Stone houses on the banks of the Goyt

Skylights and rooflights for the stone houses of Marple Bridge

Marple Bridge is a stone-built village in a steep-sided river valley, and its older houses have small rooms under the roof. We choose the rooflight to match the room and whoever has to reach it.

Conservation area and Article 4 checks with Stockport Council before we quote
Low rooms under a stone-built roof suit a slim roof window or a sun tunnel
A statutory listing almost always means consent is needed first, so we start there

5 road miles east of Stockport

Marple Bridge is a village on the banks of the River Goyt. The council's own appraisal calls it predominantly stone-built. The village grew up at a bridging point on the route between Stockport and Derbyshire, where the river gave water power for a forge and a corn mill, and the steep sides of the Goyt valley still frame it.

Pennine-edge villages like this one tend to be built in local gritstone, roofed with stone slate or Welsh slate. For a rooflight, that means a small room, a roof you see from the lane, and a covering the flashing has to be matched to. In daily use it comes down to three plain questions. Can you reach the handle, will the blind stay where you put it, and how does the outside glass get cleaned on a slope above a garden that may fall away. We settle those at the survey, before the fixed written quote.

What suits a village of stone roofs

These five fit the stone cottages and older houses here: slim windows that sit low in the slope, openings you can actually reach, and light for the rooms the roof leaves dark.

An opening rooflight seen from below, raised on its actuator arm

Using one in a village cottage

In a small cottage room the window may sit within arm's reach, so a plain handle does the opening and no motor is needed.
A bedroom under the slope wants a blackout blind that stays where it is put. A landing window often wants none.
Some centre-pivot roof windows swivel round so the outside glass is cleaned from the room. We show you how at handover.
Certain electric and solar windows from VELUX come with a sensor that shuts the sash when it detects rain, handy when the house is empty.

What a Marple Bridge roof asks of a rooflight

From the stone slates over a village cottage to the conservation areas around the Goyt, here are the points homeowners raise when we survey in the village.

Which kind of rooflight sits properly in a stone-slate or Welsh-slate roof?

Marple Bridge is a predominantly stone-built village, in the council's words, and a house of that kind is likely to have gritstone walls under stone slate or Welsh slate. That decides a good deal before you think about glass. A roof window sits in the slope with a flashing dressed to the covering around it, and stone slate and Welsh slate are different materials with different thicknesses. So at the survey we look at your own roof and pick the flashing kit to suit it.

Why a slim frame helps

On a small old house the roof is part of what you see from the lane. A rooflight that sits low in the slope, with a thin frame, reads as part of the roof rather than a box on top of it. Conservation rooflights are made for exactly this. VELUX sells a conservation range of roof windows with slim frames that lie flush. For a listed house, that look may be the only one that goes forward. For anyone else it is a choice, and our guide to picking a low-profile conservation window sets out the differences.

Same opening or a new one

Replacing an old window? The rafters and the lining inside tell us whether the new unit can take the place of the old one exactly, which spares a plastered reveal. Our page on keeping or changing the opening explains the test. If you want a window where there was none, we place it by the rafters and by where you stand in the room, not by what looks tidy from the lane.

A cottage bedroom under a slate slope

Roof: Stone slate or Welsh slate, checked at the survey
Window: Slim roof window, flush in the slope
Opening: Handle if it is within reach, rod or motor if not
Blind: Blackout, chosen with the window
Paperwork: Building Regulations notification handled where the work is notifiable

How do I work the window in a low cottage room without a stepladder?

The older houses here include cottages, and Historic England's list for the village includes Tanpit Cottage and Townscliffe Cottage. A cottage room under a roof slope can be low and small, so the problem is rarely height. It is the position of the handle and the shape of the room. A bed pushed under the slope, a wardrobe on the other wall and a sash that swings upwards can leave nowhere to stand.

Choosing where the handle falls

Where the handle sits on the frame depends on the type of window, and the type also decides how far the sash swings into the room. In a low room that matters more than the glass. We ask where the bed, the desk or the stair will be, mark out where you will stand to open the window, and only then choose the type. The comparison of centre-pivot and top-hung types shows what each does to a room.

When a motor makes sense

An electric or solar roof window opens from a remote or a wall switch, which helps if the window is over a stair, over a bath, or simply behind furniture. Solar windows need no cable, so they suit a house where you would rather not open up old plaster to run one. The choice between the two is set out in electric or solar opening.

The blind comes with it

A blind you have to stretch for is a blind that stays open. In a small room we choose one that works from the same remote, or from a short pole, before the window is ordered.

For a small old room

Decide where you will stand to open the window before you decide which window, because in a low room the furniture settles it.

Does living near the village centre or Mill Brow change what we can fit?

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council has designated conservation areas around the village, and they include the village centre and Mill Brow. On its own, living inside one leaves the usual permitted development for a rooflight in place. What can change the position is an Article 4 direction, which withdraws some of those rights, and parts of Marple Bridge carry them. Whether one touches your roof depends on the address, so we check with the council before we quote.

If the house is listed

Historic England lists buildings in the village. If yours is one, adding or changing a rooflight on it almost always calls for listed building consent first, and the consent settles the design. How that works is covered in rooflights on listed and older homes.

Finding out for yourself

The council publishes a document for each conservation area, and the boundaries are also on planning.data.gov.uk. That dataset can be incomplete, which is why we also ask the council about your address. The wider planning picture is in the planning guide, and it also covers the extra conditions on a roof slope that faces the side.

Terms from a planning letter

Conservation area: An area the council has marked out for its special character. The ordinary rooflight rights stay in place unless something else removes them.
Article 4: A council order withdrawing some permitted development rights in a named area, so an application is needed.
Listing and consent: Permission for changes that affect a listed building's character, inside or out.
Flush fit: A rooflight set level with the roof covering rather than standing proud of it.

Is a sun tunnel the answer for a dark stair or bathroom in an old house?

An older house can have a stair or a bathroom with no outside wall to put a window in. A sun tunnel can suit those rooms. It is a small dome on the roof joined by a tube across the loft to a diffuser panel in the ceiling. It brings in daylight but it does not open and it gives no view, so it is for a room you pass through or wash in, not one you sit in.

What the roof and loft must allow

A sun tunnel needs a clear run between roof and ceiling. A straight run uses a rigid tube, and a bend or an offset uses a flexible one, which is why we look in the loft before we say yes. On a stone-slate or Welsh-slate roof the dome sits on a flashing matched to the covering, as a roof window does. Rooms that suit one, and rooms that do not, are listed on the sun tunnel room page, and a bathroom and a stair are both on it.

Cleaning and daily use

There is nothing to open and no blind to lose, which is the attraction in a small cottage where every shelf and cupboard already has a job. A bathroom that has only ever had a ceiling light is a good example of where one earns a mention. The dome is on a slope, so it is cleaned from outside, and we say at the survey how that is done on your roof. Where you want a view or a window that opens, a small roof window is the better choice. Where you simply want a bright landing, a sun tunnel is the lighter job.

Around the village centre

Marple Bridge

On the map, Marple Bridge sits well inside the ring drawn around Stockport.

Is your Marple Bridge address covered?

We cover the whole village, 5 road miles east of Stockport. Marple Bridge runs from the lanes beside the Goyt up to the houses on the valley sides, and a postcode check takes seconds.

Nearest town pages

Marple Bridge homeowners ask

Which council do we deal with for a Marple Bridge house?

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council handles planning here. The work can be checked by the council's building control officers, or by an approver registered for building control. Where the work is notifiable, the Building Regulations notification is ours to make.

Does swapping an old stone-slate roof window mean redoing the room inside?

Not always. When a current window matches the old one's size, it can take the old one's place and the plaster lining inside is left alone. The code on the label of the old window tells us which size it is; how to read a VELUX size code shows where to look.

Is a rooflight safe in a child's bedroom under the roof?

It can be. Some makers offer restrictors that limit how far a window opens, though on the room's escape window it must not stop an adult opening the sash all the way, and electric models can be set to open and close from a remote kept out of a child's reach. We explain the choices at the survey. See child-safe opening rooflights.

What happens if we are out and it rains with the window open?

A manual window stays exactly as you left it. Certain electric and solar windows from VELUX sense rain and close themselves, though not every product does, so we say which ones do. How rain sensors work explains the detail.

Does a new loft floor need a safe way out?

Yes. The new floor has to have a safe way out, planned alongside the roof windows rather than after them. The Building Regulations guide explains the rules, so you know what to ask your designer.

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