on the opening it already has. We will tell you after the survey whether a like-for-like swap does the job or whether a different size would serve the room better.
04
The Derwent, the canal and open ground nearby
Why the surroundings matter more in November than in June.
Water runs through the neighbourhood. The map names the River Derwent and the Derby Canal within about 1.5 km, and the canal has been the subject of restoration work, including on one of its two locks. The Derby Canal Path, a named walking route, lies 0.8 km from the centre. A little further, 2.3 km out, is Elvaston Castle Local Nature Reserve.
None of that is dramatic, but water and trees nearby affect a roof in three ways.
Wet air and the inside of the glass
Where water is close by, damp air is common in the colder months. On a dull morning, the coldest surface in a room is often the glass, and that is where cooking steam and shower vapour settle first. Glass with a warm-edge spacer around the unit stays nearer to the temperature of the room. Add an opening sash, or a small vent in the frame, and steam can leave before it turns to droplets.
Moss, algae and the shaded slope
Slopes that face away from the low winter sun stay wet for longer and grow a green film. That is a cleaning job, but it also shapes where we put a new window. A rooflight set high on the slope clears the worst of the shade and collects more of the sky, which is the whole point on a grey day.
Light from the side
A tree line or a neighbour's gable can cut off a dormer or a side window. A rooflight sees straight up, so it keeps working when the horizon is blocked. That is often the difference for a rear room hemmed in by a boundary wall.
05
Three fixes, matched to three kinds of dark room
The room comes first, then the roof above it. Three products answer three distinct kinds of dark room.
For an extension or kitchen with a flat roof
A rear extension that reaches far into the garden leaves its inner end dim. A roof lantern is a small glazed house on top of the flat roof. Its sloping faces gather light from every direction, which is why it still reads bright under thick cloud. A big flat rooflight is the plainer option.
For a bedroom in the loft
A roof window puts sky and fresh air into a room under the slope. Set low enough to see out of from a chair, it changes how the room feels from October onwards. Add a blind at the same time and early summer mornings are handled too.
For a landing, a hall or a bathroom with nowhere for a window
A sun tunnel brings daylight down a reflective tube from a dome on the roof. It needs no outside wall and only a modest hole in the roof, which is why it suits a space in the middle of the house.
Guarantee and paperwork
Whatever goes in, our workmanship is guaranteed for ten years, and you get that on paper. The quote you sign is a fixed price. Where the job is notifiable, the Building Control side is handled for you, and the finished work meets current Building Regulations.
Borrowash homeowners ask us
Does living near Ockbrook mean I need permission for a rooflight?
Not automatically. The two Ockbrook conservation areas are about a kilometre from the village centre. If your house sits inside one, or is listed, the position changes. We check your address with Erewash Borough Council before anything is ordered.
Is Borrowash in Derby or Erewash for planning?
Erewash. The village sits just outside the Derby city boundary, in the Erewash district of Derbyshire, so Erewash Borough Council is the planning authority. We deal with them for you wherever an application or a Building Control notification is needed.
My bathroom has no window and the extractor struggles. Would a rooflight help?
It can. A rooflight that opens, or has a trickle vent, gives steam somewhere to go, and it brings daylight in at the same time. Where the bathroom is under the roof it is a straightforward fit. Where it is not, a sun tunnel may suit better. The survey settles which.
Will you come out if I am nearer Derby than Nottingham?
Yes. Borrowash lies 11.2 miles out along the road into Nottingham, well inside the 30 miles we cover. The survey costs you nothing, we come to the house, and the price we hand over afterwards stays put.