Coalville lies 24.3 road miles down the A511 side, south-south-west
Skylights & rooflights in Coalville
A town born from its collieries, with rows of terraces from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries at the core and larger detached houses along London Road and Forest Road. Back rooms in houses like these can wait all winter for daylight.
A town that built what the mines needed
Coalville started as a collieries town, and within thirty years it was milling flour, making bricks, running engineering works and manufacturing elastic web. The streets of houses grew up around that mix of trades, and their roofs are what we are asked about now.
Coalville, from terrace to rooflight
Coalville is a town in the North West Leicestershire district, on the A511 between Leicester and Burton upon Trent, with a recorded population of 21,975. We reach it from skylight installation in Nottingham by driving south-south-west for 24.3 road miles. These five chapters start with the terraces that give the town its look, then take in planning, the old railway, the forest edge and the products that suit it.
01
A core of terraces, and detached houses on two roads
The central core of Coalville is described as streets of homogeneous terraced housing, built towards the end of the nineteenth century and in the early part of the twentieth. Detached houses cluster along London Road and Forest Road. It is a useful outline of the town, and we still read your particular roof before suggesting anything at all.
The town itself is young. In its early days the road towards Bardon held almost nothing until a handful of cottages near what is now Whitwick Road and Hotel Street, and the way towards Whitwick held little except a smithy, a carpenter's shop and the homes of the tradesmen. Houses came quickly after that, because the pits needed workers.
What a terrace asks of a rooflight
A terrace is a long run of roofs that share walls, and the back is usually where daylight can be added. The front slope faces the street and is usually best left as the street knows it. At the back, a room that has been extended or converted often lights only its garden end. An opening in the roof above the middle of the room changes that.
In the loft we measure the spaces between rafters, since a roof window is chosen to sit inside one of them. Older timbers can be spaced unevenly, so we never work from a catalogue size alone.
Detached houses
Along London Road and Forest Road, a detached house has more roof, more slopes and often a deeper plan. That tends to leave a dark centre, such as the stairwell or the hall, which a sun tunnel or a small rooflight can reach.
- Rear slope
- The face of a pitched roof turned away from the road, where new openings usually go.
- Rafter
- A sloping beam from ridge down to wall that supports the covering.
- Landing
- The floor space at the top of the stairs, often windowless.
02
A conservation area designated in 2014
2listed
Grade II buildings inside the conservation area
6listed
Grade II buildings in all, out to 1.5 km
Coalville is in Leicestershire, which puts planning in the hands of North West Leicestershire District Council. The council designated a Coalville conservation area on 17 September 2014, and it covers the town centre point. Two Grade II buildings are listed inside it. Six listed buildings are on record within 1.5 km, every one of them Grade II.
The designation has a history. In June 2014 it was reported that the district council was considering protecting the town centre, something English Heritage had encouraged. A few months later it happened. Anyone who knew the town before 2014 may not realise their street is now inside it.
What this changes
If your property stands within the area, the rooflight on a house needs no application so long as no Article 4 direction applies, and we check for one. Two of the buildings in the central area are listed at Grade II, and the roof of a listed building cannot be opened up without separate consent.
We find out your property's position from the council before we draw anything up. The national conditions, which are the same in every English town, sit in planning permission for rooflights. This page covers only what is local.
Building Control
Cutting a new opening in a roof usually brings Building Control into the picture. When it does, the notification goes in from us, whether the receiving body is North West Leicestershire's building control service or an independent registered approver, and what we build meets current Building Regulations.
03
Three closed stations and the A511
For the van, the way in is the A511, the only classified road close to the town centre. It links Leicester and Burton upon Trent, and Coalville sits on it. Our drive from Nottingham city centre is 24.3 road miles and takes around 33 minutes in normal traffic.
The railway is gone, though the map still shows where it ran. Coalville Town station, 0.2 km from the centre point, is recorded as closed. So are Coalville East at 1 km and Swannington at 1.7 km. Heavy coal traffic had encouraged more lines linking the town to Nuneaton and later to Loughborough, over the Charnwood Forest Railway. There is no live station for a rail visitor, so a survey means a van.
The town as an industrial place
Quarrying, textile work and engineering, including railway wagon production, grew in the town through the nineteenth century. Flour milling, brick making, engineering and the manufacture of elastic web followed within thirty years of the first colliery.
| Station | Distance | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Coalville Town | 0.2 km | Closed |
| Coalville East | 1 km | Closed |
| Swannington | 1.7 km | Closed |
Booking a visit
The survey is free, and we try to make it a short job for you. We ask where a van can wait, how to reach the back of the house and whether the loft is open. Then we measure, photograph the roof and write a quote that stays fixed.
It is worth looking at the loft from inside on a dull afternoon before choosing a position.
24.3road miles
heading south-south-west from Nottingham
33minutes
time behind the wheel, roads clear
04
Parks, a lake and the abbey near Charnwood
Parks, a lake and an abbey close by.
The Cistercian monastery of Mount Saint Bernard Abbey stands close to the town, on the fringe of Charnwood Forest. Hermitage Lake is the named water within about 1.5 km. The parks are closer: Phoenix Park lies 0.4 km from the centre point, Coalville Park 0.7 km, Snibston Country Park 0.9 km and Scotland Playing Fields 1.2 km. Kelham Bridge Nature Reserve lies 2.7 km out.
Green space close to terraced streets means trees, and trees mean leaves, seeds and shade. All three affect a rooflight.
Shade and light
A tree on the south side of a house will shade a rooflight for much of the day in leaf, and for less of it in winter. In the grey months of the year the light comes in from across the whole sky, not from one spot, so the best placement is usually the one that sees the most open sky, not the one that faces south.
Leaves, moss and gutters
On a flat roof, leaves gather against the raised border of a rooflight and hold water there. On a pitched roof, moss builds up on a shaded slope. In both cases the work is in the detail: a border built high enough, a roof finish that falls away from it, and a flashing matched to the covering. We choose those on the survey, not from a standard drawing.
Cold glass
Damp air from a bath or a pan will always find the coldest surface, and in a bathroom with a rooflight that is the glass. Warm-edge glazing and a rooflight that opens deal with it between them.
05
Choosing for a Coalville house
Three problems come up again and again in a town of terraces with some larger houses at its edge.
A back room that stays dim
A terrace with a rear extension or a kitchen opened out into the old yard has a deep room with one window. One of our flat roof rooflights, or a lantern, over the far end changes it. The service page sets out sizes, fixed or opening types and the raised border they sit on.
A bedroom in the loft
Once a loft has been boarded and lined, a roof window gives sky and air. It is a standard piece of work in a pitched roof and one we can plan to a fixed price.
Landings, halls and bathrooms with nowhere to put a window
Where a window has nowhere to go, a sun tunnel is the quiet option. A short mirrored pipe drops light from the roof to a diffuser, with no new window and very little disturbance upstairs.
Replacements and the guarantee
If a rooflight already in the house has clouded between the panes, we say after the survey whether to swap the whole thing or fit a new unit into the existing opening. Either way, the workmanship is covered by a written ten-year guarantee.
To see the neighbouring places we work in, use areas we cover.
The stairwell in a terrace
In a terrace the stairs often run up the party wall with no window of their own, so the lamp is on all day in winter. A rooflight above the stairwell lights the treads, the landing and part of the hall in one go. Standing on the stairs with the tape, we check what is above: a loft hatch, a tank, a chimney breast. We also look at how you would clean it. A unit over a stairwell is awkward to reach from inside unless it is placed near the landing, so we aim for the position where a long-handled cloth reaches the glass without leaning over the banister. The same thinking applies to a bathroom with no window.
Coalville questions that come up before a survey
Is the Coalville town centre a conservation area?
Yes. A Coalville conservation area was designated in September 2014 and covers the town centre point, with two Grade II listed buildings inside it. If your property is near the centre, we check the boundary with North West Leicestershire District Council before a rooflight is ordered, and tell you what it means for your roof.
Can a roof window go in a terraced house roof?
Usually, yes, on the rear slope. The window has to fit between the rafters, and the loft needs enough height to frame the opening. We check both on the free survey and quote a fixed price. A front slope facing the street may need consent where an Article 4 direction covers the house or the house is listed.
How far out is Coalville, and do you travel that far?
Coalville is 24.3 road miles from the centre of Nottingham, around 33 minutes by van. That is inside our 30-mile area, so a survey is free here as anywhere. We come to you, so the room and roof are seen as they are. The written quote that follows is fixed.
What would light a landing in the middle of my house?
A sun tunnel, if the landing has loft space above it, or a small roof window if it sits directly under a slope. Both bring light down from the roof without a new outside wall. The survey shows which fits, and we explain the choice before giving you a fixed price.