Old cottages and newer homes
Stapleford sits on the Derbyshire border, about seven miles west-south-west of our base in Mapperley, with the A52 linking it to Nottingham. It grew on framework knitting and lace, and many 18th-century framework knitters' cottages survive to the east of the town. The population rose from under 800 in 1801 to over 4,000 by 1891, then kept rising through the 20th century as new housing went up. So a stud wall here could be going into a house more than two centuries old or one built within living memory.
Top-floor workshops and long windows
The Nottingham Road conservation area holds a large group of listed framework knitters' houses, many of them three storeys high, and some still have the long workshop windows on the top floor. Those top rooms can look ideal for dividing, but a wall across them needs care:
- It should land between windows, not across the middle of one, so plan it from the window positions rather than from the floor area.
- Old floors and ceilings are rarely level, so timber studs, cut and scribed to fit, are easier to work with than metal track.
- These are listed buildings. Internal alterations need listed building consent from Broxtowe before any work starts.
Everyday partitions in newer houses
In Stapleford's 20th-century housing the jobs are more routine: a big bedroom split into two, a cupboard under the stairs, or a soil pipe boxed in. Where one side of the new wall will be a bedroom and the other a living room, put acoustic insulation in the frame; it is far easier now than later. If the wall will carry shelves, a television or wall cupboards, timber noggins go into the frame at those heights before it is boarded. A new bedroom should be reachable without passing through another room and should keep an opening window, so check those points with building control. Any sockets or switches are wired by a qualified electrician before the wall is closed up.
Church Street and making contact
The Church Street conservation area, designated in 1978, centres on the 13th-century St Helen's Church behind its sandstone wall, with late 18th and early 19th century detached houses on Church Lane. Being in a conservation area doesn't on its own stop an internal partition, as the rules are mainly about the outside. Listing does matter: Stapleford parish has 17 listed buildings, and each needs consent for internal changes.
Ring 07877 353120 or use the enquiry form to arrange a look at the room. We work seven days a week, 7am to 5pm.
