13.1 road miles west-north-west of Bournemouth
skylights & rooflights in sturminster marshall
The parish church has twelfth-century parts and Church Cottages on Back Lane keep seventeenth-century framing, among farmhouses and later housing by the Stour. No two of the old roofs run the same way, so each is measured.
a village of mixed ages
- Timber-framed cottagesSome thatched, with rafters set by hand.
- Brick village housesTiled or slated roofs, altered over time.
- BungalowsLater infill with lofts above dark hallways.
- Extended homesFlat-roofed kitchens and single-storey additions.
what comes first on a village address
- planning authority
- Dorset Council
- conservation area
- check the village map
- road miles
- 13.1
timber frame and thatch
old timbers and later infill
The village has a thatched and timber-framed core, brick houses of several periods, and modern infill around them. A rooflight that suits one of these can be wrong for the next.
The roof underneath decides how much a job involves
Quotes for the same window vary from house to house in the village, and the reasons are in the roof.
Sturminster Marshall is an old settlement on the River Stour, with a parish church whose oldest parts date from the twelfth century and the sixteenth-century White Mill Bridge crossing the river east of the village. The Royal Commission's Dorset inventory describes most of the village cottages as cob-walled and thatched, and it is one of the few villages in the area with timber-framed cottages; Church Cottages and Cross Cottage on Back Lane keep seventeenth-century framing. That variety shows up in every survey we do here. Two houses a street apart can ask for the same window and need very different work to receive it.
On a modern bungalow, the work is a regular opening between evenly spaced rafters or trusses. On an old cottage the rafters may be irregular, the ridge may sag a little with age, and the timbers may be small, so the opening may need a stronger frame around it than the maker's standard kit provides. Several things move the price of a job, and none of them can be read off a photograph, so we put no number on any of them until the roof has been measured.
Thatch needs its own mention. A thatched roof is a thick layer of reed or straw laid over the rafters, and a window cannot simply be bedded in the way it would be in tiles. Any opening is planned with a thatcher, and the survey records the depth of the covering, the frame beneath and the route of the rainwater past the new opening. The same care applies to a clay tile roof that has been relaid more than once, because the battens and the underlay beneath it may date from different decades, and each has to be seen before a flashing is chosen. Our roof window installation page sets out the framing that applies to a conventional pitched roof, which is the starting point for every other covering.
What moves the cost of a rooflight job on a village house
- Roof coveringPlain tile, slate, concrete tile or thatch each need a different flashing and fitting method.
- Rafter or truss layoutA regular roof is quicker to frame than one with hand-cut timbers and uneven centres.
- Size and position of the openingA wider window may need a larger trimmed opening and a structural design.
- Shaft depthA boarded light shaft through a deep loft is a job in its own right.
- Access and scaffoldA tower on a drive is simple; a lane with no space calls for planning ahead.
Where to look up a Sturminster Marshall address
Dorset Council holds the planning register, the conservation area maps and the listed building records.
The village falls under Dorset Council for planning. The village may have a conservation area boundary near you, so check your address on the council map, as boundaries can cut through a street or follow a property line. Listed buildings are numerous in villages of this age and appear in the national heritage register, which is searchable by address. Each listing covers every part of the house, roof included. Before any rooflight goes into a listed cottage, listed building consent will almost always be needed.
Older houses often have a planning history that goes back decades. Extensions, outbuildings and barn conversions can carry conditions that remove or limit householder rights, so the decision notice on file is worth reading for any house that has been altered. Our planning guide covers permitted development and the ways it can be withdrawn, so we do not set it out here.
A village also has its own sources. Local history groups and long-standing neighbours sometimes hold photographs and notes on older houses, and these can show when a roof was last raised, a dormer added or a thatched section replaced with tile. That sort of history is not a planning record, but it helps explain what we find under the covering, and an owner who has a folder of old papers should bring it out for the survey. Past builders' invoices and plans from an earlier extension are the most useful, because they often give rafter sizes and the position of beams that the roof hides.
The table sets the four places we look, with what each one tells you and who holds it. You can search all four yourself before we visit, and we repeat them when we measure so that the written sheet shows each result.
| Record | What it shows | Held by |
|---|---|---|
| Conservation area map | Whether the address is inside a boundary | Dorset Council |
| National Heritage List | Whether the house or a neighbour is listed | Historic England |
| Planning register | Past decisions and any conditions | Dorset Council |
| Title and deeds | Covenants on alterations | Your solicitor or the Land Registry |
Measuring a roof that was built before drawings
Hand-cut roofs need more readings than a modern one, and each reading goes on the sheet.
A village cottage may have been built, extended and re-roofed over several centuries, and its timbers show it. Rafters can be uneven in size, the pitch can change from the eaves to the ridge, and the spacing may drift by a few centimetres along the slope. A window ordered from a drawing of how the roof ought to be would meet the real roof badly. A window ordered from readings taken along the actual rafters fits.
The survey on an older house therefore takes longer than on a modern one. We read the pitch at several points, measure the clear gap between the rafters that will sit either side of the opening, and look at the condition of the timbers that will carry the new frame. Where the timber is sound, the opening is trimmed in the usual way. Where it is not, the sheet says so, and the fix is agreed before an order is placed. Cutting into a structural roof member also brings the work under Building Regulations, which is the route for any new opening in a roof.
Pitch matters on old roofs as much as spacing. Every roof window and flashing comes with a pitch range from its maker, and a steep cottage slope can fall outside the range of a model that suits a shallower bungalow roof. We read the slope with an inclinometer on a rafter, not on the tiles, since the covering of an old roof can ripple while the timber beneath is true. The reading then goes against the maker's published range for the product, and the sheet names a window whose range includes your slope.
Weight is a further consideration. An old frame that has carried a heavy clay or stone covering for generations may be sound but slender, and a larger window adds its own load as well as removing part of the structure. A bedroom in the roof of a cottage may have a low ceiling, a small door and a stair that turns twice, which limits the size of glass that can be carried up. We record all of this while we are in the loft, so that the product named on the sheet is one that can be both fitted and reached.
A conservation rooflight with a slim frame suits many of these roofs, and a plain pitched window is the choice on a rear slope that no one sees from the lane.
How a job runs on an older village roof
- Read the roofPitch at several points, rafter centres along the slope, and the condition of timber beside the planned opening.
- Check the recordsConservation map, heritage list and planning register for the address, each result written on the sheet.
- Choose the product with the sheet in handA window or conservation rooflight sized to the real gap between rafters, with the size code named.
- Fit the frame and windowThe opening is trimmed, the flashing is dressed into the covering and the work is notified to building control.
Bungalows, extensions and the dark middle of the plan
Newer housing in the village asks a plainer question: how to get daylight into rooms that have none.
Bungalows and later houses sit among the older properties. These have their own pattern: a hall or landing without a window, a bathroom against an inner wall, and a loft above that goes unused. Either a window with a boxed light shaft dropping through the loft, or a sun tunnel, can bring light to those places. The choice depends on how deep the loft is and which slope has the clearest sky.
Extensions add a second kind of job. A kitchen or garden room at the back of an older house often has a flat roof, and a flat rooflight set into a kerb lights the room's centre, where wall windows reach least. The kerb stands about 150 mm above the finished roof or more, depending on the maker, and the roof needs a slight slope so that rain drains away. If you are choosing between brands, a VELUX window suits a standard pitched slope, while a flat unit suits an extension.
Light changes how these rooms are used. A hall that is bright enough to read in becomes a place to put a desk or a bookcase, and a bathroom that is lit from above feels larger than the same room lit by a bulb. Opening models add air as well as light, and help ventilate a shower room, although they do not stop condensation forming on cold surfaces. The survey notes the ceiling height and the route for the shaft so you can see what the finished room will look like before anything is cut.
Getting to the roof is its own question in a village. Many of the older houses stand right on a lane with no verge and no drive, and some have a rear garden reached only through a side passage. A pane of glass for a roof window is larger than it looks when it is carried, so the survey records the width of the passage, the height of any gate and the position of overhead cables. Bungalows set back on their own plots are easier, because a tower can stand on the drive and the glass can be passed up in one lift.
The nearby towns of Wimborne and Corfe Mullen have bigger stocks of this later housing, and their pages cover it from the point of view of their own streets. The spec card shows the kind of readings we write down for a bungalow hall in the village, using one example roof.
faq
what village owners ask us
Can a window go into a thatched roof at all?
It can be planned, with the thatcher involved. The survey records the depth of the thatch and the frame under it before anyone names a product.
How do I find out if my Sturminster Marshall house is listed?
Look the address up in the national heritage register. We run the same search at the survey and write the result on the sheet.
My cottage rafters are all different widths. Does that stop a roof window?
Not by itself. We measure the gap between the rafters that sit either side of the opening, and the frame is trimmed to suit that gap.
Which council receives a planning application for the village?
Dorset Council. Its planning register is public, and you can search past decisions for your own property by address.