Middlewich: Cledford's interwar streets and the later estates

Middlewich skylights and rooflights for interwar Cledford and the newer estates

Middlewich grew by waves, with a big spell of house building between the wars and another from the 1980s. We fit rooflights that suit each wave and the way you use the room.

Cledford and King Street interwar houses: lantern or flat rooflight, and who cleans the glass
Estates from the 1980s: loft windows set to open without a stretch
Address checked with Cheshire East Council before any price

26 road miles south-west of Stockport

Middlewich sits where the Dane, the Croco and the Wheelock meet, with two canals running through, and salt-making has shaped the town for two thousand years. The population has doubled since 1970. Its housing came in two waves of building. Between the end of the First World War and shortly after the Second, there was extensive housebuilding, with a significant number of houses built in the King Street area, between Nantwich Road and St Anne's Road, and especially in Cledford. Since the early 1980s there has been a significant quantity of new housing too, first around Sutton Lane and Hayhurst Avenue. About 14,000 people live here.

Each wave asks a different thing of a rooflight. On the older houses, an extension at the back with its own flat roof, where there is one, is the likely place for new light, and the daily questions are the blind and the cleaning of the outside glass. The estates built since the 1980s usually carry concrete interlocking tiles, so the loft window is the question, and how you open it. We start with the room and who uses it.

Rooflights that fit Middlewich's building waves

Five fittings cover extensions, loft rooms and passing-through spaces. Choose by the room you want to change.

A man holding a sample of triple glazing at his kitchen table

Daily life under a Middlewich rooflight

A pleated blind under a flat rooflight softens a bright afternoon without turning the kitchen into a cave.
A flat pane on an extension roof collects leaves, so we plan how it is reached before the glass is chosen.
A loft window on a tiled estate roof opens by a top handle, a rod or a motor, depending on how high it sits.
We survey the roof and the room before we price, so the quote matches the house in front of you.

From Cledford to the new estates: what each roof asks

Four questions from a salt town that grew in waves, with answers about extensions, loft windows and the planning address.

We have a house from the interwar building boom and a flat-roofed extension at the back. Which rooflight?

The houses built between the wars at Cledford and around King Street were not designed with a back extension in mind. If yours has gained one since and it has a flat roof, that roof is the obvious place for the light.

Flat or lantern

A flat rooflight sits low on its upstand. It suits a galley kitchen or a utility room and is easy to look after. A lantern stands above the roof in a pitched glass frame, giving more height and sky, and it suits a wide room with the table underneath. Either one can be fixed or opening. An opening one can be worked from a switch or a handset. Our guide to the best rooflight for a flat roof compares them.

The blind and the outside glass

The two daily questions are about the glass. A blind under a flat rooflight keeps a low afternoon sun from taking over the room, and a pleated blind does it without darkening the room. The outside is a different matter. A flat pane collects dust and leaves, and somebody has to reach it. A coating on the outer pane lets rain do more of the work. A lantern has more bars to clean around. We explain which suits you at the survey.

Standing in the room

Before you choose, stand where the table or the cooker will be and look up. A narrow room feels taller with a flat rooflight and a clear pane. A room with a wide table feels grander under a lantern. Ask yourself where the light should land and whether you want to see sky from your chair. The answers decide more than the catalogue does.

Planning

Putting a lantern on a roof that is already there can need a planning application, depending on the house. Our lantern planning answer explains the usual position.

Choosing for the back of the house

Narrow room: Flat rooflight, low and neat
Wide room: Lantern, taller with more sky
Blind: Pleated to soften, blackout if the room doubles as a bedroom
Outside glass: Coating, ladder or roof access planned first

Our estate house dates from the 1980s or later. What should the loft window be?

Estates around Sutton Lane and Hayhurst Avenue, and those built since, typically carry concrete interlocking tiles. That is a plain, regular roof to cut into, and the window arrives with a flashing kit made for the profile. The interesting questions come after that.

Who opens it

A top handle on a window set low works by hand. Set higher, it needs a rod. If the room is a bedroom that you open every morning, a motor saves the stretch, and an electric or solar window can be closed from the bed. Our guide to electric and solar opening shows the choices.

The glass

A loft room under a tiled roof can warm up on a bright afternoon. The makers offer glazing options to suit, and our guide to solar control glass explains what each does. A blind helps more than people expect, and it should be chosen with the window.

Choosing the position

In a loft room the bed and the door decide where the window goes. Sit on the bed and check you can see out. Walk to the door and check the handle is not hiding behind a wardrobe. It sounds fussy, but a window in the wrong place is a window you stop using.

A passing-through space

If the landing is dark and has a loft above it, a sun tunnel does the job without a window to manage. It brings daylight, does not open and needs no blind.

A new floor needs a way out

A loft conversion has to give the new storey a safe way out. The Building Regulations guide covers the detail, and we deal with the notification for the windows we fit where the work is notifiable.

The roof window our house came with is stiff and misted. Do we replace it?

Estates built since the early 1980s have had a long time to put a roof window through its paces. If yours came with the house, the handle may be stiff, the seals may have let moisture between the panes, and the blind may no longer run smoothly. None of that means a new loft.

Glass unit or whole window

If the frame and the opening mechanism are sound and only the sealed glass has failed, a new glass unit can be enough. If the frame is worn or the window is hard to operate, a whole new window is the better route. Our guide to glass unit or whole window explains how we decide.

Same opening

When a new window matches the old one's size, it goes into the same opening and the plastered lining inside the room stays as it is. The label on the old frame gives a size code, and our answer on finding the size code shows where to look. For the wider question see new opening or same opening.

Take the chance to improve how it works

A replacement is the moment to fix what annoyed you. If the old window was too high to reach, choose a motor or a remote. If the bedroom was bright at dawn, add a blackout blind that matches the new frame. If the outside glass was impossible to clean, choose a design that pivots. These are small changes that make the room nicer every day.

Our home stands on an old works site. Who decides what we can fit?

New developments in Middlewich have been built on old salt-working sites south of the Roman fort at Harbutt's Field and near Kinderton Manor, on the site of the old railway station and on the old silk works next to the Big Lock. Whatever the age of your own house, the first step is the same: we check the address.

What the records show

The planning data map holds no conservation area for Middlewich, though it can be incomplete, so we never assume. Cheshire East Council holds the detail, and we confirm your address with the council before we quote. The planning guide explains the general position for a house in England.

Houses on the list

Historic England lists buildings in the town, among them the Church of St Michael and All Angels at Grade II*, 64 St Ann's Road at Grade II* and Kinderton Mill at Grade II. If your own home is on the list, a new or altered rooflight almost always needs listed building consent, and the consent settles the design. The listed-property rooflight guide explains the process.

Living with what you fit

Whatever the house, the order of questions stays the same: who uses the room, how high the handle is, which blind, how the outside is cleaned. A house on a new site has a roof designed for the house as built, and a rooflight is a change to that, so we look at the rafters and the covering before we say what fits.

Address first

Check the address with Cheshire East, then spend your thinking on the room.

Middlewich, near and far from the ring

Middlewich

The map ring is 30 miles from Stockport. Middlewich sits inside it, which is why the postcode check is quick.

See if we fit your Middlewich road

We cover Middlewich, 26 road miles south-west of Stockport, from the interwar streets at Cledford to the estates built since. Enter your postcode and we will confirm.

Nearest town pages

Middlewich roof questions

Whose rules decide what I can fit in Middlewich?

Cheshire East Council. For Building Regulations, its own building control or a registered approver can sign off the work, and we handle the notification when the work is notifiable.

Can a rooflight go into a flat-roofed extension that is a few years old?

Usually, yes. The roof is checked for its covering and its structure, then the rooflight is set on an upstand. See a skylight in an existing flat roof.

Does a lantern make a room too bright in summer?

It can. A lantern lets in a lot of sky, so solar control glass and a blind are worth considering at the start. See roof lantern disadvantages for the honest list.

Does a sun tunnel tube have to run straight?

Not always. A flexible tube can bend round a beam, and a rigid one carries more light on a straight run. We check the route through the loft when we survey. See rigid or flexible sun tunnels.

What stands behind the fitting afterwards?

A 10-year workmanship guarantee, in writing, plus a handover where we show you the controls, the blind and how to clean the glass. See our guarantee.

Free survey

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Tell us about the room and the roof. We visit, measure and send a fixed written quote for the job in Middlewich.

Fixed written quote
We handle the Building Regulations notification where the work is notifiable
10-year workmanship guarantee

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