Dormer Windows

The importance of retaining the original roof form has been mentioned above. Loft conversions are recognised as a way of creating more space in the home whether in single storey or two storey dwellings. Where this can be achieved without major external changes to the roof form such extensions upward may be granted permission.

The National Park Authority will resist the insertion of large flat roof box dormers but a number of smaller types of dormer could be considered in certain positions. These should be small scale, closely related to the size and position of existing windows.

Box dormers have overwhelmed the original cottage and the outward extension looks rather forceful too, though without the box dormers the single storey would have married quite acceptably.

Dormer windows are fairly common in the National Park. The most satisfactory and persistent type forms a continuation of the wall face rising in stone to a coped gable with a slate pitched roof. These form a coherent elevation with windows matching those below and are usually built with the original development rather than as a later addition.

These dormers tend to relate to modest cottages where the head height of rooms is low and the sloping ceiling prevents windows being placed in the walls below the eaves.

Other forms of dormer are placed on the roof slope and are therefore of lighter construction with slate or timber clad side cheeks and gabled or hipped roofs to match the main roof material. Flat felted roofs to small dormer windows are not an acceptable form. In the north of Northumberland, and throughout the Scottish Borders, another form of dormer persists, three faceted with a hipped roof usually running into the main ridge and with slate hung cheeks. All these dormer windows are usually associated with a fairly steep main roof slope providing sufficient space in the roof void to make conversion worthwhile.

Roof windows may be a less intrusive way of bringing light into new roof rooms but can still affect the appearance of a dwelling if they are too many or too large. Their position and size should be considered carefully to reflect the existing window patterns and to avoid breaking up the main roof plane.

The National Park Authority may for listed buildings insist that roof lights should only be small traditional types sitting close to the roof plane (of which there are recent developments of a double glazed type close in character)