Skylights & rooflights in Wickwar Stone cottages on a wide street, and the lofts behind them

What a Wickwar house needs from its roof depends on its age, from low stone cottages along the High Street to bungalows and newer houses on the village edge. At the survey we decide which units open and where the air should go.

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Close detail of the glass edge of a flat rooflight

Out past Yate and Chipping Sodbury: From Bristol it is 13.3 road miles north-east, an easy drive for a surveyor with a ladder.
Limestone and clay on the old roofs: Cottages and terraces along the High Street, where the roof is part of the street scene and a slim unit looks right.
A wide street with narrow houses: Rooms in the roof here are often low, with one small window, and hold the day's warmth well into the night.
Bungalows and extensions on the edge: Flat-roofed kitchens and single-storey homes where a fixed unit overheats and an opening one earns its keep.

A large roof window, big enough for escape, above a low loft room

Wickwar rooms that hold on to the heat

The low bedroom under a cottage roof
A bedroom with a deep-set sill and a ceiling that follows the rafters, where a single opening unit on the garden side brings a draught the room has never known.
The narrow kitchen behind a High Street terrace
A narrow room that fills with steam, helped by a flat rooflight above the hob end that opens.
The bungalow loft someone has boarded out
A roof space turned into a study or spare room, where a roof window gives it daylight and a way to clear stuffy air.

Glazing for the old borough and its edges

Slim opening rooflights for the stone frontages, roof windows where a bungalow loft becomes a room, and electric or solar units for the flat roofs and lanterns of newer extensions.

From the High Street out to the edge of the village

We work along the High Street and the lanes off it, out to the newer roads on the fringe, then on to Charfield, Yate and the other places within easy reach.

Every town we cover

Bristol Wickwar

Wickwar roofs, from the High Street outwards

A wide street, deep houses and the air above them

Wickwar was a small market borough, and it still has the wide main street to show for it. Behind the frontages the roofs are quieter and more varied, and each kind of house asks a different question of a rooflight.

A market town high street of old stone houses

The old houses along the High Street

Stand in the middle of Wickwar High Street and you can take in whole rows of roofs at a glance. That is unusual for a village. Most places have lanes narrow enough that you only see the roof above your own head. Here the street was wide enough for the market that once filled it, and the houses along it were built to line it neatly: stone fronts, steep roofs, a doorway or two, and chimneys that march along the ridge.

Inside, those houses are often deeper than they look. The ground floor is tall enough to feel generous, the staircase is steep, and the top floor is a room tucked under the slope. The window is small and set into thick walling, so the room is dim in daytime and holds warmth in the evening. A bedroom like this gains most from a unit in the rear slope, where it faces the garden and nobody in the street can see it.

Stone houses on a steep street by a river town — An opening rooflight set low in the back slope of a stone village house

Planning decisions in Wickwar sit with South Gloucestershire Council. Parts of the village centre lie in a conservation area, so anything facing the High Street needs a conversation with the council before a unit is ordered. Some of the older buildings are listed, which means listed building consent for any new opening in the roof. We keep the full explanation in our rooflight planning guide, so that this page can stay with the houses.

For a roof that matters to the street, the usual choice is an opening conservation rooflight, thin-framed with one glazing bar and made to sit flush with the slates or tiles. The sash opens by a crank or pole, which airs a cottage bedroom while the roof looks much as it did. On a rear slope, away from the street, a standard roof window can be larger and simpler to operate.

Where in the roof	What suits it	Opening
Street-facing slope	Slim conservation rooflight	Handle or pole
Garden-facing slope	Roof window	Handle at the top
Lean-to behind the house	Flat rooflight	Motor or solar
Listed house	Agreed with the council	As the consent allows

Rafters in a house this age were cut by eye and seldom line up with the plans. A surveyor looks from the loft as well as the road, and says so if two smaller units would suit the timbers better than one large one.

Taking out a whole rooflight and fitting another counts as notifiable building work. Our Building Regulations guide explains how.

Chimneys, valleys and old flashings

Old terraces come with details that decide where a unit can go. A chimney stack takes up a stretch of slope you cannot use, a valley between two roofs gathers rainwater and needs room around it, and a party wall sometimes cuts across the loft exactly where the window ought to go. None of these rule out a rooflight. They shift it a little way along the slope, or turn two small units into a better answer than one big one. The flashing that makes the join weathertight is formed to suit the roof covering on the day, whether that is stone slates, clay tiles or something newer.

Some houses already have a rooflight, clouded between the panes or stiff to open. Taking out an old unit is often easier than cutting a new hole, because the rafters are already trimmed and the opening is known.

Bedrooms and landings in the roof

In a deep terraced house the heat gathers on the top landing, and the landing is the last place a draught from the street ever reaches. Over the stairwell, a roof window lets that heat escape. Open it on a still evening and the house starts to move: cooler air comes in at the door and the ground floor windows and rises up through the hall. A narrow vent bar built into the frame passes a gentle trickle of air overnight, sash closed, and the room never quite goes still. It is a small thing that makes a top-floor bedroom more comfortable in summer.

Roof window above the Wickwar stairwell Warm air leaving the top landing Steep stair between the floors Cooler street air coming in at the door

In a deep High Street house, a roof window above the stairs releases warm air while cooler air arrives through the front door and the lower windows.

A newer estate with flat-roofed rear extensions

Newer streets, bungalows and extensions

Wickwar has grown outwards from the High Street over many decades. Behind the old frontage and along the edges there are inter-war and postwar houses, bungalows, and newer closes built on land that was once a field or a yard. The roofs here are plainer: concrete tiles, shallow pitches, and rear extensions with flat roofs added once the family outgrew the kitchen.

Bungalows and chalet bungalows are where roof windows work hardest. A loft room has no wall windows at all along the long sides, so the slope itself must supply daylight and air. With a unit on both slopes, air crosses the room from side to side, and a pair side by side on one slope will brighten a wide one. Our guide to VELUX windows explains the size codes, and our roof window page covers the opening styles in more detail.

A rooflight over a kitchen just makes it hotter in summer.

A fixed one can, on a sunny afternoon. One that opens high up in the room lets warm air and cooking steam leave, and a tinted, solar-control glass keeps some of the sun's heat out to begin with.

The flat-roofed kitchen extension is the other typical Wickwar project. A big fixed rooflight over a dining area looks fine on the day it is fitted and gets hot by the first warm weekend. Fitting a flat rooflight that opens, in place of the fixed pane or alongside it, moves hot air out at ceiling height without anyone opening the garden doors and letting the wasps in. A bigger room may suit an opening roof lantern instead.

What we check on a Wickwar kitchen extension

The corner that bakes first on a sunny afternoon
How sound the old kerb is
A route for cable, or a south-facing spot for solar
The height of the unit and who will reach it

How a unit opens comes down to how high it sits. A roof window within reach of a bed can be manual. A flat rooflight at ceiling height, well out of reach, is better as electric or solar and fitted with a sensor that shuts it in rain, because a unit that is awkward to reach gets left shut. Where the room is already decorated, solar avoids cutting channels in the walls.

Beyond the village we cover the neighbouring communities, including Charfield to the north-west and Yate. If you are weighing up the budget, our costs page lays out the choices that change a quote.

Cables, rain and blinds

Electric opening needs power at the right place, and in a finished room that is the awkward part. For a rooflight in a new or opened-up ceiling the cable runs before the plaster goes on. For a finished kitchen, a solar unit has its own panel and battery and needs no cable at all. Either type can carry a rain sensor, which closes the sash when rain begins, so a room can stay aired while the house is empty. A blind fitted to the unit takes the glare off the glass on a bright day, and a pleated or blackout version helps a bedroom stay dark at night.

The question we ask at every survey is where the room actually gets stuffy, which is rarely the middle of the ceiling. It is the corner under the slope, the top of the landing, or the back of the extension farthest from the garden doors. Put the opening there, and the rest of the room follows.

Wickwar questions from the survey visit

Is consent needed for a new rooflight on a High Street cottage here?

It depends on the house. Listed buildings need listed building consent, and a conservation area can change the rules for a front slope. Ask South Gloucestershire Council first. Our planning guide sets out the questions.

Can a stone cottage roof take an opening rooflight?

Usually. The rafters get checked from inside the loft first, then a slim unit is chosen to lie flush with the slope. Its sash opens by crank or pole, and the roof keeps its character.

Which opening suits a bungalow loft room near Wickwar?

Within arm's reach, a manual roof window is simple and cheap to run. A bedroom may need it as the escape route too, which fixes the size and the sill height.

Will you come out to Wickwar to survey before giving a quote?

Yes. A surveyor comes to Wickwar, climbs into the loft, checks the roof from outside, and follows up with a written, itemised quote. Opening options are shown on it line by line.

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.