Boughton Green once held a turf maze called the Shepherd's Race — thirty-seven feet across, first recorded in 1364, its paths worn into the grass by six centuries of feet. The treading of it was a feature of the annual fair granted by Edward III, held every June on the green. In 1916, soldiers in training drove trenches across the maze and obliterated it. What interests me as an architect is the fragility: a pattern maintained for over five hundred years by use was destroyed in weeks by a single wrong intervention. The Church of St John the Baptist, Grade II listed, stands in the village centre with a tower dating from around 1400, the body rebuilt in 1806 and again in 1846. The ruins of the older Church of St John, whose spire collapsed in 1784, survive near the green. The village sits north of Northampton.
Award-winning Architects in Boughton
Working With What Exists
Good architecture begins with understanding what is already there — and recognising which interventions will sustain it and which will destroy it. That conviction runs through every project our practice takes on, from the repair of buildings that have weathered centuries to certified Passivhaus homes designed for decades of comfort. 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. The Deerings, a certified Passivhaus home in Hertfordshire, won the RIBA East Award in 2018, the year I was also a finalist for Sustainability Architect of the Year at the Building Design Awards. 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.
Architectural Services North of Northampton
Sustainable Design connects every project we take on, and in Boughton the Shepherd's Race is a reminder that the most enduring features of a landscape are sometimes the most vulnerable — and that good design must understand what it is working with before it changes anything. PassivHaus Design sets our benchmark for new construction, delivering certified comfort with minimal energy demand. New Build Design in Boughton 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 be sensitive to a landscape that has already lost irreplaceable features.
Renovations in Boughton engage with a building stock shaped by the village's long history as a gathering place — a settlement whose fair drew people from across the county for centuries. The church itself has been rebuilt twice, the 1806 body replaced again in 1846, each generation making its own judgement about what the building needed. 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.
EnerPHit, the Passivhaus Institute's certified retrofit standard, addresses the thermal performance of older homes without compromising their character. The cottages in Boughton 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.
Extension Design in Boughton should respond to the proportions and materials of the village's stone buildings and the distinctive setting created by the green and the ruined church nearby. 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 — and should understand what it is altering before it begins.
Boughton's turf maze survived six centuries of use and was destroyed by a single careless intervention. If you are considering a project here, we would welcome the conversation.