North-north-west of Nottingham: 16.6 miles of road
Skylights & rooflights in Huthwaite
A former hosiery village on high ground by Nottinghamshire standards, close to the Derbyshire line. Open to the weather, short of daylight in winter, and well suited to a roof that brings some in.
A park, a hill and a factory village
Welfare Park sits 0.3 km from the middle of Huthwaite, and Strawberry Bank rises 0.8 km out. In between are the streets of a village that grew around the making of hosiery. Daylight and weather both arrive from above here.
Huthwaite, up on the hill
Huthwaite lies in Nottinghamshire's Ashfield district, a village with 5,069 residents on record and Derbyshire not far away. Until 1907 it carried a different name, which we come to below. Here is what we weigh up before suggesting a rooflight in a village like this: the council, the hill, the industry, the roads and the products. Our wider work is described on the page for skylight installation in Nottingham.
01
From Dirty Hucknall to a district council
Before 1907 the village went by two names: Hucknall-under-Huthwaite, and, less kindly, Dirty Hucknall. It was renamed as Huthwaite that year, and the present name has stuck. Today it belongs to the Ashfield district, and your local planning authority is Ashfield District Council. The city council has nothing to do with decisions here.
What is on record locally
Huthwaite has no conservation area, and none lies 1.5 km or less from the village centre. We still check Ashfield's Article 4 list for your road, since a direction there could remove the usual rooflight right. Historic England records a single listed building in the surrounding 1.5 km, at Grade II. If that is your house, listed building consent is the first step before anything is cut into the roof.
For nearly every other house, the question is simpler. Permitted development usually covers a rooflight, with conditions that depend on how it sits on the roof. Those conditions, and the Building Regulations covering a cut through the roof structure, apply nationwide and are set out on the page about planning permission for rooflights. We do not repeat them here.
1907renamed
from Hucknall-under-Huthwaite to Huthwaite
1listed
Grade II listing among the village surroundings
Our part locally
We check your address with Ashfield, work out which slope the rooflight goes on, and say whether the work needs notifying. If it does, we send the Building Control notification and the finished job is built to current Building Regulations. Paperwork follows when it is done.
Stand in the room on a dull afternoon and note where the light falls short.
02
High ground, open sky and wind on the slates
A hilltop village asks more of a roof than a valley one.
Huthwaite stands on rising land. Herrod's Hill in the village is one of several places that have been put forward as the highest point in Nottinghamshire, along with Newtonwood Lane in Whiteborough and Derby Road in Annesley. We do not need to settle that argument to learn what it means: this is high ground, and the weather reaches it first.
Hills and open ground are close by: Strawberry Bank at 0.8 km, Newtonwood Lane at 1.8 km and Silverhill at 2.8 km. Green places are near as well: Welfare Park at 0.3 km, Brierley Forest Park at 1.2 km and Rookery Park at 1.4 km. Teversal Pastures Nature Reserve is 3 km away.
What exposure does to a rooflight
Rain that is blown sideways finds weaknesses a calm shower never would. On an open slope the weak spots are the flashing at the head and sides of a window, the seal where a flat rooflight meets its upstand, and any tile that has loosened. We pay close attention to those joints, and we fit flashings that suit your exact covering, not a generic collar.
| Place | Kind | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Welfare Park | Park | 0.3 km |
| Strawberry Bank | Hill | 0.8 km |
| Brierley Forest Park | Park | 1.2 km |
Light on a grey hilltop
High ground means a big sky. In the grey months that sky is low, even and bright but diffuse, and a rooflight with a wide aspect catches it better than a narrow one. For a room that sits under the roof, we think about how much of the sky the glass will actually see and where in the room that light will land.
Wind also has a say in how a rooflight opens, and in how often you will want it open. An opening roof window should be sensible to operate in a breeze, and we talk through the type on the survey.
03
A village built on hosiery
By 1912 the main industry in Huthwaite had become the making of hosiery. The Co-operative Wholesale Society built a factory in the village for that trade.
A village that grew with its industry tends to contain homes built at different times, so each roof is read on its own terms: pitch, covering and timbers, whatever the street.
What the survey looks at
Pitch matters first, because the angle of a slope decides which products can go on it. Then the covering: slate, clay tile or concrete tile each call for a different flashing. Then the structure beneath, where we look for the real positions of the rafters, any trusses and any old repairs.
Rooms that are always dim
In a home where the back room, the stair or the bathroom sits far from a window, daylight is the missing ingredient from October to March. Those rooms are where we usually start. A single opening in the right place can change what the whole floor feels like in December, and it can do so without a change to the layout of the house.
- Pitch
- The slope angle of the roof, which limits what can be fitted.
- Truss
- A prefabricated timber frame, delivered whole, that replaces the individual rafters in many newer roofs.
- Head flashing
- The sealing piece across the top of a roof window that sends water around it.
Looking at the roof from outside
Huthwaite sits on high ground, so before we go up we look at the roof from the garden and the lane: the line of the ridge, the gutter run, where a ladder can stand firmly and whether the neighbour's side gives access to the eaves. Scaffold is arranged where the slope or the height calls for it. That outside view also shows where the flashing will take the most weather. We would rather fit one well-placed unit than several that each do a little. The roof windows we fit suit a room in the roof, while a flat extension roof can take the types on our flat roof rooflights page.
04
B roads, no railway and a good deal of hill
Huthwaite is 16.6 miles from the middle of Nottingham by road, about 27 minutes in the van with the traffic kind. The B6026 and B6027 pass within a kilometre of the village centre, and the road is the way in.
For us, that is how we always arrive. The van carries the ladders, the tools and the sample frames, and the survey is a visit to your home. Nothing in the process asks you to travel, because we come to you.
The visit itself
The survey is free. The first stop is the room you want lighter, where we ask where you sit and where the shadow falls. We then go to the roof and look at pitch, covering, timbers and the way rain leaves the slope. Only after that do we put a figure on paper, set out in writing so you can see what is going in. Once it is written down and agreed, the figure holds when work starts.
When you book we talk through van parking and the route the ladders take to the rear, so nothing crosses your hallway.
16.6miles
road miles out of the city
27minutes
drive time on a clear run
Neighbouring places
Our reach runs to every place within thirty road miles of Nottingham. Huthwaite sits within that, along with the villages round it. Look at the areas we cover list for the rest.
05
Which rooflight for which room in Huthwaite
We choose by room, not by catalogue. In a village where weather and low light both come from above, three solutions do most of the work.
For a loft room
Put a roof window in and cloud comes into view from a bed or a desk and let you ventilate. From the garden, the finished window should look like part of the roof, level with the covering and edged in a flashing that matches slate or tile. In winter rain that edge is the line that keeps the weather out, so we check it before we leave. Because Huthwaite is exposed, the choice of frame, the quality of the flashing and the type of opening all get more attention than they would in a sheltered street.
For a deep extension
The roof lanterns we install stand above a flat roof and let light in from several faces. Under a grey sky that matters, since there is no direct sun to rely on and the glass has to gather what is there.
For a windowless corner
A landing or bathroom with no outside wall can borrow daylight from the roof through a sun tunnel. See sun tunnels for how the tube, dome and diffuser are put together.
Replacing an older unit
If you already have a rooflight that has fogged or let in water, we will look at whether the unit alone has failed or the upstand and flashing have gone with it. A new unit on the same opening is often enough, and we say so when we have seen it.
Everything we install carries our written guarantee on workmanship for ten years, and the price is agreed in writing before we start. In the grey months it helps to stand in the room on a dull afternoon beforehand, because that shows us where the light really gives out.
What people near Welfare Park ask us first
Is Ashfield District Council the right place to check a rooflight?
Yes, Ashfield is the planning authority for Huthwaite. Most houses can take a rooflight under permitted development, but a listed house cannot without consent. We confirm the position for your address before ordering, and we handle any Building Control notification the work requires.
Will a rooflight cope with the wind up here?
It can, provided the flashing and seals are chosen for your covering and fitted carefully. Exposed slopes test the joints around a window more than sheltered ones do. We study the roof on the survey, and the written quote names the frame, the flashing kit and the glazing so you can see what is going in.
We have a dark landing with no window. Is a sun tunnel possible?
Often, yes. It needs a clear run from the roof down to the ceiling, either straight through or with a bend, and the roof above has to be a suitable slope. We check the route from inside the loft on the survey, then explain whether a tunnel or a small roof window will work better.
Do you work in Sutton-in-Ashfield and nearby villages too?
We do. Huthwaite sits well within the thirty-mile road radius we cover around Nottingham, and so do the places around it. Surveys cost nothing, and we come to your home with no showroom visit.