22.6 miles by road, heading north-west out of the city
Skylights & rooflights in Clay Cross
An iron and coal town that grew from a small village called Clay Lane. Its late Victorian villas, like many older houses, keep a good share of their floor space away from the windows.
Pipe that made a small town known worldwide
Ductile iron pipe was developed here and sold internationally, which made Clay Cross famous for iron and coal far beyond Derbyshire. The works behind it needed a workforce, and the town grew to house it.
Clay Cross, read from the roofs
Clay Cross is a North East Derbyshire town and parish, about five miles south of Chesterfield, with a recorded population of 8,915. Until the early nineteenth century it was a small village called Clay Lane. Coal, iron and the railway changed that. What follows covers the council that decides, the houses the boom left, the A61 that serves the town, the setting and the products we would consider. A short introduction to the firm sits under skylight installation in Nottingham.
01
Who decides: North East Derbyshire District Council
Clay Cross lies in Derbyshire under North East Derbyshire District Council, the planning authority. Questions about a roof opening, a listed house or Building Control go to that office, not to Nottingham.
The protected centre
There is a single conservation area, Clay Cross itself, 60 metres from the centre point and designated in September 2010. It contains a single listed building, at Grade II. Extend the radius to 1.5 km and Historic England lists eight buildings, every one at Grade II.
A short list, but one worth a look. A house next to a listed building is not listed itself, while a listed house anywhere in the parish needs consent first, so the address check covers both cases. So we put your address to the district council and wait for a plain answer before any rooflight is ordered.
1area
conservation area recorded, designated 2010
8listed
buildings out to 1.5 km, all of them Grade II
What the designation changes
Does a house in the conservation area lose its usual right? Only if an Article 4 direction applies, which is the first thing we look up. The listed building itself needs consent before any new roof opening. A flush unit sits neatly on either slope. Where no direction applies, we pick whichever slope lights the room best.
National rules, one page
National permitted development rules and the Building Regulations are covered on our planning permission for rooflights page. Read it first if you want the England-wide picture, and come back here for the local questions.
Should the job be notifiable, we make the Building Control filing, and whoever inspects, council surveyor or registered approver, receives it from us.
02
Villas, terraces and the roofs of a boom town
Clay Cross trebled in population by 1840, as demand for coal and other minerals grew. The oldest building still standing is the George and Dragon Inn. George Stephenson found coal and iron while driving the tunnel for the North Midland Railway, and his company went on to set up works here. The coal supplied from Durham was preferred for coke, so the works turned instead to ironworking and brickmaking.
The housing followed the work. In the late Victorian period middle-class villa-style houses were also built, in a new part of the town. Where a house is a smaller terrace instead, the thinking changes.
The villa
A villa of that era is often a generous house, and its roof space can be sizeable. The loft has room for a bedroom or a study, and a roof window is the usual way to bring it to life. Because the roof is large, there is more than one slope to choose from, and we can often find one that is out of sight from the road.
- Pitch
- How steeply a roof slopes, measured in degrees, which narrows the choice of windows and flashings.
- Roofline
- The outline of the roof as seen from the street, including ridge, eaves and any openings.
- Roof space
- The enclosed area under the roof, often called the loft.
The working terrace
Terraces are smaller, with fewer rooms and less spare roof. Here the question is more often about the stair, the landing or a dark back kitchen than about a whole new bedroom. A small flat rooflight or a light tube can do more for a room like that than a big window would, and it leaves the roofline quiet.
Both need a survey first
Neither kind of house can be judged from the pavement. Whatever the age, the timbers, the covering and the pitch get inspected before we choose a size or write a price.
03
The A61 and the road into Clay Cross
The road from the city centre to Clay Cross runs 22.6 miles towards the north-west, and a van needs about 37 minutes. Two classified roads serve the centre: the A61 and the A6175. Trains and trams are out of reach, with no station or stop inside 2 km.
The A61 is the busy one. We plan visits around the traffic, and nothing about a survey depends on how fast the road is moving.
The survey in practice
It costs nothing, and the order never changes. We begin indoors, with you, in the room that is too dark. When is it worst, which end fails first, what has been tried already? Then we climb up to the roof. The quote that follows is a fixed price on paper, and it holds on the day.
22.6miles
of road between here and the city
37minutes
usual van drive
Parking, access and the back garden
Older streets can leave a house with nowhere to park out front. When you book, mention how a van might reach you and whether a path leads to the rear. We try to carry everything round the outside rather than through the hall.
Holmgate and the villages around
Holmgate, a suburb lying 1.3 km from the town point, is inside our area. So do the surrounding villages, and anywhere else up to 30 road miles out appears under areas we cover.
04
Kenning Park, the railway legacy and the weather overhead
Setting, old and new, and what winter does to glass.
The town's setting is told through its buildings as much as its land. Hill House, built by 1833, was bought in 1837 by the North Midland Railway Company as an office for its resident engineer, Frederick Swanwick. Holmgate Evangelical Church stands on Valley Road in Holmgate. For green space, Kenning Park lies 0.5 km out, and North Wingfield Nature Reserve is 1.4 km away.
A park close to the middle and a nature reserve nearby mean trees, and trees bring weather of their own to a roof.
Cold glass in a damp season
Water vapour from cooking and washing needs somewhere to settle, and the first place is cold glass. It is why a kitchen rooflight can run with drips in January even though it is not leaking. Glazing that stays warmer on its inner face lessens it. An opening unit lets the damp out, and for a bathroom that is the more useful feature.
Light under thick cloud
On a flat grey day, the sky is one even source and the room needs to see as much of it as possible. A rooflight facing up collects light that a vertical window never sees, since the window looks across the garden at the fence. That is the whole case for a roof opening in a deep room.
Debris and drainage
Where trees and a park are close, leaves and seeds land on roofs. On a flat roof we build the kerb tall enough to stand above any pooled water. On slopes, the flashing is made to fit the covering.
05
What we would put in a Clay Cross home
Villas and terraces call for different products, though three cover most of what people ask.
Roof windows for the villa loft
A roof window in a villa's roof space turns it into a room people want to be in. It lets you watch the sky and gives you a way to air the room. If you are replacing an older window, the existing opening can often take the new one, which keeps the work tidy.
A lantern over an extension
Plenty of homes have been extended at the back. A roof lantern on the flat roof of an extension throws light from several sides and keeps a long room bright when the garden doors are not enough.
A sun tunnel for a closed-in terrace landing
The landing and the bathroom in a terraced house often share the middle of the plan, where no wall faces outside. A sun tunnel draws daylight off a small roof dome and passes it to a diffuser panel in the ceiling. You notice it on the first dull afternoon.
Replacement is as much a part of the work as new openings. A rooflight that has misted, leaks at the corner or has simply tired can be taken out and a new one set into the same opening, provided the upstand or the flashing is sound. If it is not, we say so at the survey and show you what needs to change, rather than fitting a good window onto a poor base.
Whatever we fit, the workmanship comes with a written guarantee for ten years. Every Clay Cross price is written only after we have stood on the roof and looked at it ourselves.
Choosing between a fixed and an opening unit
Which room is it for? A villa bedroom in the roof, where the air gets stale, wants a sash that opens. A terrace landing, where the issue is only light, can have a fixed dome and tube. Picking the right kind avoids paying for a feature the room will never use.
What we check on the day of the survey
We look at the covering, the rafters beneath it and the height of the ceiling below, because all three change the frame, the flashing and the finish indoors. Then we mark the opening on the slope, so you can see where the light will come from before you agree to anything.
Straight answers for Clay Cross householders
Who do I ask about a rooflight in Clay Cross?
Planning decisions here are taken by North East Derbyshire District Council. Most rooflights on houses fall under national rules, but a listed building, or a road covered by Article 4, can need more. We check with the council for your address first, and we look after Building Control when the job requires it.
Can a villa loft take a roof window?
Usually the structure allows it, but only a visit proves it. We measure the gap between rafters, check the covering and the pitch, then recommend a size. If the roof needs extra framing round the opening, that appears in the fixed written quote.
Our terrace landing is dark all day. What helps?
A sun tunnel is a good first choice because it needs no outside wall. Where the landing lies beneath a slope, a compact roof window gives more light still. We compare both at the free survey and give you a price for the one that suits.
Do you come out to Holmgate and nearby villages?
Yes. Holmgate is part of Clay Cross, and the villages nearby lie within the 30 road miles we cover. You do not need to visit anywhere, because we come to you.