North-west of Nottingham's centre, 8.8 miles by road
Skylights & rooflights in Eastwood
Rows of 1860s miners' cottages, a conservation area in the middle of town and canals and the River Erewash within about a mile. Small rooms and low ceilings are where daylight matters most.
A writer's town of miners' terraces
D. H. Lawrence was born in Eastwood, and a trail painted along the pavement still leads visitors between the houses he knew. The Buildings, some 300 terraced miners' cottages from the 1860s, are a whole estate of pit housing, and in a tight terrace the roof is often the easiest place to add daylight.
Eastwood, from pit cottage to roof slope
Eastwood is a civil parish and town with 18,890 people on record, lying in the part of Nottinghamshire governed from Broxtowe. Coal built much of what stands here, and the streets still show it. We start with the council and the listed buildings, because here they can shape a job, then move through the cottages, the water, the cottage-sized products we fit and the roads. The overall service is covered on skylight installation in Nottingham.
01
A conservation area on the doorstep
Paperwork first, because in Eastwood it can decide the shape of the job. Broxtowe Borough Council is the planning authority. Nottingham City Council has no part in it.
What is on record
Eastwood's own conservation area begins about 80 metres from the town centre point. It was designated in 1977 and contains four listed buildings, all Grade II. Stretch the search to 1.5 km and Historic England shows 14 listed buildings in all, each of them Grade II, which is to say ten more than the conservation area holds. The Langley Mill, Great Northern Basin conservation area, 1.3 km away and designated in 1996, has none inside it, and takes its name from neighbouring Langley Mill.
With a conservation area that close, plenty of streets may fall inside or alongside it. Broxtowe confirms which side of the boundary your house stands, so that is our first call for any Eastwood address.
14Grade II
listed buildings inside a 1.5 km circle
1977year
Eastwood conservation area designated
What that changes
Listed houses need listed building consent before a roof is opened up. Inside the conservation area a house can still use permitted development unless Broxtowe has issued an Article 4 direction for that part of town. A rear opening is our first suggestion wherever the room allows it, as the street never sees it. Where a listed building or an Article 4 direction is involved, the council has the final say and we hear it before anything is bought.
England-wide matters, namely permitted development and Building Regulations, are laid out in our planning guide for rooflights.
One duty is ours. Where the work is notifiable we file the Building Control notice, with the council or with a registered approver, and you do not chase it. You get a rooflight built to the regulations as they stand.
02
Pit cottages and what is in the roof
In 1603 Eastwood was a village of about 170 people, and it stayed small until the Trent Navigation Company opened the Erewash Canal in 1779. Moorgreen Colliery opened in 1868, and in 1875 coal demand brought a railway station with services to Nottingham on the Great Northern Railway. In 1963 Moorgreen alone raised a million tons. The last coal mine in the area closed in 1985.
Housing grew alongside the pits. The Buildings, an estate of some 300 terraced miners' cottages put up in the 1860s, is the clearest example. Terraced cottages, built for the families who worked the pits. The Blue Line Trail, painted along the pavement, links the places tied to D. H. Lawrence, including the birthplace museum set up in a working-class Victorian house.
Small rooms, steep slopes
Cottages of that age usually have a steep back slope, modest rooms and small windows. A loft bedroom there suits a roof window, which brings in sky and air together. Rafters in an old roof are seldom evenly spaced, so the gaps are measured before a size is settled.
Back rooms and extensions
Plenty of cottages have gained a kitchen or utility room at the rear. The strip nearest the old house wall tends to be dim, and a flat rooflight there lights from above what the back window cannot reach.
- Back slope
- The side of the roof that faces away from the street, and usually the easier place for a new opening.
- Lining
- The membrane or boarding beneath the tiles that carries away any water that gets past them.
- Trimming
- Extra framing round an opening that takes the load of the rafters that were cut.
Older roofs get a proper look
No two of these roofs are quite alike. We look at the timbers, the lining and the way water leaves the roof. If the structure is sound, an opening can often go in with light trimming. If it is not, you will hear that before any price, and the written quote will reflect what we found. For a loft that is to be a bedroom, the rafter spacing and the headroom under the ridge decide how large a roof window can be; if the room is only for storage and a little air, a smaller opening on the same slope often does the job.
03
Spoil heap, canals and park edges
Parks, reserves and four waterways close by.
Within a 1.5 km circle sit four named waterways, listed here: the Nottingham Canal, the Erewash Canal, the River Erewash and the Cromford Canal. Parks include Coronation Park, Mansfield Road Recreation Ground, Jubilee Park, Beauvale Jubilee Park and Giltbrook Green, and a short drive takes you to Colliers Wood, the Smithurst Road reserve, Brinsley Headstocks and Aldercar Flash.
Look north from the town and a large hill fills the skyline. Local people have their own nicknames for it. It is land reclaimed from a former slag heap, and a reminder that mining shaped this ground.
Open ground, open sky
Parks and a hill on the edge of town leave plenty of sky overhead, and a rooflight works by looking up at all of it. Under a flat grey sky, a wide flat unit or a lantern collects light from the whole dome rather than a single patch. That is the point of the wedge we work from: the grey half of the year is when Eastwood rooms feel the shortage most, so we plan openings for November, not June.
Wind and wet
Roofs on the edge of a town catch more weather. On a pitched roof, flashings matter most, so each one is fitted with a kit shaped to your covering and its laps are checked. Winter has another habit: cold glass collects steam from cooking and washing before any other surface does. A good sealed unit, and an opening rooflight where it suits the room, keep the drips away. Shower and kettle steam is the thing to plan for here, so an opening sash matters more than extra glass area.
04
Rooflights that suit cottages and rear extensions
Terraced cottages, back extensions and the odd larger building point to three products.
A roof window in the loft
A roof window gives a cottage loft a view out and a way to open it. Set low enough to see from a bed or desk, it makes a room in the roof feel like a proper room in winter. Put one on a side slope and different rules apply, which the planning guide explains.
A flat rooflight over the back
A kitchen or utility room added to the rear is the quickest place to bring in the sky. Our flat roof rooflights are sized from the room and the structure, and built on a kerb tall enough to keep standing water off the glass.
A sun tunnel on the landing
Terraces often leave the landing and an inside bathroom with no outside wall. A sun tunnel carries daylight from a small dome through a mirrored tube to a disc in the ceiling. Little shows on the roof, and a lot changes on a grey afternoon.
Replacing what is there
Replacing an old rooflight that has fogged or whose frame has worn out can mean fitting the new one on the same opening, if the survey agrees. A ten-year guarantee on our workmanship is given in writing, and the quoted price does not move on the day.
05
Getting to you by road from the city
8.8road miles
from the middle of Nottingham
20minutes
by van when the roads are clear
From the city centre, Eastwood lies north-west, 8.8 miles by road and about 20 minutes' drive. The A608, the A610 and the B6010 are the classified roads close to the middle of town.
Rail is another matter. Eastwood once had its own station, with trains to Nottingham from 1875, but the Eastwood and Langley Mill station is recorded as closed, along with Newthorpe, Greasley and Shipley Gate. Langley Mill, 1.8 km away, is the nearest that is still open. We come by van, so it matters only to the map, and to anyone who remembers when trains ran from the town.
On the visit
The survey is not charged for. We begin by standing in the room to see where daylight arrives, where it gives out and what the ceiling hides. The roof comes next, from outside and from the loft if there is one. A price is written only once we have seen all that, and it is final.
Parking and access
Terraced streets often have a front door on the pavement and a yard behind. Booking a visit, we ask about the van's parking space and any side route to the back, so the ladders stay out of your hall. Tell us too if a loft hatch is hard to reach, because we will want to climb into the roof space and look at the timbers from underneath as well as from the outside.
Villages round about
Thirty road miles from Nottingham is as far as we go, which takes in the villages around Eastwood. See the areas we cover page for every place.
Before we come out to your Eastwood home
Is my Eastwood cottage inside the conservation area?
Eastwood's conservation area, designated in 1977, begins close to the middle of town, and its edge can split a street. Your address goes to Broxtowe Borough Council before we order anything. If yours is a listed house, the roof cannot be opened without consent, and finding that out comes first.
Can a rooflight go in a loft that has not been converted?
Yes, and it can turn the loft into a usable bedroom or study. We check headroom, rafters and the way the roof sheds water. Cutting a new opening normally needs Building Regulations approval whatever the room is used for, and we handle the notification.
Our back kitchen is dark even in summer. What would help most?
Usually a flat rooflight set over the darkest stretch, since it takes in a broad piece of sky. We look at the room, then the roof structure, and tell you what size and position fit. The quote that follows the survey is fixed.
Do you work in the villages around Eastwood?
We do. Anywhere inside 30 road miles of Nottingham is ours, and the council's view on your address is confirmed before ordering. We come to you for the survey.