Skylights & rooflights in Corsham Bath stone walls, and what goes in the roof above them

Corsham is a stone town, and its roofs show it: Georgian frontages on the High Street, mellow cottages in the lanes and more recent estates beyond. Each calls for a different kind of rooflight, and most can be fitted to open.

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A water mark on the ceiling below an old rooflight

Eastward on the A4: You will find us 26 road miles east of Bristol, which keeps a survey visit simple to book.
The High Street frontage: Georgian and older stone houses in the conservation area, where the council cares about what the street sees.
Stone-slate and clay: Heavy old coverings that need careful lifting and re-laying around any new opening.
Pickwick and Neston lanes: Outlying lanes of cottages and farm conversions where a roof often runs low and long.

A narrow hallway lit by a walk-on glass rooflight above

Corsham rooms that want something overhead

The top room of a High Street house
A garret under old rafters with a small gable window, stuffy by July, where a slim unit that opens lets out the heat.
The barn conversion with a long landing
A first-floor corridor with no outside wall to open, brightened and aired by a window set into the slope.
The 1960s house with a dark bathroom
A small room against the middle of the house, where a tube that carries daylight down from the roof and can include a fan or vent kit.

What goes onto Corsham roofs

Flush conservation rooflights for stone houses, roof windows for attic rooms and conversions, and flat rooflights for single-storey additions at the back.

Corsham, its villages and the towns around

We work in Corsham itself and out to Pickwick, Neston, Gastard and Lacock Road, and in Box, Colerne and Chippenham nearby.

Every town we cover

Bristol Corsham

Corsham, a town built from its own quarries

Under the stone slates of a quarry town

Corsham sits on Bath stone, the stone that built Georgian Bath, and the houses around the High Street and the Court wear it well. Newer streets lie beyond them. A rooflight has to suit whichever of the two you live in.

Conservation rooflights on a Bath stone terrace

Stone houses, the High Street and the conservation area

The honey-coloured Bath stone in so many Corsham walls was quarried in the ground beneath the town and its surroundings, which is why the High Street feels so settled. Georgian fronts stand shoulder to shoulder with older houses behind them, there are almshouses and a church, and Corsham Court sits at one end in its park. The roofs on all of these are heavy, steeply pitched and often covered in stone slate or old clay, carried on timbers that were cut to last.

A word on the Court, too: grand houses like it have very tall chimneys and long ridgelines, but the same principle applies to the smaller roofs round about. Those roofs shelter attics that were built for servants or storage and now serve as bedrooms, studies and children's rooms. They tend to have one gable window, if any, and in summer the air under the slates sits like a held breath. A window that opens at the top lets it flow out. If it hangs a little way up the slope, cooler air from the floor below takes its place, and a vent bar keeps the exchange going gently when the sash is closed.

The council and the conservation area

Wiltshire Council is the planning authority, and Corsham has a conservation area that takes in the High Street and the grounds of the Court. A good share of the old houses carry a listing. A listed house needs listed building consent before the roof is altered at all, and in the conservation area it is the street slope that attracts attention. Always check with Wiltshire Council before you order. If you are unsure whether your house is listed, the council's own website or Historic England's list at historicengland.org.uk will tell you in a few minutes. The rooflight planning permission answer shows what a council tends to ask for.

Old stone roofs get conservation rooflights from us: slender frames crossed by one upright bar, bedded flush so they never stand proud of the covering. They are made for exactly this kind of historic roof, and a number open on a handle, which suits an attic that needs air as well as daylight.

Corsham building	Roof choice	Opening
Listed High Street house	Slim flush unit, as consented	Handle or pole
Lane cottage, rear slope	Standard roof window	Tilts or pivots
Stone outbuilding	Flat or low-pitch unit	Motor if high
Barn conversion	Wide roof window	Electric if out of reach

Behind the street frontage

The back of a High Street house is a different proposition from the front. A rear slope facing a long garden, away from the street, can often take a bigger opening that might never be seen by a passer-by. Old outbuildings, stables and workshops in the yards behind the street can take a flat rooflight in a modest roof, and the sort that opens lets in air and light together. Flat roof rooflights work well on the lean-tos and extensions of the older houses too.

Stone slate brings a practical point as well. Each slate is a different size, graded from larger at the eaves to smaller towards the ridge, and they are hung with pegs or nails on laths. Cutting around the frame means taking down a section of them, sorting them by size and putting them back in the same order. That takes more time than cutting through a tiled roof, and we allow for it in the plan and the quote instead of springing it on you on the day.

What matters most is what is underneath the stone slates. Rafters in a house this old may have been cut by hand, and they seldom sit at standard spacing. Our survey covers the roof space as well as the outside, and the opening is laid out around the timbers. Fresh openings are building work, and swapping a whole old unit is covered by the rooflight regulations page, which lists what must be notified.

Opening unit in the back pitch Warm air under the stone slates Attic stair acting as a chimney Fresh air from rooms below

In a Corsham stone house, an opening unit set in the back pitch lets heat leave the attic, and the old stair pulls fresher air up behind it.

A terrace with loft conversions and roof windows

Estates, villages and conversions around the centre

Most of Corsham's homes were not built in the age of stone slates. Around the older centre are streets of 1930s semis, postwar and 1960s houses and later infill estates, plus villages such as Pickwick, Neston and Gastard where old cottages and conversions mix with newer homes. These have simple roofs, lofts that are ready to use and extensions that need cooling.

The roofs here are simple: two slopes, a ridge, a gable end. A typical estate loft in the area becomes a bedroom or a study with one or two roof windows on the rear slope. A pair, one beside the other, works well: it lights the room evenly and sets up a draught across the sloping ceiling. Where the loft is not being converted and the landing or bathroom below is dim, a sun tunnel brings in daylight from the roof without a bulky shaft, and a vent kit lets it move some air too.

Barn conversions and long roofs

Out in the villages, old farm barns and stables have become family houses. Their roofs are long, with a lot of open space beneath, and rooms on the first floor sometimes depend on a handful of rooflights. Since the ceilings are high, out-of-reach windows are the rule, and electric opening units fit the job: you press a switch, or a rain sensor closes the window for you. Solar models avoid the need for new cable in a finished room. In a long barn roof it is worth thinking about where each opening sits along the ridge: a unit near the top of the slope draws the heat out, while one lower down feeds fresh air in, so a pair works as a simple through-flow and the room never needs a fan.

Opening rooflights waste heat in winter.

A closed, well-sealed unit is part of the roof. Opening is for choosing when to air a room, and a vent bar passes only a thin stream. The choice of glazing, covered in our efficient rooflights page, does the work on heat.

Bathrooms deserve a mention. A 1960s house often has its bathroom in the middle, with a small obscure window or none. Steam in that room has to travel a long way to find an exit, and a roof-mounted tube with a vent kit shortens the route. If the bathroom is on the top floor under a slope, a sash over the tub, hung high enough to stay clear of the water, lets steam rise straight out of the room. Opening it for ten minutes after a shower is a habit that comes easily when the handle is within reach.

Flat-roofed additions

Behind many estate houses there is a flat-topped kitchen or garden room. A large fixed rooflight lights it nicely and warms it too much on summer afternoons. Opening roof glazing at the highest point lets heat leave without opening the garden doors, and a roof lantern that vents can do the same job in a deeper room.

A loft slope being measured between the rafters for a roof window — Points we note on a Corsham survey

Flashing the metal or lead strip that seals the frame to the roof covering
Listed protected for its historic interest, so changes need consent
Purge ventilation the large, occasional airing of a room, as opposed to a trickle
Rafter one of the sloping timbers underneath the roof covering

What you pay turns on size, covering and the method of opening, all of which the price guide breaks down. Neighbouring Box and Chippenham have a similar mix of old and newer roofs.

Corsham owners ask about stone roofs and rooflights

Is a listed Corsham house able to take a new rooflight?

Often yes, once Wiltshire Council has granted listed building consent, a decision made building by building. Our part is describing the proposal clearly and picking a unit that fits whatever the consent allows.

Will the stone slates survive having a window put in?

They can, if the work is planned around them. The slates are lifted and set aside, the frame is fitted and the covering is laid back and sealed around it. We look at the condition of the stone first, because a slate that has weathered thin may need replacing with a matching one.

Do rooflights suit a Corsham barn conversion?

Very well. Long roofs and high ceilings suit large openings, and electric or solar operation means a window you cannot reach can still be opened. Your written quote shows the options.

Do you come to Corsham for a free survey?

Yes. The visit costs nothing. Somebody climbs into the loft, circles the house, measures up and writes a full itemised quote that you are under no pressure to accept. Each opening choice is listed on the quote, so the decision is yours before a single slate is lifted. If you would like two schemes costed against each other, say so and we will set them out on the same sheet.

Pastel-painted Georgian terraced houses with iron railings on a Bristol street

Tell us about the room

A few details is all we need. We'll come out, advise and give you a written quote.

No pressure, no obligation.