Solar panels in Ashby-de-la-Zouch
- RECC member
- 6-year workmanship warranty
- Insurance-Backed Guarantee
Why Ashby's conservation area shapes the job
Most of what makes Ashby a lovely place to live also makes its oldest roofs the fiddliest for solar. The Georgian core is protected, and that changes where the panels can go.
Because so much of the old town sits inside the conservation area, and a good number of the houses are listed, this is one of the few places we cover where you have to settle whether you need planning permission before anything goes on the front roof. We take that off your plate. Where it makes sense, we design onto the rear slope, away from the street, so the front of the house is left as it is.
Around Market Street
The spine of the old town is lined with listed Georgian frontages, most of them steep and street-facing in slate or plain clay tile. There's rarely room to work on the front, so a design here leans on the back roof.
The Bath Street quarter
This is the old Regency spa end of Ashby, and the houses carry the same protected character, often with dormers and tall chimney stacks set into the slope. We plan around those features rather than fight them.
The lanes by the castle
The older cottages on the streets near the castle ruins sit under tighter, uneven roofs. They can still take a tidy array once it's laid out to suit the pitch and the stacks.
Steep pitches, chimney stacks and the odd mature tree all change how much a slope actually gives you, which is why on a period roof it's worth working out what size system the roof can really carry before deciding anything.
The newer estates, and the villages west
Step outside the old centre and Ashby gets a lot simpler. The town has spread out in modern housing, and the countryside to the west changes the case again.
Ashby has grown outward over the years, and the estates round the edge of town are some of the most straightforward roofs we come across. They're a simple pitch, the wiring's recent, and there are no conservation rules to work around, so these tend to be quick, clean jobs.
West of Ashby, out towards the National Forest, villages like Moira, Donisthorpe and Oakthorpe sit off the mains gas grid. A lot of those homes heat with oil or LPG, which costs more than mains gas, so solar and a battery can carry more of the household there. We work the numbers from how your own home runs, not a rule of thumb.
We cover the same ground across to Coalville and back east towards Loughborough. If you're weighing up an EV charger in Ashby as well, or want to see everywhere we work, those are a click away. Either way it starts with a free visit, so we can see what your roof and your usage actually need before we quote.
Common questions
- My house is in the conservation area near the old centre. Can I still have solar?
- Almost always, yes. Ashby's centre is a conservation area with a lot of listed buildings, so it's one of the few places we cover where the front roof has to be checked with the council first. That doesn't rule solar out. Where we can, we design onto the rear slope, out of public view, and we look after the paperwork either way.
- We're on one of the newer estates on the edge of town. Is our roof any good?
- Usually it's the easiest kind of job we do. The estates on the edge of Ashby have simple pitched roofs and recent wiring, and there are no conservation rules in play, so most take a solid array without wiring work first. We still check which way the roof faces and how steep it is before we say what it'll hold.
- We're in a village west of Ashby, off the gas grid. Does solar stack up?
- It often makes strong sense. Villages like Moira, Donisthorpe and Oakthorpe have a lot of homes off the mains gas grid, running on oil or LPG. That fuel costs more than mains gas, so self-generated power can do more work for you there. We size it around how your home actually runs and tell you straight what we'd fit.
More questions? See our common questions.