Rendered house with solar panels and roof windows

Ellistown

Ellistown's colliery terraces with rooflights and skylights

26.3 road miles south of Derby; the colliery made this village.

Ellistown's streets were laid out for miners, and the rooms behind the front windows are often narrow. Show us the dull corner and we plan from it.

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Narrow terraces and bathrooms with no window at all

Bathroom with a rooflight above the bath — A bathroom with a bath along the wall, where the ceiling gives no daylight.

A middle room in a terrace, between the front parlour and the kitchen, that never gets direct daylight.

What goes into an Ellistown roof

Terraced and semi-detached houses suit roof windows and VELUX windows, tired units can be swapped for energy efficient rooflights or replaced when misted, and a windowless hall can take a sun tunnel.

Houses built in rows for a colliery workforce share a plan: a front room, a back room, a narrow stair and often a bathroom added later at the back. That plan puts the darkest rooms in the middle of the house. Set into the back slope, a roof window serves a loft room or bathroom directly, while a sun tunnel reaches spots no window can, like a hallway tucked under a sloping roof. The choice follows the spot, not the street.

The full guide

An Ellistown bathroom, from the basin up

In a house from the mining years, the bathroom is often the room added last and given the leftover corner. It may have a small frosted window or none, and the basin gets whatever light is spared. That makes it a good place to see how a rooflight is planned.

Mirror and sink
Pivot or fixed
Sizes on offer
Rules and consent

Callout 1

Daylight where you wash and shave

The basin is where people look in a mirror, and a bulb above a mirror throws harsh shadows under the eyes and chin. Daylight from above is kinder and truer for colour. If the bathroom sits under the roof slope, as it does in many upstairs rear additions, the rooflight can be set directly over the basin and the mirror.

Measured before the bathroom quote

The basin position: marked on the floor plan
Distance to the rafters: decides the frame width
Ceiling and slope: sets the light-well shape
Ventilation: opening unit or extractor
Glass finish: clear, frosted or toughened

Where it goes in the ceiling matters more than its size. A small unit placed above the vanity does more than a large one over the bath, because the light lands where you stand. On the visit the basin goes onto the plan first, and the measuring runs outwards from it to the rafters.

Privacy is a common worry in a terrace with close neighbours. A roof window looks up, not across, so overlooking is rarely an issue, and where a higher window overlooks the slope, the glass can be frosted or obscured.

Steam and condensation need thought, too. A bathroom produces moisture, so we recommend a unit that opens, or a rooflight paired with an extractor, to keep the room dry. The aim is a bright room that stays fresh.

If the bathroom is the only room you are thinking about, say so, but mention the landing as well. In a house of this layout the stair and the bathroom often sit side by side, and one well-placed unit sometimes serves both. We look at that possibility before suggesting two openings, since every extra opening adds cost and complexity to the roof.

A mirror makes a useful tool at the survey. Stand at the basin and look up, and the point where you want the light to arrive becomes clear. We use that spot to draw the cone of daylight on the plan, and you can see on paper how it will fall.

A rooflight set over the basin works harder than a bigger one over the bath.

Callout 2

Choosing between fixed and opening glass

A roof window opens, usually on a centre pivot or a top-hung hinge, and a fixed rooflight stays shut. In a bathroom, where steam is the enemy, the opening kind has an obvious advantage. In a stairwell or a hall that is already ventilated, a fixed unit does the job with fewer parts.

The electric version carries a motor and a rain sensor, which suits a window that is out of reach above a stair or a bath. It needs a power supply and a small controller, and we plan the cable route at the survey.

Thermal performance counts for the same rooms. The regulations set one limit for a roof window and a different one for a rooflight, and any new or replacement unit has to come in under the limit for its category. That figure goes on the written quote, so two offers can be compared fairly.

Glass type is the other half of the choice. Toughened or laminated inner panes are used where regulations or safety call for them, and obscured glass can be specified for privacy. A coating on the outer pane reduces glare and heat gain in a room that gets strong sun, which is worth knowing for a bathroom under a south-facing slope.

Whatever you pick, the unit and its flashing arrive as a matched set, so the junction with the roof is made for that frame and not improvised around it.

Opening against fixed in a damp room

Opening sash

Clears steam fast
Reachable for cleaning
Hinge and seals to maintain
Suits bathrooms and kitchens

Fixed rooflight

Fewer moving parts
Neat, flat profile
Pair with an extractor
Suits halls and stairs

Callout 3

Fitting the frame between the rafters

Terraced roofs from the mining era usually have regular rafters, which helps. The standard way to fit a roof window is between two rafters, with a short header above and below, and the frame is sized so that no more than one rafter is cut. Where the spot falls awkwardly across a timber, we move the unit sideways or choose a different size.

VELUX window codes, such as MK04 or CK02, pair a letter for width with a number for height. They are a quick way to see what size is being quoted, and we put the code in writing.

The table below sets out the types we most often compare for a bathroom, a landing and a hall in a house of this sort.

Inside, the opening is lined with a light well. The sides are splayed outwards so the daylight spreads into the room, and they are insulated and finished in white or a pale colour. A straight-sided shaft would pass less light into the room, so the splay is a deliberate part of the design. Where the ceiling is high, a longer well gives a gentler fall of light, and where it is low, a short, steeply splayed one keeps the room open.

Which unit for which dark room

Four options and the rooms they suit.
Option	Opens	Best room
Centre pivot roof window	Yes	Loft bathroom
Top-hung roof window	Yes	Stair landing
Fixed rooflight	No	Dry hallway
Sun tunnel	No	Windowless hall
Electric opening unit	Yes, by remote	High bath

Callout 4

Planning and Building Control for an Ellistown house

For planning, Ellistown answers to North West Leicestershire District Council. Start with our planning guide, which sets out how permitted development treats rooflights on houses, then confirm anything specific with the council. Flats, maisonettes and listed buildings follow different routes, since householder rights do not cover the first two and a listed building cannot be altered in most ways without its own consent.

A road inside a conservation area may have lost permitted development to an Article 4 direction, so one call to the council is wise. A short call to the council settles whether one applies to your address in Ellistown.

On the building side, a brand-new opening cuts into the roof structure and needs sign-off, either from the council's own team or from a registered building control approver. Lodging the notification is our job wherever it applies. Part L covers a new unit going into the place of an old rooflight or roof window, and the newcomer must reach the thermal limit set for its category.

Colliery rows and what they leave for the roof

Ellistown is a village built around coal. Mining developed here from the Victorian era, Ellistown Colliery was sunk in 1873 and was producing two years later, and the South Leicestershire Coal Company opened its own colliery the year after. Colonel Ellis had two terraces built on either side of the Bagworth to Hugglescote road to house employees, and that was the beginning of the modern village.

All but one of those first terraces have since been demolished, and the South Street terraces were built in the same way for a second set of workers. The village today has about 3,000 people and a mixture of older rows and newer housing.

For anyone planning a rooflight, the older pattern is useful to understand. A mining terrace was built cheaply and in quantity, with the same plan repeated along a street. The middle of the house is often short of daylight. If you live in a terrace like this, the living room, the stair and the bathroom added at the back are the places where a rooflight earns its keep.

The effects of mining were a concern here, and iron banding and brick supports were added to some of the old terraces to resist it. A roof survey in a house of this age looks closely at the frame and the walls, so the opening is made in sound timber and the weight of the unit is carried properly. We note anything that needs attention in the written quote.

It is worth saying that a village with few buildings before the pit has a very clear grain. The earliest settlement was a single cottage, two farms along Whitehill Lane and a railway spur serving Ibstock Colliery. Almost everything else arrived with the mine, which is why the plan of the streets is so regular. A regular plan helps us: the rafters, the ceiling heights and the stair positions repeat from house to house, and a survey on one street tells us what to expect on the next.

Start with the survey form at the quote section and tell us which spot is dark.

Rooflight questions from Ellistown houses

Can a rooflight be fitted in a terrace with shared roof timbers?

Yes, as long as the opening lies within one house's own roof slope. At the survey we check the rafters and the party wall line before marking the opening, so the unit sits wholly in your side of the roof and the timbers around it stay sound.

Will a bathroom rooflight cause condensation?

Glass is the coldest surface in a damp room, so moist air can condense on it. A modern double glazed unit with a warm edge resists this well, and an opening unit or an extractor clears steam. We recommend the combination that suits how the bathroom is used.

What happens to an old rooflight we replace?

The old unit, its flashing and any failed felt are taken out and removed. The opening is checked and dried, a new frame and flashing are fitted, and the finish inside is made good. A replacement must meet current Part L limits for its type.

Do you survey before quoting for a small hallway?

Yes, every job starts with a free survey, because nobody can price a rooflight sensibly without standing in the room and looking at the roof. For a hallway we also look at the loft above, to see which of a sun tunnel and a roof window could reach down to it.

Is a single rooflight a one-day job?

A plain single-rooflight job is generally one or two days up top, then the inside is finished. The light well and finishing indoors add time, and the sequence is talked through on the visit so nothing comes as a surprise.

Can the old bathroom window stay if we add a rooflight?

Yes. A rooflight does not replace a side window, and the two can work together, with the window giving cross ventilation and the rooflight giving light from above. If the old window is small or frosted, the rooflight will do more for the room, and we can talk through whether to keep it.

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Where do you want the light? Tell us in the form: the worktop, the stair, the desk.

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We cover Derby and 30 miles around.