Most villages grow from a church, a manor, a crossroads. Aldermaston Wharf grew from a working waterway. When the Kennet Navigation opened in 1723, this stretch of canal bank became a place of commerce — timber yards, a carpentry depot, a brewery — and the buildings that followed were shaped by that purpose. Canal Cottage, a handmade brick building from the early eighteenth century with its tile roof and simple two-up-two-down plan, was not designed to impress anyone. It was built to house the people who kept the wharf running. That kind of directness — architecture rooted in function, material honesty, and the landscape it serves — is something I find deeply compelling. At Gresford Architects, we believe the best buildings still start from exactly that place: what a home needs to do, how it sits within its setting, and the materials that will let it do both well.
Award-winning Architects in Aldermaston Wharf
Why Homeowners in Aldermaston Wharf Choose Gresford
The buildings along the canal at Aldermaston Wharf are honest structures — solid brick walls, clay tile roofs, proportions dictated by function rather than fashion. Working with that kind of building requires an architect who understands both the fabric and the physics. I founded Gresford Architects in London in 2006 and we are now based in Oxford, working with clients across the country. I am an ARB registered and RIBA chartered architect, a member of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, accredited by The Green Register, and a member of the Passivhaus Trust. That combination is deliberate — SPAB membership reflects a deep respect for historic fabric, while Passivhaus Trust accreditation means we understand the science of making older buildings perform as well as new ones. Our project The Deerings, a Passivhaus home built with the same attention to masonry detailing that the wharf's builders would have recognised, won a RIBA East Award in 2018. That year I was also a finalist for Sustainability Architect of the Year at the Building Design Awards, and in 2025 I was invited to judge the British Homes Awards.
Architecture Shaped by the Canal and Its Setting
The conservation area at Aldermaston Wharf, designated in 1990, protects the canal-side character that makes this settlement distinctive — the wharfside buildings, the lock, the towpath, the relationship between brick and water that defines the place. Renovations here require an understanding of that character, working with the handmade brick, clay tiles, and modest proportions that connect these buildings to their canal origins. Canal Cottage, now Grade II listed, is a good example of what careful stewardship looks like: a building that has adapted over three centuries while retaining its original fabric and its honest, functional spirit. West Berkshire Council, as the planning authority, takes the conservation area seriously, and we welcome that rigour — it aligns with how we think about older buildings.
EnerPHit is particularly relevant to homes in Aldermaston Wharf. The solid brick walls typical of the wharf's eighteenth and nineteenth-century buildings present specific challenges — thermal bridging, moisture movement, the need to improve airtightness without trapping damp inside the wall structure. EnerPHit addresses these as an integrated system: insulation, ventilation and airtightness designed together, not as isolated interventions. It is the retrofit standard we trust most, and for the kind of construction found along the canal — brick walls built before cavity construction existed — it delivers transformative results. Homes that were draughty and expensive to heat become comfortable, efficient, and genuinely pleasurable to live in.
Extension Design in a conservation area like Aldermaston Wharf demands sensitivity to scale and material. The best extensions here read the proportions of the existing building — the brick bond, the roof pitch, the relationship between solid wall and window opening — and add something that is clearly of its own time. Bridge House, the Grade II listed building near the canal with origins in the mid-seventeenth century and later additions, is a useful study in how successive phases of construction can sit comfortably alongside original fabric when the proportions are right. Sustainable Design is the thread running through everything we do at Aldermaston Wharf and everywhere else — from orienting a building to make the most of passive solar gain along the canal corridor, to specifying materials that will age honestly alongside the handmade brick already here. PassivHaus Design takes this to its most demanding standard, creating homes that maintain stable, comfortable temperatures year-round with minimal mechanical heating — buildings that are kinder to the planet, more economical to run, and more joyful to inhabit.
New Build Design in a settlement shaped by the canal demands the same attentiveness to context. Any new home at Aldermaston Wharf needs to respond to the grain of the place — the modest scale of the wharfside buildings, the brick and tile palette, the relationship between built form and water — while meeting the highest contemporary standards of energy performance. And in the open farmland beyond the settlement, where the parish of Padworth stretches into the Kennet valley, Paragraph 84 of the National Planning Policy Framework offers a route for truly exceptional rural homes — architecture that earns its place through the quality of its design and its sensitivity to the landscape around it.
Aldermaston Wharf has always been a place where buildings serve a purpose — from the wharfside stores that handled timber and malt to the cottages that housed the people who worked the canal. If you are considering a project here, whether it is a renovation, an extension, or something entirely new, we would welcome the conversation.