Selecting a rooflight and skylight for Holywell's stone cottages and steep hillside
Holywell climbs a steep hillside above the Dee estuary, and rooflight installation in Holywell means stone-built cottages, slate roofs that step down the slope and thick walls that swallow what little light the windows let in. A skylight in Holywell is often the only way to bring daylight into the middle of a deep, narrow house.
28.3 road miles south-west of Liverpool city centre
Which rooms in a Holywell cottage never get enough daylight?
- The stone cottage landingOn the landing of a stone cottage near the town centre, where walls half a metre thick leave small window reveals and the stair runs up through the middle of the house.
- The Greenfield terrace atticUnder the slates of a terrace in the Greenfield Valley, where the attic has plenty of headroom for a bedroom but only one tiny window at the gable end.
- The hillside extensionAt the back of a house built into the slope, where a single-storey extension was pushed up against the hillside and now sits in the shadow of the bank behind it.
Cottage landings, Greenfield attics, hillside extensions
For skylight installation in Holywell the roofs to plan around run from stone cottages and Victorian terraces on the old streets up to bungalows, semis and newer estate houses on the higher ground, and each service below answers one of them.
- Newer rear extensions on the estates suit a lantern, sized to the opening and glazed for the light that comes off the estuary.
- Flat rooflights for the felt-covered extensions built against the hillside, on a raised kerb that keeps run-off from the bank away from the glass.
- On the stepped terraces a roof window is cut into Welsh slate, and its side flashing is made for a roof that drops away down the hill.
- Slim conservation units for older stone buildings near the well and the abbey ruins, where a quiet roofline matters to the council.
Pilgrim town, mill valley and hillside estates
Holywell is a town built around St Winefride's Well, a spring that has drawn pilgrims for centuries and whose well chapel is listed at the highest grade. The oldest streets cluster near it, with stone cottages and houses, many of them lime-rendered or painted, leaning against one another as the road drops and rises. Their roofs are slate, mostly Welsh slate, laid on thick timbers, and the loft spaces inside are shallow and often awkward.
Below the town the Greenfield Valley carries a stream that once drove copper, brass and cotton works, and the terraces built for those workers run along its sides. They are stone or brick, two storeys high, and often have an attic. Basingwerk Abbey's ruins stand at the valley's lower end, and the old industrial buildings around it are now part of a heritage park. A roof window in this part of town has to suit stone walls and deep slate roofs without looking out of place.
Beyond the old centre, up the hill and out towards the edges, the housing is of the kind found across north-east Wales: inter-war and post-war semis, bungalows, and newer concrete-tiled estates. Their lofts are easier to convert, and their landings are as dark as any English semi. Many of these houses command a view across the estuary towards the Wirral, which is a good reason to put a roof window in the right place at the back.
Because the town is built on a slope, houses are often tall at the front and low at the back, or the other way round, with a garden that rises behind them. That shapes how a rooflight is reached and where it can go, and it is why a survey matters more than a catalogue: two houses side by side can have roofs at quite different heights.
Lime render and old mortar deserve a thought too. A cottage with soft, breathable walls does not want a heavy, sealed repair around a new opening, so the work stays in the roof and the inside lining, and leaves the walls to do what they have always done. Many of the older lofts also have a floor of old boards laid over deep joists, which makes a safe working platform once the loft is cleared, but needs a board or two taken up to see how the ceiling below is built.
- How deep the rafters and ceiling are, since this sets the depth of the light well
- Whether the slate is original Welsh slate or a later substitute
- The height of the roof from the garden at the back
- Where a chimney breast or party wall blocks the straight run for a sun tunnel
- Whether the building is listed or older than it looks
A roof on a hillside: slate, access and shelter from the estuary
The first thing to know about a roof in Holywell is that it probably sits on a slope. Streets run steeply uphill from the estuary, and the terraces stand in rows, each house a little higher than the one before. Ladders and scaffold towers have to be placed on ground that is neither flat nor wide, and a plan that suits a level street will not work here without adjustment. A tower goes up at the back wherever the ground allows it. Where the ground does not, a roof window can sometimes be worked in from the loft side, which leaves the front of the house untouched.
Welsh slate is a hard, dense and long-lived covering, and the older roofs here have often outlasted the timbers underneath. That makes the work around an opening delicate. We check the battens and rafters at the planned position, and where an old slate cracks as it is lifted we replace it with a matching one rather than leave a weak spot beside new flashing. A roof window in slate needs soakers and a slate flashing kit with a proper head apron, and on this kind of roof the quality of the cutting and lapping shows for years.
Old stone cottages also tend to have lofts that were never designed to be lived in. The roof void may be unlined, with slate laid straight onto battens and no membrane beneath, so a new opening is a chance to make the surrounding few square metres weathertight from the inside as well. We fit the lining and the underlay collar that come with the roof window, and we point out any damp-stained timber we find so that you can decide what to do about it, since a new unit should not be asked to cope with a wet rafter beside it, and the written quote records what we found.
The inside lining matters in a different way. A roof window in an old cottage roof sits in a deep reveal of rafter, ceiling and any added insulation, and the lining must be shaped to carry light into the room instead of boxing it in. A well-splayed lining in a cottage attic spreads the light across the ceiling and floor, where a square one leaves a dark reveal around the glass.
The weather matters more higher up. Roofs near the top of the hill stand open to whatever arrives, while those lower down are hemmed in by neighbouring terraces and sit sheltered from much of it. A rooflight on an exposed ridge-side slope gets a more generous flashing detail, and an opening rooflight there needs a reliable seal at the closed position.
A cracked slate is the commonest surprise. Old Welsh slate holds its fixings well, but one that splits as it is lifted is replaced with a sound slate of matching size and colour, taken from the roof elsewhere or sourced to match, so that the area beside the new flashing is as strong as the area around it.
| Roof | Covering | Main detail |
|---|---|---|
| Stone cottage | Welsh slate | Deep splayed lining, soakers |
| Valley terrace | Slate | Stepped flashing on the slope |
| Hillside extension | Felt or single-ply | Raised kerb, drained to the side |
| Estate semi or bungalow | Concrete tile | Tile-profile flashing kit |
Welsh planning, Cadw consent and the Flintshire desk
Holywell is in Flintshire, so the Welsh versions of the planning and building rules apply, with Flintshire County Council (flintshire.gov.uk) as the authority. Permitted development for rooflights in Wales is not the English regime, so the planning page for rooflights sends you to the right source, and the Welsh Government publishes the current rules at gov.wales. Look up your own address there, since flats, and houses caught by a council direction, are treated differently.
Cadw, the Welsh Government's historic environment service, handles listing in Wales and publishes its guidance at cadw.gov.wales. St Winefride's Well is the best-known listed structure in Holywell, but it is not alone, and older houses, chapels and former mill buildings in the town and the valley may carry listings of their own. A listed building needs listed building consent before any rooflight is fitted, and the likeliest candidate is a slim conservation unit set flush with the slate. The page on conservation-area rooflights covers what planners weigh up on a protected street; Flintshire County Council confirms which Holywell streets are designated, so we assume nothing.
Flintshire County Council's building control service is who we notify, and we handle that notification ourselves, as this explanation of Building Regulations and rooflights describes. The energy figures in Wales come from Approved Document L (Wales) 2022 edition, not the English one.
Listed or historic buildings
- Listed building consent first, through Flintshire County Council
- Cadw guidance on the historic environment
- Slim conservation unit set flush in the slate
- Rear slopes preferred to the street side
Ordinary houses
- Welsh permitted development rules apply
- Gov.wales sets out the conditions
- Free choice of roof window, lantern or tunnel
- Building control notified in every case
Holywell roofs and rules, answered here
Our stone cottage in Holywell is old, but is it listed, and could I still have a roof window?
Flintshire County Council can say whether a cottage is listed, and Cadw's register is public. For a listed cottage, listed building consent comes first. An unlisted one can usually take a rear-slope roof window as permitted development under the Welsh rules at gov.wales. We can survey the roof and advise on both.
The attic of our Greenfield Valley terrace has only a gable window. What would a roof window need?
We start with the slate, battens and rafters at the planned position, then choose a unit that fits between the rafters. The stone gable plays no part in the roof window itself, but we splay the inside lining so that light spreads across the attic ceiling. Each stage is agreed with you before any work begins.
Which parts of Holywell and Greenfield do you cover?
We cover Holywell, the streets that run down towards the Greenfield Valley, and the housing on the higher ground behind the town. Not sure whether your street is inside our area? Send the postcode by WhatsApp or ring, and we will confirm it and offer a survey date.
Can a sun tunnel get past the thick stone walls of a Holywell cottage?
A sun tunnel in a Holywell cottage runs through the roof and the loft, not through the wall, so half a metre of stone does not block it. What can get in the way is a chimney breast or a party wall, and because the tube is flexible it bends round them to reach the landing ceiling.
What happens if a slate cracks when the roof is opened up?
A slate that cracks as it is lifted is replaced with a matching one, so the area beside the new flashing is as sound as the rest of the slope. We also point out any damp-stained timber that comes to light under it, which lets you decide what to do before the lining goes in.
Free survey
Get a fixed quote in Holywell
- No obligation
- We survey the roof before we price
- WhatsApp or phone, whichever suits
What happens next: we arrange a survey at a time that suits you, measure the roof and the room, then send a fixed written quote. Nothing is booked until you say yes.