Due south of Nottingham's centre by 18.7 road miles
Mountsorrel homes: rooflights and skylights to fit or replace
A big village wrapped round a steep granite hill beside the Soar. A conservation area in the middle, newer estates where a hospital and a works once stood, and rooms that stay dull from autumn to spring.
A hill of hard stone, and a village that clings to it
Mountsorrel stands around a steep hill that was once crowned by a castle, and granite has been quarried there on a large scale. On and around a hill, roofs face different ways, and that decides where a rooflight can catch the most sky.
Mountsorrel, hill first, then roofs
Mountsorrel is a large village in Leicestershire with 12,885 residents at the 2021 count, set on the River Soar just south of Loughborough. Our five chapters begin with the hill and the river, since both shape the roofs, and move on to the conservation area that covers the middle of the village, the housing that replaced a hospital and a works, the road in, and the products that suit. The firm itself is described on the page for skylight installation in Nottingham.
01
A steep hill, a river and a canal basin
Where the ground rises, the roofs take the weather first.
The village is in the borough of Charnwood and surrounds a steep hill that once carried a castle. The River Soar bounds it on the east. Barrow Canal Basin and Hobley Lake lie within about 1.5 km, and Tom Long's Nature Reserve lies 2.7 km out. Near the bypass the Soar becomes the parish boundary, and farther south the parish boundary meets Sileby's where the river crosses the A6 bypass.
Roofs on a slope
On a hillside, neighbouring roofs sit at different heights and at different angles to the sky. For a rooflight that is useful. A house higher up can have a clear view over the roofs below it, while a house lower down may be shaded in the early part of the day by the one above. We look at what is directly overhead and to the south of a slope before choosing a position, because a roof window placed under a taller neighbour's gable gets less light than the same window two metres along.
Choosing a spot on an awkward plan
Hill streets are rarely square to the compass, so a slope may face anywhere. In the grey months the direction matters less than the width of the view. A pane that looks at open sky gathers more of the even daylight than a larger pane that looks at a chimney or a tall gable, so we judge the view before we judge the size.
Wet air near water
Valley bottoms hold damp air, particularly on still mornings in late autumn. Moisture from cooking and bathing finds the coldest pane first. A rooflight whose glazing unit has a warm edge keeps the inner surface closer to room temperature, and one that opens, even a crack, lets the damp out before it forms droplets.
Rain driven across an exposed ridge tests flashings. We fit a matched kit for your tile or slate, so water is taken past the frame and not under it.
02
Charnwood Borough Council and a conservation area under the village
36listed
buildings inside the Mountsorrel conservation area
3Grade II*
of them at the higher grade
The planning authority for Mountsorrel is Charnwood Borough Council, and the village is in Leicestershire, not Nottinghamshire. We are a Nottingham firm, and Leicestershire is inside our 30-mile road radius, but the council that decides is a different one.
The village centre is a conservation area
The Mountsorrel conservation area covers the middle of the village. Where your own street sits against that boundary is something Charnwood confirms for us at the start. It holds 36 listed buildings, three at Grade II* and 33 at Grade II. Separately, Historic England records 36 listed buildings in a 1.5 km ring around the village centre.
That has one practical result. Before we order a rooflight for a house in or beside the old core, we ask Charnwood whether the building is listed or whether an Article 4 direction changes what is allowed on your slope. Listed buildings need consent for new roof openings. A conservation area alone leaves the permitted development right in place, but an Article 4 direction would not, and we want that answer in hand before any glass is made.
A second conservation area, Barrow upon Soar, is recorded 1.3 km off. It is named for the neighbouring village, so for us it is background, not a rule for your street.
Other rules
The general conditions for fitting a rooflight to a house, and the Building Regulations that follow, are set out in the national picture on rooflight permission. Our job here is to handle the local layer, and to send any Building Control notification ourselves, to Charnwood or to a registered approver, whichever the job calls for.
03
From hospital and works to housing estates
Mountsorrel was home to a hospital for the mentally ill, which had 91 beds in 1979. It has closed and the site is now a housing estate. A works on another site shut in 1994 as production methods changed, and a housing estate stands there too. The civil parish also meets Rothley to the south, and a few houses near the southern A6 junction are actually in Rothley parish.
Industry has shaped the village in other ways. A quarry here has long cut granite, and in 1942 the armoured vehicle maker Alvis took over a former cardboard-box factory in the village after its Coventry works was bombed. A village with that history mixes periods, and the mix is why we look at each roof afresh.
Newer estates
Many recent roofs use factory trusses, which cannot be cut like old rafters. Before we price an opening in a recent house we check how the roof is framed. If a truss would be in the way, a window can often be shifted along to sit between two, and if it cannot, a sun tunnel in a small dome fits through a gap that a window would not. For a brighter landing the sun tunnel is often the lighter job; for a loft that is to become a room, plan on a roof window and tell us early.
- Rafter
- One of the sloping timbers under the tiles, running from ridge to wall.
- Truss
- A ready-made triangle of timbers that does the work of several rafters in a newer roof.
- Dome
- The clear cap of a sun tunnel on the roof.
Older stone and brick
In the old core, roofs may have uneven rafters and old coverings. We measure the gaps before naming a size, and where the covering is delicate, we explain what is possible without disturbing more than needed. For a roof that carries a lot of history, a slim conservation rooflight lies low against the slope and keeps the line.
04
The A6, the stations and the drive from the city
Coming out from Nottingham, Mountsorrel is 18.7 road miles away in the south, roughly 32 minutes behind the wheel in normal traffic. The A6 is the one classified road close to the middle of the village. The village sits close to the A6 bypass.
Three railway stations are recorded nearby: Mountsorrel at 1 km, Nunckley Hill at 1.5 km and Barrow-upon-Soar at 1.9 km. We arrive with ladders and glazing by road, so the stations matter to you rather than to us.
What happens at the survey
The survey is free. In the room we watch where the light goes, then look at the roof from outside and from the loft, noting the covering, the framing and how rain leaves. The price is set down in writing afterwards and does not change when we turn up to fit. Parking on hillside streets can be tight, so we ask about parking and whether the back of the house is reachable.
18.7miles
of road, heading south
32minutes
usual drive in the van
Further afield
Villages and towns along the Soar are inside our road radius, and the areas we serve list has them.
Because the visit can start on a steep road, tell us at booking if the front of the house has no space to park, and we will plan around it.
05
Products that tend to suit a village like this
A village with stone near the hill and estates on old industrial land calls for different answers, so here are the three we reach for.
The old core
On a listed or protected building, a flush, slim-framed rooflight sits low on the slope and disturbs the roofline least. Read the page on conservation rooflights for how these are made. On a listed building, whether one is allowed at all depends on Charnwood's consent, so that question comes first.
The estate house
A newer house with a bare landing or a dull rear extension is a good candidate for a roof lantern over the extension, or a sun tunnel on the landing. A sun tunnel does its best work in a space with no outside wall at all.
The kitchen that turns its back on the garden
Some of the extensions on estate sites face a boundary fence and not open sky. A flat rooflight over the middle of the room does what the side window cannot, and it is the first thing we price for a room like that.
The loft room
If a roof space has been turned into a bedroom, a window in the back slope will light it and open to air it. Put it where you can see out when sitting. Tell us if the loft is an evening room, because that changes how we weigh the glass and a blind.
Replacement
Old units that have misted or started to leak can often be swapped for new ones in the existing opening. That saves cutting the roof again and keeps the surrounding tiles intact. We say after the survey whether this applies to your roof, and the work carries a written guarantee of ten years.
Mountsorrel: the questions that decide a rooflight
Does living in the Mountsorrel conservation area stop me fitting a skylight?
Not necessarily. Living in a conservation area does not by itself call for an application on a house, but an Article 4 direction could. A listed house needs consent for any new roof opening. We ask Charnwood Borough Council about your address before ordering, so you know where you stand first.
My home is on one of the new estates. Can the roof take a window?
Almost certainly, though the framing needs checking. Modern roofs are commonly built from trusses, and a window has to fit between them or the truss has to be trimmed properly. We look at the loft on the survey and say what is possible before quoting a fixed price.
The old skylight over our stairs drips in winter. Repair or replace?
Dripping in cold weather is usually condensation on cold glass or a worn seal. We check which, and if the whole unit has tired we can usually replace it within the existing opening. The survey is free, and the quote is written and fixed.
Do you come out from Nottingham to Mountsorrel?
Yes. From Nottingham it is 18.7 road miles, comfortably inside the 30 we work to. Surveys are at your house, and cost nothing.