In the south wall of the Church of St Mary at Barby, west of the doorway, there is a Saxon window. It is the oldest piece of architecture in the village — a small opening that has let light into the same building since before the Norman Conquest. The church's foundation has been attributed to 891, and that window connects the present building to its earliest origins. Everything around it has changed: the tower was added around 1300, the chancel windows were inserted at the same time, the five bells in the tower span from the late sixteenth century to 1922. But the Saxon window remains. What interests me as an architect is the survival of a single element across that span of time, because it tells you something about how buildings endure — not as frozen monuments but as structures that accumulate change while retaining what matters. Barby sits on a hilltop overlooking the Rainsbrook and Leam valleys, with the earthworks of a Norman motte on its northern edge and the Oxford Canal threading through the parish to the west.
Award-winning Architects in Barby
From Heritage Repair to Certified Passivhaus
Our work ranges from a Grade II listed barn restoration in Buckinghamshire to a certified Passivhaus home in Hertfordshire — The Deerings, which won the RIBA East Award in 2018. What connects these projects is the same discipline with materials and performance that any good building requires, whether the building is nine hundred years old or nine months. I founded Gresford Architects in London in 2006, and we now work from Oxford with clients across the country. I am an ARB-registered and RIBA Chartered architect, a member of SPAB, the Passivhaus Trust and The Green Register. I was 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. Our projects have been published in Dezeen, Grand Designs Magazine and The Modern House Journal. In a hilltop village like Barby, where the church retains Saxon fabric and an early nineteenth-century tower mill has been converted into a home, that range across heritage and contemporary design is what the work demands.
Architectural Services on the Hilltop
Extension Design on Barby's hilltop must account for the exposed position that gives the village its long views. Properties here look out across the valleys to the south and west, and an extension should respond to that outlook — the orientation, the prevailing weather, the relationship between the house and the landscape beyond. Whether the brief is a ground-floor extension that opens the house to those views, a garden room set against the valley backdrop, or additional space above, the design should make the whole building feel more resolved while sitting comfortably within the village fabric.
EnerPHit, the Passivhaus Institute's certified retrofit standard, is well suited to the stone properties on this exposed ridge. Hilltop houses face more wind and weather than their valley counterparts, which means higher heat loss and greater exposure to driving rain. Vapour-open insulation, careful airtightness detailing, and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery can transform these homes — warmer, quieter, dramatically cheaper to run — while the stone facades continue to weather as they always have.
Renovations in Barby engage with a building stock shaped by the village's hilltop position and long history. The church, Grade II* listed, is the anchor — its Saxon window and Norman fabric demonstrate that this has been a place of building for over a millennium. The stone cottages and houses along the village lanes use the local limestone with the proportions typical of this part of west Northamptonshire. South of the village, an early nineteenth-century tower mill has been converted into a private home — a building type that required a fundamental rethinking of plan, circulation and fenestration, while respecting the tower's industrial character. West Northamptonshire Council handles planning for the parish. Through my membership of SPAB, I approach these buildings with the understanding that solid stone walls manage moisture through their mass and their lime mortar — and any renovation must work with that behaviour.
Sustainable Design connects every project we take on, and in Barby the Saxon window offers a quiet argument for longevity. A building element that has survived for over a thousand years is the most sustainable piece of architecture imaginable — its embodied energy repaid beyond any calculation. PassivHaus Design sets our benchmark for new construction, delivering certified comfort with minimal energy demand. New Build Design in Barby should respect the stone character of the hilltop village. For sites in the valleys and farmland around the parish, where the Oxford Canal adds an industrial layer to the landscape and the Norman earthworks remind you how long this hilltop has been defended and occupied, Paragraph 84 of the National Planning Policy Framework provides a route to architecturally outstanding homes in a setting that rewards ambition.
Barby's Saxon window has let light into the same building for over a thousand years. If you are considering a project here, we would welcome the conversation.