Chesterfield: 26.1 miles to the north-north-west, near our 30-mile edge
Skylights & rooflights in Chesterfield
A market and industrial town in the eastern foothills of the Pennines, with a long list of listed buildings and suburbs that spread in every direction. Many of its rooms still get their light from the wrong side of the house.
Where the coalfield met the Pennines
Chesterfield sits where the Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire Coalfield meets the eastern edge of the Pennines. Collieries once shaped the town and every one has now closed. The streets stayed when the pits went, and each roof needs a survey rather than a guess.
Chesterfield, read from the roof down
Chesterfield is a market and industrial town in Derbyshire with a recorded population of 76,394. It lies 24 miles north of Derby and 11 miles south of Sheffield, where the Rother and the Hipper meet. We reach it at the edge of our range, so we treat the visit with a little more planning. The five chapters below start with the council and the town's heritage, then move through the industrial past, the rivers and parks, the road network and the rooflights we would suggest. For the wider service, read our skylight installation in Nottingham page.
01
Chesterfield Borough Council and 124 listed buildings
The local planning authority is Chesterfield Borough Council, and it is the body we deal with on every Chesterfield job. Neither Nottingham City Council nor Sheffield has any say.
Chesterfield's listed buildings and the conservation question
Measured out 1.5 km from the centre, the town has no conservation area. We still put your address to the borough before anything is ordered.
The listed buildings are another matter. Historic England records 124 inside that same ring: one Grade I, nine at Grade II*, 113 at Grade II and one with its grade unrecorded. With that many listings, an older property may well sit next to something protected. A listing can extend to features that are not obvious from the street, so we look at the list entry for any older property.
124listed
inside a 1.5 km reach of the centre
9Grade II*
among them, with one Grade I
What that means for a rooflight
For an ordinary unlisted house outside any restricted area, a rooflight usually falls under national permitted development. The conditions are explained in our guide to planning for rooflights, which we keep in one place so the detail does not drift. A listed property needs listed building consent before any roof opening is cut.
Should the work count as notifiable, we make the Building Control notification. You do not chase the council, and the installation meets the regulations of the day.
02
Coal, iron and a mixed stock of buildings
Chesterfield's story is industrial. Between 1981 and 2002, fifteen thousand jobs in the coal industry were lost here and every colliery closed. A company founded at Clay Cross produced coal, iron ore and limestone, and a sizeable seam of coal was found while the Clay Cross Tunnel was being built. One industrial estate in the town is recorded as home to firms in insulation, stainless steel sinks and felt.
A town this size is not uniform. Older and newer streets sit close together, so the roof in front of us decides the product, not the postcode.
How we deal with an unknown roof
On the survey we start with the underside. In the loft we check how the roof is framed, how thick the insulation is and whether it has been disturbed, and where pipes, cables and tank sit. The pattern of the timbers decides what size of window can fit between them without extra framing.
Then we read the outside: the covering, its age, and the state of the ridge and the gutters. A new window needs a sound surface to seal against. If the tiles near the planned spot are tired, we say so before the price is written.
Back in the loft we also look at what sits under the planned position: a tank, a run of cable, a chimney breast. A hillside town has plenty of roofs that were altered over the years, and a patched roof shows where an earlier owner found trouble. We note it, show you the notes, and price around what we saw.
Industrial buildings and small commercial jobs
Small commercial jobs are welcome as well as houses. A workshop or an office under a flat roof can use a large flat rooflight or a lantern in the same way a kitchen does.
- Ridge
- The line along the top of a pitched roof where the two slopes meet.
- Underlay
- The sheet beneath tiles or slates that catches any water that gets past them.
- Upstand
- The raised edge around a flat-roof opening that a rooflight is fixed to.
03
Two rivers, a canal and a town of parks
What all that water and green means for a roof between October and March.
Chesterfield stands at the confluence of the River Rother and the River Hipper. About 1.5 km out, the map also names the Chesterfield Canal and Clubmill Reservoir. There are six named parks in the same radius: Queen's Park at 0.5 km, Riverside and Trinity at 0.6, Abercrombie at 1.0, and Edinburgh Road and Spital at 1.3.
The town sits in the eastern foothills of the Pennines, and the land around it lifts. Hillside weather behaves differently from the flat, and your roof is the first thing to notice.
Wetter, windier, colder
Rising ground can bring harsher weather. For a rooflight, that puts weight on the parts you never see: the flashing, the upstand, the seal round the frame. We choose the flashing kit for your tile or slate and set it with care, because long wet spells find any weakness. Water should leave the slope quickly and never sit against the frame.
Glass in a cold town
On a raw morning the glass is the chilliest part of the room, and steam heads for it first. Warm-edge glazing keeps the inner pane nearer to room temperature, so less breath and kettle steam condenses there. An opening sash, or a small vent in the frame, lets the rest go outside.
Trees and parks
With this many parks in the middle of town, leaves are guaranteed. On a flat roof they pile up round the upstand and trap water. We build the upstand tall and lay the roof finish to drain away from it. On a pitched slope the right flashing lets leaves wash past.
04
Eight numbered roads, one open station and a long drive
Chesterfield is 26.1 miles from the city centre by road, north-north-west of the centre, and a drive of around 36 minutes if the roads run clear. That puts it near the edge of the 30 miles we cover. We plan a visit here with you in advance rather than squeezing it in.
The roads
The middle of town has eight numbered roads close by: the A61, A617, A619, A632, B6039, B6051, B6057 and B6543. Some well-known junctions help too. There is a Morrisons where Chatsworth Road meets Walton Road, a Sainsbury's on Rother Way, and a Tesco Extra at the junction known as Tesco Roundabout. If you direct us by supermarket, we will know the place.
| Suburb | Distance | Covered |
|---|---|---|
| Spital | 0.9 km | Yes |
| Stonegravels | 1.1 km | Yes |
| Boythorpe | 1.3 km | Yes |
| Brampton | 2.2 km | Yes |
| Newbold | 2.2 km | Yes |
| Whittington Moor | 2.5 km | Yes |
Rail
Chesterfield station is open, 0.6 km from the centre. We still arrive by van.
26.1miles
out from the city centre
36minutes
driving, traffic allowing
8roads
classified, within about 1 km of the centre
Suburbs we cover
The map names a dozen neighbourhoods within a few kilometres of the centre, from Spital to Whittington Moor. All of them lie within our radius. Several are on the list below, with their distance from the middle of the town.
The survey is free. We read the room and the roof, and then the written price follows. See our places we cover page for the surrounding towns. Ask for the glazing to suit the slope it sits on, since north and south panes behave differently.
05
The three rooflights we reach for first
We do not assume one answer for a town this size. We take the dark room as the starting point and choose from three products.
Bungalows and the roof above the hall
A bungalow has a lot of roof and often a hallway or bathroom in the middle that never sees outside. A sun tunnel brings light down from the roof through a mirror-lined tube to a ceiling diffuser, and it needs only a small opening. Stand in the hall with the door shut and you can judge how little daylight reaches it; that one look usually tells us whether a tube or a small flat rooflight does the job. Our photo of a sun tunnel dome on a brick bungalow roof shows how little it adds to the roofline.
Loft rooms and rooms in the slope
For a loft bedroom or study, reach for a roof window. It lets you see the sky and lets the room breathe. It changes how a loft feels in winter, when a dormer window or a gable end may not see much light.
Extensions with flat roofs
A single-storey extension that reaches into the garden can leave its inner end dim. A roof lantern or a large flat rooflight brings daylight to that far end, and the lantern looks bright even on an overcast afternoon.
Small commercial roofs
Workshops, offices and shop units are welcome. They are mostly flat-roofed, so the same upstand and flashing detail applies.
When a Chesterfield rooflight has clouded
Where an older rooflight has clouded inside the glass or its frame has given up, a new unit on the same opening is sometimes the tidier route. We tell you after the survey, and the work comes with a written 10-year workmanship guarantee.
Before the survey in Chesterfield
Chesterfield has so many listed buildings. How do I know if mine is one?
The national list can be searched by address, and the borough council holds its own records. If you are unsure, tell us the address when you book. We check the listing and conservation position with Chesterfield Borough Council before any rooflight is ordered, and we tell you plainly what we find.
Does Chesterfield have conservation areas?
Not one lies inside 1.5 km of the middle of town. We ask the borough about your street before ordering, and if it does fall inside one, permitted development normally still covers a house rooflight there. The exception is an Article 4 direction.
Our bungalow has a dark hallway in the middle. What would you fit?
Most likely a sun tunnel, which carries light from a small dome on the roof to a diffuser in the hall ceiling. If the loft space above is clear, the run is simple. If something is in the way, we look at a small flat rooflight instead. The survey decides which.
Will the quote change if you have to travel to Whittington Moor or Newbold?
The quote is written after the survey and it is fixed. Every Chesterfield suburb falls within the 30 miles we cover, and we visit you at home. The figure on paper is what you pay.