When the tithe barn at Brockworth Court was destroyed by fire in 1996, it could have been lost altogether — a late-fifteenth-century timber frame reduced to ash and memory. Instead, it was rebuilt using traditional materials and methods, its raised cruck trusses reconstructed to carry a stone slate roof once more. That act of reconstruction tells you something important about Brockworth: this is a place that understands the value of building knowledge, where the discipline of reading materials, joints and structure has been practised for five centuries and counting. Standing at the edge of the Cotswold escarpment, with Cooper's Hill rising steeply to the south-east and the Severn Vale stretching away to the west, Brockworth sits at a threshold — between upland limestone and lowland clay, between an ancient settlement core and one of the most significant programmes of new housing in Gloucestershire. It is exactly the kind of place where architecture matters most.
Award-winning Architects in Brockworth
Why Clients Across the Country Trust Gresford Architects
Gresford Architects was founded in London in 2006, and we are now based in Oxford, working with clients across the country. What drives our work — from certified Passivhaus new builds to careful heritage renovations — is a conviction that sustainable design produces buildings that are more comfortable to inhabit, more economical to run and more joyful to live in. That is not an abstract principle; it is something we prove project by project. The Deerings, our Passivhaus project in Hertfordshire, won the RIBA East Award in 2018 — recognition not just of its energy performance but of the quality of its architecture. The same year I was a finalist for Sustainability Architect of the Year at the Building Design Awards, and our work has been featured in Dezeen, Grand Designs Magazine and The Modern House Journal. I am a chartered RIBA architect, registered with the ARB, and a member of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings — a commitment that shapes every project where existing fabric needs to be understood before it can be improved. In a place like Brockworth, where a Grade I listed church and a Grade II* Tudor manor sit within walking distance of major new housing allocations, that combination of heritage sensitivity and sustainable ambition is not a luxury. It is a necessity.
Architecture That Responds to Brockworth
Renovations in Brockworth carry a particular responsibility. The historic core around St George's Church — consecrated in 1142 and rebuilt in the fourteenth century from coursed limestone with a three-stage tower whose lower stages date from the twelfth century — and the adjacent Brockworth Court, the Tudor manor built between 1534 and 1539 for Richard Hart, the last prior of Llanthony Priory, represent a building tradition that demands respect and understanding. Henry VIII visited in 1535, and the wall paintings inside the Court still carry the monogram of its builder. Working sensitively with buildings of this age requires more than good intentions — it requires the ability to read a wall, to understand why stone was laid in a particular way, to know when timber can be conserved and when it must be replaced with something that matches the original in species, section and character. My SPAB membership reflects years of study in exactly this discipline, and the reconstructed tithe barn at Brockworth Court — its raised cruck trusses rebuilt to the same fifteenth-century geometry — is a powerful example of what careful, knowledgeable restoration can achieve.
Extension Design is where many projects begin for homeowners in Brockworth. The older cottages near St George's Church are built from the same coursed limestone as the church itself — modest in scale but with a material honesty that any extension needs to respect. Further out, the mid-century housing along Court Road and the later estates spreading toward the A417 present a different challenge: homes designed for smaller households, with galley kitchens that cannot accommodate a family meal and living rooms that turn their backs on the escarpment views. A well-designed extension can transform how these homes function — opening them to the south-west light that pours down the Severn Vale, connecting the interior to the garden, and introducing materials that speak to Brockworth's position between Cotswold limestone country and the clay lowlands. Tewkesbury Borough Council handles planning applications for Brockworth, and we have experience working with the council's design expectations to achieve the best possible outcome for both the home and the street.
New Build Design is becoming increasingly important here. The Perrybrook development north of Brockworth, allocated through the Joint Core Strategy with a capacity of around 1,500 homes, is one of the largest housing sites in Gloucestershire. Sustainable Design is embedded in every new build we undertake — not as an afterthought but as the starting point, shaping decisions about orientation, form and fabric from the first sketch. We design homes that use energy and materials as efficiently as possible, that are comfortable in every season, and that are built to last rather than built to a budget. Brockworth's position at the foot of the Cotswold escarpment, where the limestone uplands give way to the clay of the Severn Vale, means that any new building here sits in a landscape of real consequence — and deserves architecture that rises to meet it.
EnerPHit, the Passivhaus Institute's retrofit standard, has real relevance for the older housing stock in Brockworth. The mid-century homes along Court Road and the estates between Mill Lane and the A417 were built with solid walls and single glazing — adequate when energy was cheap, but poorly suited to the exposed position at the foot of the Cotswold escarpment, where winter winds funnel down from Cooper's Hill. EnerPHit takes a whole-house approach: upgrading the thermal envelope, improving airtightness, installing mechanical ventilation with heat recovery so the building performs as a coherent system rather than a collection of piecemeal fixes. The result is a home that holds its warmth against those escarpment draughts, stays cool in summer, and costs a fraction of what its occupants have been paying. PassivHaus Design applies the same rigorous physics to new construction, delivering homes that need almost no conventional heating — the kind of performance that should be the baseline for every home built on the Perrybrook site and beyond.
Paragraph 84 of the National Planning Policy Framework offers a route to building an exceptional new home in the countryside beyond the settlement boundary. South-east of Brockworth, the land rises sharply into the Cotswolds National Landscape — ancient beech woodland on Cooper's Hill, open grassland on the escarpment, and the kind of panoramic views across the Severn Vale that demand architecture capable of sitting quietly in a powerful setting. Paragraph 84 requires exactly that: genuine quality, innovation, and a sensitivity to the landscape that goes beyond compliance. It is one of the most demanding routes to a new home in England, and it is the kind of brief that brings out the best in what we do.
Brockworth is a place where five centuries of building knowledge sit alongside some of the most ambitious new development in Gloucestershire. Whether you are restoring a listed building in the historic core, extending a family home, or planning something entirely new on the Cotswold edge, we would welcome the chance to talk about what good architecture can do here.