Ollerton: 19.2 road miles out, bearing north-north-east of Nottingham
Skylights & rooflights in Ollerton
A mill village by the River Maun that expanded after 1900 around a colliery, on the edge of Sherwood Forest. Old Ollerton and New Ollerton have very different roofs and very different rooms to light.
Dukeries country, with a model village inside it
Ollerton sits on the edge of Sherwood Forest in the district known as the Dukeries. A coal company later built a model village here for its managers and workers, so very old and very planned housing share the same postcode.
Ollerton, from the roundabout to the roof
Ollerton is a village with 10,870 recorded residents, larger than many towns, and many people know it for the Ollerton roundabout, a recorded traffic bottleneck. This page starts there, because it shapes how a survey visit works. It then moves through the housing, the river, the council and what we would fit. Our general service pages are the place to start for anything not specific to Ollerton: skylight installation in Nottingham.
01
A junction of three main roads, and the drive to reach it
Four classified roads pass near the middle of the village: the A6075, A614, A616 and B6461. The A614 links Nottingham with Blyth and Doncaster through Sherwood Forest. The A6075 connects Mansfield with the Trent ferry at Dunham-on-Trent, and the A616 joins Sheffield to Newark-on-Trent. Where they meet, the Ollerton roundabout is described as a long-standing bottleneck, and plans for highway improvements have been argued over for years.
Our own part in that is practical. Ollerton lies 19.2 road miles from Nottingham city centre, north-north-east, and the van takes around 37 minutes. Arrival times depend on a junction like this one, so when we book a visit we leave sensible room for it.
Arriving by van with the kit aboard
We reach every job by van with the ladders and glazing on board, so the way in changes nothing for the survey.
19.2miles
road distance to central Nottingham
37minutes
usual van time, traffic allowing
What the visit involves
The first call is free. Standing in the room you want lit, we judge how far the daylight carries. Up on the roof we read the pitch, the covering and the frame. A price is written down after that, and it is not reopened when we arrive to fit.
We ask beforehand where to park. Nearby places we cover are on the areas page.
| Road | What it links |
|---|---|
| A614 | Nottingham to Blyth and Doncaster |
| A6075 | Mansfield to the Trent ferry |
| A616 | Sheffield to Newark-on-Trent |
02
Old Ollerton, New Ollerton and the colliery's model village
Locals tell the two halves apart. Old Ollerton is the original village, clustered around the church, the river and the mill. New Ollerton is the expansion after 1900, when a coal mine arrived. The Butterley Company, which had a long history of coal and iron ore mining in Derbyshire, established and funded the mine, and built a model village here for its higher management and its workers.
A hosiery factory followed in 1937 to give work to the miners' wives. That factory, the planned housing and the mill houses by the river are three different building eras in one place, and a rooflight proposal for each looks different.
Planned housing
A model village was designed as a whole, so the houses along a street tend to share a roof shape and a layout. For us that is a help: once a roof type is understood, the question of where the opening goes becomes consistent along the street. It also means neighbours may be curious. If one house gets a roof window, the others can see exactly how it looks from the road.
Older cottages near the river
In the original village, roofs are older and less regular. Timbers can be unevenly spaced, and extensions have often been added at the back over the years. Dark rooms there are usually the ones in the middle of the plan, between the old walls and the newer addition.
- Model village
- Housing laid out as one scheme by an employer, usually for workers and managers.
- Rafter
- The sloping timbers under the tiles. A new roof opening is framed between two of them.
- Kerb
- The upstand that holds a rooflight up off a flat roof.
What the roof can do
A loft room in a planned house suits a roof window, and a rear extension suits a flat roof rooflight. Each one is fitted to current Building Regulations.
03
The River Maun, a memorial park and Sherwood weather
Where the crossing, the trees and the damp come from.
Ollerton is listed in the Domesday Book as a settlement at a crossing of the River Maun, in the Bassetlaw wapentake, and the Maun still runs within about 1.5 km of the centre. A memorial park lies a tenth of a kilometre from the centre point, and Ollerton Pit Wood is about a kilometre off. The Meadows is a neighbourhood about 1.1 km out. The village stands at the edge of Sherwood Forest.
Roofs by water and woodland have the same problems, whatever the age of the house.
Leaf fall and gutters
Trees shed leaves onto roofs in autumn, and those leaves find the low points: the valleys, the gutters and the base of any flat-roof kerb. A rooflight sitting in a valley can end up as the place where debris collects. We raise kerbs so that standing water stays below the glass, and we think about where a roof window sits relative to a valley before we mark it.
Breath on glass
In winter the coldest surface in a kitchen is often a pane. Cooking steam turns to droplets on it unless the glass is kept warmer, and that is why we look at the spacer between the panes and the frame around it. A sash that opens, even a few centimetres, shifts the damp air out before it settles.
Brightness in a dull month
In the grey season the aim is not to chase sun. It is to bring in as much sky as the room can use.
November in a wooded district is dark by mid-afternoon. A roof opening that faces open sky brings in more than a wall window shaded by trees, so we look at what stands between the room and the sky as well as at the room itself.
04
Newark and Sherwood: the council, and what is recorded here
Decisions for Ollerton belong to Newark and Sherwood District Council. Nottingham City Council, and the boroughs next to it, are not involved.
The heritage list
A conservation area covers the village centre. Newark and Sherwood holds its boundary map. Eleven listed buildings sit inside it: one rated Grade II* and ten rated Grade II. Open the circle to 1.5 km across, centred on the town, and Historic England records thirteen, again one Grade II* with twelve Grade II.
Wellow, 1.55 km off, has its own conservation area from 1978. That one is the neighbouring settlement's.
11listed
buildings inside the Ollerton conservation area
13listed
listed entries within a 1.5 km ring
How we use the records
A listed roof cannot take a new opening without consent, so for a listed house the council hears from us first. Inside the conservation area a house keeps the usual rooflight right, and we check only for an Article 4 direction. Otherwise the national position applies, and it is laid out in our planning permission guide, not here.
The local detail is where Ollerton differs from other places: the roads, the planned streets and the mix of old and newer houses. Those are the things we read for on the survey, along with the date of the roof covering.
Building Control is another matter we take off your hands. The notice is a building notice or full plans, lodged with the district council, or handled by a registered building control approver, whichever the job requires, and the paperwork passes to you at handover.
05
What we would suggest for an Ollerton house
We choose by room, not by product. Three kinds of room come up in a village like this one.
The back kitchen
A kitchen built onto the rear of a planned house is often deep, with a window at one end and a door at the other. The part in between stays dim. A roof lantern, or a flat unit, set over that middle zone fixes what a bigger window could not. Lanterns draw in light from several faces, which is why they stay bright on a dull day.
The top-floor room
Seen from the garden, a roof window in a neat row of tiles looks like part of the roof. Once a loft is boarded and lined, a roof window set in the slope brings that room sky, a view and ventilation. Set it so you can look out from the bed or desk, and you will use the room far more in winter.
The hall, landing or bathroom
These rooms have no outside wall of their own. A sun tunnel is a good fit, and it does not need a new window opening or any change to the walls below.
A word on the glass itself
On a long grey spell the glazing matters as much as the size of the opening. A unit built to hold in warmth keeps the inner pane from chilling, which is what stops it misting. It also keeps the room beneath from feeling like it has a cold lid. We explain the options in plain terms at the visit, and you choose with the facts in front of you.
When an Ollerton rooflight has yellowed or misted
An extension's rooflight can yellow, crack or mist as the years go by. If the opening and the frame around it are in good order, the unit can be replaced on the same opening. Ten years of written guarantee stand behind the workmanship.
Quick answers for Ollerton and New Ollerton
Who gives the go-ahead for a rooflight in Ollerton?
That is Newark and Sherwood District Council. A typical house rooflight falls under national permitted development, though listed buildings and a few other cases do not. We put your address to the council before ordering, and file any Building Control notice the job calls for.
Our house is part of the old colliery housing. Is a roof window realistic?
Usually yes, as long as there is a usable room in the roof. We look at the slope, the covering and the timbers during the visit and say which size fits between the rafters. You then have one written price, and that is the price you pay on the day.
Is the Ollerton roundabout going to hold you up?
It can make the drive slower at busy times, which is why we plan around it. When we book your visit we allow for it, and we tell you the slot we expect. Ollerton is 19.2 road miles from the city centre, which sits well inside our 30-mile reach.
Can the cloudy rooflight over our extension simply be swapped?
Frequently. If the frame and kerb are sound, a new unit goes on the existing opening, without cutting the roof again. Should the kerb have rotted, or the hole be too small for the light you are after, we say so at the visit and price the larger job.