9.3 road miles north-east of Bournemouth
skylights & rooflights in bransgore
Which planning authority covers a Bransgore address depends on the National Park boundary, and the village mixes brick cottages, bungalows and chalet bungalows, with Thorney Hill and Hinton close by. A tape goes to each Bransgore roof.
roofs you find around Bransgore
- Detached bungalowsWide plots, hipped roofs, a loft above a dim central hall.
- Chalet bungalowsBedrooms in the roof, low side walls, one small gable window.
- Older brick cottagesNineteenth-century brick, uneven rafters, sometimes listed.
- Rear extensionsFlat roofs behind the house, ready for a rooflight.
the line we look up before a Bransgore survey
- planning authority
- New Forest District Council
- park boundary
- parish partly inside: check the address
- road miles
- 9.3
Bransgore roof windows, lanterns and flat rooflights
Nearby
since the 1822 chapel
a village on a common, built up in layers
Bransgore began as a settlement on common land, recorded as Bransgoer Common in 1759, and grew around its church and its school. The housing that followed sits on mixed roofs, and each kind needs a different approach to a new window.
A chapel of 1822 and the bungalows that followed
The age of a Bransgore house tells us how its roof was framed.
The earliest deeds that mention Bransgore date from the 1730s, and in 1759 the place was recorded as Bransgoer Common. St Mary the Virgin was built in 1822 as a chapel of ease, in brick with a slate roof, and is listed Grade II. A school followed in 1841, and the National school of 1895 is now the primary school. Between 1894 and 1974 the village sat in the civil parish of Christchurch East, which was split when the county boundary moved, leaving Bransgore in Hampshire and Burton in Dorset.
Look along most roads today and the older cottages are the minority. They sit among bungalows and chalet bungalows built in the twentieth century on generous plots, then cul-de-sacs of newer houses with tiled roofs. Hinton and Thorney Hill, a short way out, add a few grander buildings, some of them listed, including All Saints at Thorney Hill, an Edwardian Baroque church of 1906 listed Grade I. If your own house is listed, the roof is part of what is protected, so look the address up on Historic England's list before you mark a front slope for a window.
The newer cul-de-sacs matter too. A house from the last few decades is likely to have a trussed roof, built from factory-made triangular frames that carry the load as a unit. No truss is cut without a structural engineer's design behind it, so on those roofs the survey looks first for a window width that fits cleanly between two trusses. That one reading can settle whether a loft room gets a single generous window or two narrower ones side by side, and it is taken with the tape on the timbers, not read off the drawings.
Older brick bungalows on the larger plots are another group. Many were extended sideways or backwards over the years, so one house can carry three different roof ages: an original hipped main roof, a later pitched wing and a flat-roofed rear addition. We treat each part as its own roof, measure it separately and say in writing which part a given window belongs to.
Brick cottages from the nineteenth century were framed by hand, so rafters can wander from one bay to the next. A roof window on one of these is positioned after the tiles are lifted and the timbers are seen. The bungalow roofs are a different proposition. Their rafters are mostly regular, the loft is open and the slope is large, which makes the first question one of daylight: which room is dark, and how far is it from the tiles.
Where a house has been extended at the back, the flat-roofed addition is often the easiest place to bring in daylight. A flat rooflight over a kitchen or garden room needs a kerb of the right height and a fall for rainwater, and the survey checks both before an order goes in.
| House type | Typical roof | What we measure |
|---|---|---|
| Brick cottage | Clay tile, hand-cut timbers | Rafter gaps, listing status |
| Detached bungalow | Hipped, concrete tile | Loft depth over the hall |
| Chalet bungalow | Steep front slope | Knee wall, sill height |
| Newer cul-de-sac house | Trussed roof | Truss spacing |
| Rear extension | Flat roof, felt or single ply | Kerb height, fall |
Where the cost of a Bransgore roof job comes from
Five things move a quote more than the brand name on the box.
Bransgore plots are often long and the houses sit well back from the road, which helps with deliveries and with a place to stage glass. Where a house is further from the road, the survey notes the carry distance, so the cost of a job here tends to come from the roof and the room below it.
A single roof window on an open bungalow roof is the lightest piece of work. Add a boarded shaft through a deep loft, a second window beside the first or a new opening in a chalet bungalow's steep slope, and the labour changes. The page on roof window installation covers the options in detail, and the written quote splits each of these items out so you can see what each one adds.
Scaffold is the other variable. A bungalow eaves can be reached with a platform tower, while a chalet bungalow with a tall gable end may need a full scaffold for a safe working height, and the survey says which. Where a pitched roof meets a taller extension, the junction needs extra flashing and that appears as its own line.
Quotes in a village like this are easy to compare when every one starts from the same measured sheet. If another firm has priced the job from a phone call, hold the two against each other item by item: the number of rafters trimmed, the size code, the flashing kit and the finish inside are the lines that differ most.
Prices are not given here because they come from the survey, not from a guess at the postcode. Each reading on the survey sheet is there because it changes the price or the product.
One last point on cost: a survey visit is where every one of these lines gets a real figure. A rafter gap of 400 mm instead of 600 mm, or a loft that turns out a hand span deeper than it looked from the landing, can change which size code fits. We would rather record that on the roof than discover it once the glass has arrived.
What moves a Bransgore quote
- Number of rafters trimmedOne wide window can need one rafter cut and trimmed, or two narrower windows side by side may avoid that. Every trimmed rafter adds structural work.
- Loft depth over the roomA deep loft means a longer boarded shaft to build, line and finish. A shallow one is quicker.
- Glazing and opening choiceFixed or opening, double or triple glazing, a blind or none: each choice changes the product, and the energy figures for each are in our energy efficient rooflights page.
- Roof covering around the windowPlain clay tiles, concrete interlocking tiles and slate each need a different flashing kit and different cutting.
- Finishing insidePlastering the reveal, painting and fitting a blind are separate tasks and the survey sheet lists which are included.
Telling which authority holds your Bransgore address
The National Park boundary cuts through the parish, and most of the village sits outside it.
Outside the park, New Forest District Council is the planning authority for Bransgore. Inside the park boundary, it is the New Forest National Park Authority. Two houses on neighbouring roads can therefore be dealt with by different bodies, and each has its own online register and its own officers. The boundary is drawn on the park authority's map, and the postcode alone is not a reliable guide.
Bransgore also sits close to Burley and the Hampshire edge of the forest, so some owners assume the whole area follows park rules. It does not. Large parts of the parish are ordinary New Forest District Council land, and the park authority only comes into it when the address falls inside the line.
Being in a National Park does not ban a rooflight, and it does not guarantee that one is allowed either. Councils can limit householder rights through an Article 4 direction in places, so the check on an individual address matters more than any general rule. Permitted development limits are laid out in the planning guide and not copied across. The steps run in the order we follow on a Bransgore address.
Checking a Bransgore address
- Find the park boundaryEnter the full address on the New Forest National Park Authority's map. It shows whether the house lies inside or outside, so you know which planning register to search.
- Search the register for past applicationsThe authority that covers the address shows previous permissions for the property. Conditions written into the house's first permission can limit what you add later, so read any decision notice in full.
- Look for a listingLook the address up on Historic England's national list. Listed status brings consent rules of its own, and it covers the roof as well as the walls.
- Have us check at the surveyWe look at the same records on the visit and write down what each one showed, then tell you whether an application is worth making.
Chalet bedrooms and bungalow lofts
A roof window does most for a room already inside the slope.
Bransgore has plenty of chalet bungalows. The upper rooms are built into the roof, with sloping ceilings that meet short walls and a small window in each gable. The rooms are usable but dim, and in a warm spell they hold heat under the slope. A roof window sets the glass high in the slope, where it sees more sky than a wall window can, and an opening model lets stale air leave the room.
Because the room already sits in the roof there is no shaft to build. A suitably sized roof window can also serve as the escape window for a first-floor room in a chalet or bungalow, which matters if you are converting a box room into a bedroom. Roof windows for chalet bungalows goes through sizing and escape rules.
Pitch matters more here than people expect. Chalet roofs in the village vary from steep front slopes to shallower rear ones, and each roof window model and flashing has a pitch range set by the manufacturer. The inclinometer reading goes on the survey sheet before any product is named, so the window we propose is one the slope actually suits.
Where the bungalow has no rooms in the roof, a dark central hall or an inner bathroom is the usual target. There the choice is a boarded shaft with a roof window, or a sun tunnel if the rafters should stay untouched. At the back of the house, a flat rooflight over a kitchen extension lights the deep part of the room. Neighbouring Burton and Highcliffe have a similar mix of bungalow roofs, so the same points apply there.
faq
questions to settle before a Bransgore survey
How do I find out whether my Bransgore house is inside the National Park?
Enter the full address on the New Forest National Park Authority's map. If it falls outside, New Forest District Council is the planning authority. We also check this at the survey.
Can I put a roof window in the roof of an older brick cottage here?
Often it can be done, but a listed building needs listed building consent first. We look at the timbers once the tiles are lifted, because hand-cut rafters can sit at uneven gaps.
My chalet bungalow has only a small gable window upstairs. What size of roof window suits?
That depends on rafter centres, pitch and the sill height inside the room. The survey records all three before we name a size code.
Is a sun tunnel enough to light a bungalow hallway?
Where the tube is short and the path through the loft is clear, yes it can be. Light falls with length and bends, so a wide hall may suit a roof window and a boarded shaft better.