In the Church of St Mary at Blakesley, a memorial records Matthew Swetenham, who died in 1416. Swetenham was Bowbearer to Henry IV — a man whose role was to carry the king's bow. The office is long extinct, but the memorial has outlasted it by six centuries, held in the fabric of a village church that continues to serve its community. What interests me as an architect is the durability of the record against the transience of the role: buildings preserve what the world around them discards. The church, Grade II* listed, dates from the late thirteenth century in the Early English style. Blakesley Hall, a thirteenth-century manor house once belonging to the Knights of St John of Jerusalem, was demolished in the late 1950s. The village sits west of Towcester.
Award-winning Architects in Blakesley
Award-winning Conservation and Design
The Deerings, a certified Passivhaus home in Hertfordshire, won the RIBA East Award in 2018 — the same year I was a finalist for Sustainability Architect of the Year at the Building Design Awards. In 2025 I was invited to judge the British Homes Awards. 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 Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings — the Passivhaus Trust and The Green Register. Our projects have been published in Dezeen, Grand Designs Magazine and The Modern House Journal.
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EnerPHit, the Passivhaus Institute's certified retrofit standard, addresses the thermal performance of older homes without compromising their character. The cottages in Blakesley present the familiar challenge of solid-walled construction: thick walls with no insulation, draughty junctions, and a building envelope that predates any concept of thermal efficiency. Vapour-open insulation, careful airtightness detailing, and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery can transform them — warmer, quieter, dramatically cheaper to run — while the stone facades continue to weather as they always have.
Sustainable Design connects every project we take on, and in Blakesley the demolished Hall is a reminder that even a thirteenth-century manor house can be lost if it is not maintained and valued. The church has survived because the community continued to use it; the Hall did not. PassivHaus Design sets our benchmark for new construction, delivering certified comfort with minimal energy demand. New Build Design in Blakesley should respect the stone character of the village. For sites in the countryside around the parish, Paragraph 84 of the National Planning Policy Framework provides a route to architecturally outstanding homes — but the design must earn its place in a settlement shaped by centuries of building and loss.
Extension Design in Blakesley should respond to the proportions and materials of the village's stone buildings. The relationship between the houses, the lanes and the surrounding countryside contributes to a settlement with a strong, quiet character. Whether the brief is a ground-floor extension connecting the house to the garden, a garden room, or additional space above, the design should make the whole building feel more resolved.
Renovations in Blakesley engage with a building stock that ranges from medieval stone to later construction, in a village that has lost its manor house but retained its church and its domestic fabric. 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 that any renovation must work with that behaviour.
Blakesley's Bowbearer has been remembered for six centuries in a church that kept his name when the world forgot his office. If you are considering a project here, we would welcome the conversation.