4.5 road miles west of Bournemouth
skylights & rooflights in parkstone
Victorian terraces around Ashley Road and Ashley Cross sit beside interwar and post-war semis built on land that was farmed until the 1920s, and a surveyor measures every Parkstone roof on site.
Parkstone, upper and lower
- Victorian terracesStreets near Ashley Road, short slopes, tight rear access.
- Estate cottagesYellow-brick cottages put up by the Canford Estate.
- Interwar and post-war semisHipped tiled roofs and roomy lofts.
- Rear extensionsFlat roofs over kitchens added to houses of every age.
the Parkstone records we open for every address
- planning authority
- BCP Council
- conservation areas
- Ashley Cross: check the address
- road miles
- 4.5
rafters, pitch, hip
a parish that became a suburb in layers
Parkstone became a civil parish in 1866 and was merged into Poole in 1905, and its housing arrived in stages: a Victorian grid around Ashley Road, then council and private estates on land that was farmland until the 1920s and 1930s. The age of a street tells us what is under the tiles.
Victorian grid, estate cottages and interwar semis
Upper Parkstone grew along Ashley Road, and the roofs change with each period of building.
Upper Parkstone was largely built up in the Victorian period, with shops along Ashley Road and houses in the roads beside it. Many of those streets carry names from the age, such as Albert Road, Victoria Road and Jubilee Road. The houses are terraces and pairs with pitched roofs, usually slate or clay tile, and their rear gardens are reached through the house or by a narrow back passage. Chimney stacks on the party walls are a feature of the type, and a stack sets how close a window can come to the wall. On a survey we measure from the stack along the slope and mark the nearest clear rafter gap.
The Upper Parkstone estate was vested in the local authority by the Great Canford Award of 1831 but was built on slowly, and Alexandra Park was set aside in 1885. A few yellow-brick cottages put up by the Canford Estate, known as Lady Wimborne cottages, still stand. Roofs on houses this old have been retiled and altered by several generations of owners, so no two have the same timbers.
Much of the land further out stayed agricultural until the 1920s and 1930s, and that is when it was built over, with council houses going up from the 1930s into the 1950s. Roofs from those decades are the most regular in the district, and they are the ones where a standard roof window slots in with the least cutting. Rafters sit at even centres, the tile is concrete or clay, and the hipped end is typical. Those roofs suit standard roof windows, and many have a loft that is big enough for a bedroom once a staircase is added. The staircase is often the harder part of such a project, since it needs headroom at the top and floor space below, and the window position is planned around where the stair will arrive.
Two regulation limits and one product code come up on most Parkstone roofs, and none of them is a local average.
- Part L limit for a new rooflight in an existing home
- 2.2 W/m²K
- Highest storey an escape window can serve
- 4.5 m
- A common roof window size code: 78 cm wide, 118 cm high
- MK06
Which parts of Parkstone sit in a conservation area
BCP Council lists an Ashley Cross conservation area, and another lies close to Penn Hill in Lower Parkstone.
BCP Council's list includes the Ashley Cross conservation area, designated in 1987 and amended in 2012, which covers a Victorian suburb of Parkstone. Towards Penn Hill, in Lower Parkstone, the Canford Cliffs Village conservation area lies close by, so an address at that end of Parkstone needs the same check, and the council's map shows exactly where each boundary runs. Outside those boundaries the house may still have a planning history, or sit under a limit placed on the original permission. A house on former farmland may sit outside every designation, though a condition on the original consent can still apply, and only the register shows it.
Rooflight rights survive designation on their own; it takes an Article 4 direction to withdraw them, and that is what to look for on the record. We do not name directions, because the dependable record is the council's own register for your address. Our planning guide covers the rules, and the Parkstone side of the question is the local record.
Terraced streets raise one more practical issue: there is often no access to the back except through the house. Where scaffold must stand on the pavement outside a terrace, BCP Council as highway authority grants the licence, and we allow time for that in the programme. Parking bays outside terraces are shared with neighbours, and the pavement is often narrow, so we agree the day and the position of any tower with you in advance, and we plan glass deliveries for a time when the road is quieter. Most roof windows are light enough to carry up through the house, but a large flat rooflight needs more thought, and the survey sheet records the width of the hall, the turn of the stair and the route the glass would take. Nearby Oakdale has housing from some of the same periods, and the same checks apply. If you already hold a planning decision notice for an extension or a loft conversion, bring it to the survey. It tells us what was approved, which roof slopes were involved and whether any condition was attached to the work.
Terraces and cottages go to the conservation map as well as the planning register, while a 1930s semi needs the register alone.
| House type | Check first | Access |
|---|---|---|
| Victorian terrace | Conservation map, planning register | Through the house or a back passage |
| Estate cottage | Listing, conservation map | Side or front access |
| 1930s semi | Planning register | Drive and side gate |
| Flat in a converted house | Lease, freeholder | Shared stair and landing |
| Rear extension | Building Regulations record | Via the garden |
One loft, two ways to light it
A loft in a Victorian terrace and one in a 1930s semi call for different decisions.
A typical Victorian terrace has a steep slope and a short loft, with the party walls close at both sides. A 1930s semi has a wider, shallower hipped roof and more floor area. Each can become a bedroom, but the work looks different. In the terrace the room is narrow, the ceiling slopes early and the window has to sit where there is standing height. In the semi there is more room to position windows and to fit two side by side. Whichever loft you have, the standing height under the slope decides how much of the room is usable. We measure from the finished floor, or the joists if the floor is not laid, to the underside of the rafters at the point where a person would stand to look out.
Our roof window work starts with the rafter centres and the pitch, and a VELUX window size is chosen from the code that fits the gap. Read the code in two halves: M means 78 cm of width, and 04 means 98 cm of height, which describes an MK04. The two roofs differ in how far that code can be trusted.
Victorian terrace loft
- Steeper pitch and shorter slope
- Narrow room, party wall close at either side
- Rafters cut by hand with uneven spacing
- Back access often only through the house
1930s semi loft
- Shallower hipped roof and a wider floor
- Regular rafter centres on most roofs
- Space for two windows side by side
- Drive or side gate for deliveries
A window that sits between rafters needs less structural work than one that does not, which is why the first question on both lofts is the gap. Where a wider window is wanted, the rafters are trimmed with new timbers and the work goes to Building Control for approval. A sheet listing the gap, the pitch and the standing height goes to you in writing, so a second firm can price from the same figures.
Kitchens at the back, landings in the middle
Flat roofs and dark landings are the other two jobs we meet in Parkstone.
Parkstone houses of every age have gained rear kitchens, and in the Victorian streets the original back room is often a dark middle space between the new kitchen and the old front rooms, and the flat roof over one is a good place for a flat rooflight or a lantern. The covering, the fall and the kerb height are checked on the roof before anything is ordered. Owners of these kitchens usually want the room brighter at the table end, away from the garden doors. A kitchen that has been extended in two phases may have two different roofs under one outline, and the join between them is a place we look at closely. Lifting a flat rooflight onto a rear extension is easier with a side gate, and harder on a terrace where the glass has to come through the house.
Landings are the other place. A staircase in a terrace or a semi runs between two walls with no window, and a roof window above the top flight sends daylight down the stair. A sun tunnel is an alternative to a window where the loft is shallow, and the tube length decides how much light arrives. A sun tunnel suits a landing or a bathroom with a loft above it, where a direct path through the roof space is clear. Pipes, cables and water tanks in the loft can block that path, and we check for them with a torch before suggesting a tube.
We also meet flats made from large Victorian houses, where the top-floor flat has the original roof above it. Householder rights under Part 1 skip flats, so those need an application and the agreement of whoever owns the roof. A conservation rooflight is the type most often asked for on a front slope inside a conservation area, with a slim frame that sits low against the covering.
Terms on a Parkstone survey sheet
- Party wall
- The wall shared between two terraced or semi-detached houses, which a roof window must keep clear of by the width of its flashing.
- Hip
- The sloping edge where two roof slopes meet at an outward corner, as on most 1930s semis.
- Rafter centres
- The distance between the middle of one rafter and the middle of the next, measured along the slope.
- Loft void
- The empty space between the ceiling below and the underside of the roof.
- Flashing kit
- The set of metal pieces that seals a roof window into the tiles or slates around it.
faq
questions Parkstone owners bring
Is a house near Ashley Cross in a conservation area?
BCP Council lists an Ashley Cross conservation area. Look up your house number on its map, and we repeat the check at the survey and report in writing.
My Victorian terrace has no back access. Can a roof window still be fitted?
Usually yes. Materials are carried through the house or lifted from the front, and any scaffold on the pavement needs a licence from BCP Council, which we arrange.
Is a 1930s semi easier to fit with roof windows than a Victorian terrace?
The regular rafter spacing helps. Both types still get the same measured survey, because spacing and pitch are read on the roof and not assumed from the age of the house.
Can I put a roof window in a top-floor flat in a converted Parkstone house?
Householder rights do not stretch to a flat in Parkstone any more than elsewhere. A planning application goes to the council, and the lease terms sit alongside whatever it grants. Ask the managing agent early, because their consent can take longer than the application itself. The freeholder also has to agree, because the roof usually belongs to them.