Solar panels in Wigston, from hipped semis to estate roofs
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Wigston's hip-roofed semis
Wigston grew fast between the wars, so the town is full of 1920s and 30s semis. Their giveaway is the roof: a hipped shape, with the ends sloped inwards rather than closed off by a flat gable. That shape is the first thing we look at, because on a solar job the roof leads the design.
A hip changes how the panels can be laid out, and it's worth understanding before you picture one big south-facing bank of them. We've set out how we handle a hipped roof, an off-south slope or a patch of shade on our page about roofs that don't face due south, with the basics in how solar panels work.
On plenty of these Wigston semis there's a good slope to build a proper system around. On others the honest answer is a smaller, well-placed array. The roof decides, not a sales target, which is the whole idea behind sizing a system to the house rather than the other way round.
Beyond the semis: the estates and the South Wigston grid
Wigston isn't all interwar semis. Two other kinds of roof turn up street after street, and each asks something different of a solar design.
The 1970s-80s estates
The Meadows and Little Hill estates brought a plainer, more modern roof to the town: concrete tile, a long unbroken slope, and wiring that's usually already up to scratch. These are some of the easiest roofs in Wigston to design for, and often the ones with room to add a battery alongside the panels.
The South Wigston terraces
South Wigston was laid out by Orson Wright in the 1880s as a model brick town, so its terraces run in tight, uniform rows of smaller, close-set roofs. Here it's less about how much roof you have and more about which way it faces and how the light falls. The older Wigston Magna knitters' terraces round the core are much the same.
Wherever your roof lands in that mix, a battery may or may not be worth adding. We go through when it pays and when it doesn't on our battery storage page and in do I need a battery with solar.
Where Wigston's conservation areas come in
A good slice of old Wigston carries real protection, and it pays to know where you stand before panels come into it. The controls are specific, not blanket, so most homes are freer than owners expect.
There are conservation areas at All Saints, Spa Lane and South Wigston, along with listed buildings such as the Master Hosier's workshop at Bushloe End. The older, conservation parts of the town and any listed buildings are the bits to check, rather than the town as a whole. What each of those means for a solar application is set out in full on our page about planning permission for solar panels. For most of Wigston, and the estates in particular, none of it applies.
The way to know for certain is to have us come and look. What we check, and why we do it on the doorstep rather than off a satellite photo, is on our page about the free assessment.
We cover Oadby next door in the same borough, and run south to Great Glen and Market Harborough. If you're weighing up an EV charger in Wigston too, that changes the sums again. You can see the whole patch on our areas we cover page.
Common questions
- Which parts of Wigston have solar restrictions?
- Most of the town is free to go straight ahead, the estates and the bulk of the semis included. The parts to check are the older, conservation parts of the town, such as All Saints, Spa Lane and South Wigston, along with any listed buildings like the Master Hosier's workshop at Bushloe End. In those pockets the paperwork is a little more involved, so it's worth knowing which side of the line your home sits on before anything goes ahead.
- Are the Meadows and Little Hill estate roofs good for solar?
- They tend to be, yes. Those estates went up in the 1970s and 80s, so the roofs are the plainer concrete-tile kind, with a long unbroken slope and wiring that's usually already up to scratch. That makes them some of the more straightforward roofs in Wigston to design a system for. We still take a proper look at the slope and the fuse board rather than go off the postcode.
- Do you cover South Wigston and Wigston Magna, or just part of the town?
- Both, and everywhere in between. We fit solar right across Wigston, from the Victorian terraces of South Wigston to the semis and estates of Wigston Magna, and next door in Oadby in the same borough. We run down from Loughborough and across the city, and it's a trip we make often.
More questions? See our common questions.