11.6 road miles east of Bournemouth
skylights & rooflights in barton-on-sea
Building plots on the Barton Court land were sold from 1894, with the sales around Barton Court Avenue following in 1904, and the houses on those plots have since been altered one by one. Each roof is measured as it stands today.
plots sold one at a time
- Large detached housesDeep roofs with room for a loft staircase and a long shaft.
- Bungalows on the avenuesWide plots, and plenty of space to carry glass round the side.
- Chalet bungalowsAn upstairs room under a sloping ceiling that wants more light.
- Extended and rebuilt homesFlat roofs, added wings and rooflights fitted years ago.
a short list of records for a Barton address
- planning authority
- New Forest District Council
- conservation area
- check the address on the council map
- road miles
- 11.6
Nearby
tile and original timbers
avenues laid out for builders to fill
Barton Court was sold for building from 1894, and further plots followed in 1896 and 1904. The streets are straight and wide, and the houses on them were put up by different hands over many decades.
A 1890s estate that kept being built on
Plots sold in lots, each to its own buyer, produced a hundred different roofs.
The land around Barton Court was divided into plots and sold in lots from 1894. One sale offered 65 plots in July and another 40 in October, and a further 150 plots came up for sale in June 1896. More sales around Barton Court Avenue and Barton Court Road followed in 1904. Buyers bought a plot and chose their own builder, which is why the avenues do not look like a matched estate.
The avenues are wide, with large houses and bungalows set on them, and that is what a roof survey here tends to find. Plots are generous, so there is usually a way round the side of the house for a tower and a delivery of glass. Roofs differ plot to plot, with hips, gables, dormers, lean-to additions and later wings joined to the original ridge in ways the early builders never planned.
Each of those joins is a place where rafters change direction, so the survey follows them one by one. Before we propose a position for a window we follow the line of the timbers in the loft, check how the original roof meets the later one, and note any steel or doubled rafter that tells us where the weight sits.
Because buyers chose their own builders, materials vary too. Clay tiles, concrete tiles and the occasional slate roof can all be found within a few hundred metres, and roofs have been recovered at different dates. A recovered roof may have new battens at a different spacing from the original, so the batten gauge is recorded as well as the rafters. It decides which flashing kit fits the window.
Corner plots add a small complication. A house on a corner has two road frontages and sometimes a roof visible from both, which matters if a council asks for a slim, low-profile unit on any slope facing a road. The survey notes every slope that can be seen from a public place, so the question can be answered for each one.
Access is rarely the difficulty on these avenues. Frontages are wide, drives are long and the tower can stand on private ground, so no highway licence is normally in question. Where the only route to the rear is through a side gate, we measure the gate and note it on the sheet so that long panes of glass can be planned in.
How a house on an old Barton plot is surveyed
- Walk the loftWe follow the rafters from eaves to ridge and note where the original roof ends and any extension begins, including any steel that has been added to carry a heavy load.
- Read the slopeThe pitch is taken with an inclinometer on a rafter, then the covering and the batten spacing are recorded.
- Mark the openingA window position is chosen between rafters wherever possible, so that the fewest timbers are cut.
- Check the recordsThe planning register and the listing database are searched for the address, and the results are written down.
- Hand over the sheetEvery measurement goes to you in writing, with the position of each timber we found, before any unit is ordered.
Deep lofts, stairs and the rooms nobody uses
A big Barton roof often has more usable space than the house below it admits.
Larger detached houses on the avenues have roofs with real volume. The loft may be tall enough to stand in, with a good run of clear floor and a chimney stack or two. When a family looks at converting it, the question is how to bring light to a stair and a room that currently have none. A roof window in the slope does that, and several smaller ones side by side can suit a long roof better than one big opening.
Take a chalet bungalow. The upstairs room already sits in the roof. Nothing has to be built between the glass and the room, and the height of the sill decides whether the window can also serve as a way out. Our VELUX window installation page explains how size codes translate into the openings we measure for. Sill height, rafter centres and pitch are the numbers we write down.
Where a loft is too low or too cramped to convert, a daylight source can still change the floor below. A sun tunnel through the loft lights a landing or an inner bathroom without any stair or floor being laid. The choice between that and a window depends on the depth of the void, which is measured on the day of the survey.
A loft stair needs light more than almost any other space. Fitted without a window, it becomes a dark tunnel that people avoid. One roof window placed over the stair head, or two flanking the landing at the top, turns it into a pleasant way up. The window position is checked against the stair line before rafters are marked, because a unit set a hand's width too far across lands on the wrong side of the handrail.
Ventilation in a loft room matters too. An opening roof window helps to move air through a room under the tiles that would otherwise stay warm into the evening. Where a room is to be a bedroom, that is worth specifying from the start, and an electric model with a rain sensor is available for a window set out of easy reach. The electric and opening rooflight page covers those options.
Council area, conservation status and listings
Barton-on-Sea sits in the New Milton parish area, within New Forest District Council.
Planning applications for Barton-on-Sea go to New Forest District Council, and the town council for the area is New Milton. Barton is a village within that parish, which leaves one set of council records to search. Our New Milton page covers the wider area and the conservation area at Old Milton Green.
We found no conservation area named for Barton-on-Sea in the sources we checked, but that is a reason to look at the council's own map and not a clearance. Boundaries and listings change, and the map is the record. Separately, any individual house may be on the national list of listed buildings, which covers its roof. An old permission for the house or an extension can include a condition touching later work, and the decision notice on the register shows it.
If an application is needed, the planning guide lists the rights that apply and the cases where they do not.
Building Regulations run alongside planning. A new opening means trimming rafters, which counts as structural work and has to be approved first. Swapping an entire old unit for a new one must be notified, whereas new glass alone in a sound frame need not be. BCP Council does not cover this area, so notifications here go to New Forest District Council building control or to a registered private approver, and the route is agreed at the survey.
If the register shows a past application on the property, we ask for the plans. A rear extension drawn some years ago shows where the old roof was cut, how the new ridge meets it and whether a rooflight was part of the approved design. That saves a surprise when the first tile comes off.
Many Barton owners come to us after an older unit has failed. If the glass has clouded, a new sealed unit in the same frame may be all that is needed, and the survey tells you whether the frame is sound enough to keep. The replacement page explains how that call is made.
Myth
Houses on the same avenue are all treated alike when it comes to rooflights.
Each plot has its own history. One house may have had permitted rights removed by a condition on its original permission, while the one beside it has none, and a listing attaches to a single building.
Fact
The register for your own address is the only reliable guide.
Look the address up on the New Forest District Council planning pages and read what is there. At the survey we run the same lookup, so the result is written down before an order goes in.
A room-by-room way to pick the unit
The kind of rooflight follows from the room and the roof above it.
Choose by the room first. A bedroom under a pitched slope suits a roof window that opens, because the sill height and the opening matter more there than anywhere. A kitchen with a flat extension roof suits a flat rooflight or a lantern. A front slope on a house in a conservation area, if there is one, may call for a slimmer unit, and our conservation rooflight page describes that style.
Glazing is the next choice. Double glazing is the usual specification, and many models can be had with triple glazing. The sheet records the energy figure for each model you are quoted, and the energy-efficient rooflights page explains what the numbers mean. Solar-control coatings and blinds are worth weighing on a south or west slope, where an upstairs room warms quickly in summer.
The neighbouring village of Highcliffe has a different mix of housing, and we cover it on its own page. Whatever the house, the options change room by room.
Every room has its own line on the survey sheet, and prices are quoted against them. Two firms working from the same sheet are quoting the same job, which is the only fair basis for comparing them.
| Room | Suited to | Survey focus |
|---|---|---|
| Chalet bedroom | Opening roof window | Sill height, escape size |
| Hall or landing | Sun tunnel or roof window | Loft depth, shaft route |
| Kitchen extension | Flat rooflight or lantern | Upstand, slope of deck |
| Loft stair | Roof window over the stair | Rafter centres, trimmers |
| Bathroom | Opening roof window | Pitch range, ventilation |
faq
Barton questions, answered plainly
Is there a conservation area in Barton-on-Sea?
Check the conservation area map on the New Forest District Council website for your full address. We search it before quoting and note the answer on the survey sheet.
Can a roof window in a chalet bungalow bedroom be the escape window?
Yes, where the room is in the roof of a bungalow and the window is big enough and low enough. We measure the opening and the sill height at the survey before naming a size.
My Barton house has an old extension joined to the main roof. Does that change the work?
It can, since the rafters turn at the join. We trace the timbers in the loft and choose a position clear of the junction where possible.
Which council do I write to about a rooflight in Barton-on-Sea?
Planning goes to New Forest District Council. Building control notification for a new opening or a whole replacement unit is a separate route, and we explain which applies at the survey.